Eft to Newt

Eft to Newt is a Twine game about being a talking, sentient Axolotl salamander, although this mechanical description doesn't really say anything significant about the game.

At one point, a living statue looked at me and said "Holy shit, a talking salamander!" At another point, I was captured by rogue government agents bent on evolving the human race based on salamander hormones or something. At yet another point I was eaten by a genetically engineered snake-like creature that dripped different colored ink from its claws and fangs. I learned quite a bit about the life cycle of salamanders in the mean-time.

It's disarming and genuine, and it wouldn't work as anything but a game. It's mythical in scope but practical in application, like living in a fairy tale as a side character.

It's very funny.

To say it has a branching narrative would be a lie - it goes beyond that. I imagine it more like the spokes of a wheel that move in completely different directions from the same starting point.

It has a lot of words, and it's going to take a while to read everything. Despite that, each playthrough is very short. Every ending is the "7th ending" which is just so charming and I don't know why.

I don't think I stopped smiling while I played this game, except for the weird mazey bit in the abandoned pen store. Even that was forgivable because of the strange stuff that happened there.

There is an option to "Consider going into baking professionally." I obviously chose this option.

Eft to Newt is about being different and finding empathy in unlikely places, and is very wonderful. If my thoughts about it are scattered, that's because the game is so varied. Despite this, everything strikes at the same theme.

It's available right now on Gum Road for exactly $2. Every dollar is going towards saving the Axolotl Salamander because Michael Joffe is an excellent person. You should read and play more of his stuff at his blog, Video Games of the Oppressed.

DISCLAIMER: I received this game for free as a review copy, I guess, but then I bought it anyway. So there.