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TINY JAM – November 26

Hosted by Nat Delnova · #TINY-game
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TINY JAM – November 26 community

The Girl on the Swing - A tiny, chilling 8 KB folk horror story

A topic by IrisElvenEmpress created 18 days ago Views: 41 Replies: 3
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IrisElvenEmpressSubmitted18 days ago

Hi everyone! Following Nat's wonderful advice, I’m excited to share my latest release on the forum: The Girl on the Swing. This project is a very unique experiment for me. I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could create one of the lightest horror experiences out there. The entire game is a linear, text-only narrative compressed into just 8 KB!
Here is a quick breakdown of the game:

  • The Core Experience: It's a bite-sized, standalone horror story. No branching paths, just pure atmospheric dread. It comes with a single black-and-white pixel art illustration drawn by me, which was inspired by a Halloween Instagram GIF I became obsessed with!
  • The Gameplay / Intent: The player simply reads through the unfolding mystery of an anonymous adult, a neurodivergent girl, and a mysterious stranger. I wanted to use the synergy of minimalist text and retro visuals to build a quiet, unsettling atmosphere.
  • A Mythological Challenge: This story is actually the beginning of a broader folk horror series. I've hidden some clues within the text... let's see if anyone can guess what The Girl on the Swing really is and which mythology she belongs to! (Don't worry, a sequel is already planned to explain everything).
  • Language & Development: Since I am a beginner and don't know how to code, I used AI assistance to help me structure this tiny file. This is the first and only AI-assisted project I will ever host on my profile. Also, for anyone interested, the game is fully available in both English and Italian (my native language)!

I would absolutely love to get some playtesting feedback from this amazing community. Please let me know your thoughts, your theories about the mythology, or if the atmosphere managed to creep you out! Thank you so much for reading and happy playing!

Reply
Nat DelnovaHostSubmitted17 days ago

Welcome, and thanks for submitting your game!

I'm usually not a super huge fan of first person but I thought the delivery method of the story fit it surprisingly well. I thought the twist landed quite well, and since the story is so short I found myself caught in the whirlwind of it rather than guessing what was going on. That's a plus to your writing, for sure.

A few accessibility suggestions:

  • I found myself wanting to go back a page to re-read something, and since the game only allows going forward, I did miss a bit of the story. I'm one of those readers that likes to jump forwards and backwards a bit. I ended up having to restart the story to read it again, which wasn't my favourite. Perhaps adding a way to go forwards/backwards could help with this? Not everyone's a straight-forward, linear reader.
  • Since it's a game, I felt the experience could benefit from a little audio stimulation, even if just a little bit. I created a horror text game (which you might find some inspiration) that was mostly a text-based story. But audio played a huge role in establishing the immersion and suspense aspects of the story. This will increase your 8KB size, but I'm wondering what role being 8KB is playing as a design pillar for you?

Overall, I thought this was a great story; you've clearly got a good handle on writing stories that make you want to keep reading until the end. A little sound and support for non-linear readers would take this to the next level!

Reply
IrisElvenEmpressSubmitted16 days ago

Thank you so much for playing and for taking the time to leave such a detailed review! I'm really glad you enjoyed the writing and that the twist landed well, especially since first-person isn't usually your preferred style. Knowing that the pacing kept you hooked until the end is great to hear.

I wanted to share a bit of the behind-the-scenes and the design choices that shaped the project:

• The 8KB limit and style: For this game, the 8KB threshold is a personal design challenge and a non-negotiable technical constraint I set for myself. Alongside the main Instagram GIF inspiration I mentioned before, the game is also heavily inspired by erika_hg's One for Sorrow, Two for Joy. I aimed for a short, strictly linear text narrative with a clean 2-bit visual aesthetic.

• Audio and the back button: The lack of music and the forward-only navigation are structural choices driven by both that minimalist vision and the strict file size limit. Every single byte counts, and adding audio or a history system to allow reading backwards would inevitably push the file size past my 8KB target.

• Keyboard navigation: I actually tried to implement keyboard arrows to let players move forward through the text, but the software simply wouldn't respond to the input, so I had to cut that feature out entirely.

I will definitely keep your notes on accessibility and sound design in mind for future projects where I won't have these rigid space constraints.

Thanks again for your time and for the thoughtful feedback!

Reply
IrisElvenEmpressSubmitted16 days ago

As for the future, At the Window 2 might feature some music, but I'm still carefully evaluating how to approach it. I want to make sure that a potential soundtrack wouldn't drown out the ambient sounds or make the sound effects less impactful, which are absolutely crucial in this kind of experience.

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