Annie and the AI

The game told a beautiful and emotional story with a perfect balance of puzzles and storytelling that kept me invested the entire time. I would definitely recommend this game!

I bought this, knowing nothing about the game other than Katy Bentz voiced the main character and I'm so glad I did! The story was short enough to complete in a day and it was written in a way that I couldn't stop playing until the end. Definitely recommend.

A short visual novel where you advance the story by completing puzzles. The puzzles are not fully intuitive or explained, but a perfect score is not necessary or even advantageous. The story is surprisingly emotionally complex and touching. The voice acting is A+ and the picture art too. Pictures start pixelly and a task is to sharpen the resolution.

This game straddles the line between "cozy" and "dramatic" really really well. I love how the voiced interstitial scenes act as a kind of reward between gameplay segments, and keep you wondering what's going to happen next. I wouldn't say it's completely a "cozy" game (speaking of the emerging genre), only because the story gets into some very serious family drama that hits hard imho! Highly recommended if you've ever wanted someone to tell you a story while you're solving chill puzzles (and honestly who hasn't wished for that). PS. My playtime stats are off, because I use wine emulation to run this game (I'm on linux).

With the current spotlight on ChatGPT and advanced machine learning, Annie and the AI is a timely story of Human / AI interaction. It's a deeply personal story, as the focus (even if they don't want it to be) is on Annie, the creator of a new AI, and the difficult family relationships they have to navigate. The game proceeds at a leisurely pace, rarely rushing you in its puzzles, with each success rewards you with the next snippet of the story which are a blend of visual novel style text and well illustrated, comic style panels. There are also side puzzles where you can uncover even more of the story as you go along. There is excellent voice acting throughout the game, for example Annie being portrayed by Katy Bentz of Life is Strange fame, and the music complements the game scenes well, the puzzle music in particular is a bit of an ear worm. Annie and the AI is clearly a labour of love, and a great indie title to add to your library.

Short, but very enjoyable game about more than just the creation of an AI. The characters are nuanced, the story is revealed in a pace that is deliberate and gives meaning to all of the interactions. The gameplay aspect, the puzzles, were surprisingly challenging, but also pretty forgiving. This is a great story and character-driven game that I think most people will enjoy. This is a gem of a game and should not be missed.

Good depth to the story, and it definitely made me think and feel things, thanks to the writing and the voice acting. It's short, so I'm looking forward to try again and see what I pick up the second time through and snag a couple missing achievements. The puzzles are kind of a cross between minesweeper and one of those pipe puzzles, got the general hang of it pretty fast but it took awhile to get quick.