What Briefly Was, And Hopefully Will Be Again

Not many 20-minute-long games impress me, but What Never Was did.

It takes place in a single room, and there are only three puzzles. But! It strikes an excellent balance between environmental storytelling and gameplay pacing.

The puzzles felt organically integrated into the story's easy-to-understand premise, the interactive elements tantalized me with their background-story flavor text, and the ending - while abrupt - was a really intriguing teaser for whatever follow-up the developer has in mind.

(I did skip through much of the spoken dialog while reading through the subtitles. So maybe the writing was a bit wordy.)

This little freely-downloadable passion project shows incredible potential for a full-fledged puzzle adventure game.

Better than: The Room (the puzzle game, not the cinematic masterpiece)
Not as good as: Mandagon
Less content than, but arguably on quality par with: Gone Home