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Necessary Cuts – an interactive fiction fragment

Necessary Cuts – an interactive fiction fragment

by liquidchicken·Mar 25, 2026·3 points·0 comments

AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemCozy

Audio-synced prose immersion, but Betwixt and Twine already own this space.

Strengths
  • Vanilla JS + Web Audio API means zero framework bloat for a focused experience.
  • Audio timed to prose creates genuine atmospheric immersion without video.
  • Second-person POV is a deliberate narrative choice that serves the immersion goal.
Weaknesses
  • Five-minute fragment with no replayability or branching paths limits engagement.
  • No authoring tool means others can't build similar experiences with this approach.
Category
Target Audience

Interactive fiction readers, narrative game enthusiasts

Similar To

Twine · Ink · Betwixt

Post Description

I'm a platform engineer who wrote a literary novella that's getting published next year. I've also had an interest in interactive narratives for a while, so I decided to experiment. This was also heavily inspired by "playing" through Betwixt.

The result is a short interactive fragment (~5 minutes) — ambient audio synced to prose, three scenes. I didn't want to build a true game as much as make an attempt at immersion. So I re-wrote a fragment set in the world of the book, and wired up the computer-y bits to it. The fragment is in second person (the novella isn't), because other POVs don't really work with the immersion angle.

For the technically interested, this is just vanilla JS and Web Audio API, no frameworks - as is the way of my people.

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