Recently, I played an unfinished arpg by Matthew Gartland. The game had no intricate backstory other than I asked him for a copy of the game instructions and I decided to give it a go after reading and re-reading it for a few weeks.
It was a rather playful experience, with instructions carefully balanced between light-hearted and ominous. It was short and took me less than 30 minutes. I could have finished quicker but I felt that the game wasn’t meant to be played like a race. It was more like a tour, as if I had an invisible tour guide pointing me to things I wouldn’t have looked at.
*SPOILER ALERT*
In the end the game told me to find a safe spot to solve the final code phrase. I did it in a bus shed beside an American tourist couple. I was tempted to pass the game to them, if only I hadn’t written the solutions over the instructions.