Good idea.
I haven’t gotten around to do a review (see Iron ChIF), but yes, it’s really good.
2 Likes
Hi hi! Thank you for playing and reviewing the lamp… (and, of course, NOTHING IN MY VEINS as well)! I’m currently writing a waaay too long postmortem which is an exploration of all of my intentions and decisions made in the lamp… so this won’t be a very long reply. I just wanted to say that I’m also ex-Christian (particularly, ex-Catholic), which definitely influenced this work, and I’m sorry for all of that thinking you had to do about Bible verses. Though, to be fair, I also had to do a lot of thinking about Bible verses while making this one. The story is, I believe, as deep as you want it to be. Many times people came up with interpretations and thoughts that never crossed my mind while I was writing, so I’m just happy my stuff makes people think about Something.
Once again, thank you, and have a nice rest of Ectocomp!
3 Likes
It definitely feels like a work that’s very personal, and I think that often makes reader response pretty personal and leads to very different takes. Which I think is a huge plus, to be clear! And I was just kidding about the Bible verses, I could’ve simply not done that, but I enjoyed thinking about this game so much it was worth it. Really looking forward to your post-mortem!
1 Like
The end of my graduate semester is becoming kind of a lot. BUT! I played a couple more games!
I Got You (Kastel)
Review hidden because it's all spoilers
The game starts with growing unease. I hit a somewhat perplexing ending at first, where the date ended well, there was a timeskip, and then three months later it was over and I hadn’t figured of what was going on with Tom. On the second playthrough I blew the date, and Tom pulled a The Substance.
I think this scene, where we get brutal violence and an obviously clarified metaphor, is the most subtle, conceptually. Apart from the other reasons not to risk it (which Tom recounts in detail), what will you have left if you abandon who you’ve always been, try to be someone new, and then realize you were wrong? The possibility of being alone, without even a self you know, is scary not in a fun Ectocomp way but in a “suppress it until you have a breakdown like actually irl” way (even if that self you know is a $&*#@).
The end of this game reminded me a lot of the end of I Saw the TV Glow, which has a similarly brutal scene (box-cutter, mirror) followed by an ostensibly depressing ending. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun said they were trying to convey the way that admitting/realizing you’re trans can be “sinister and terrifying […] writhing and unsure and rife with all of the trauma accumulated from repression and dysphoria and half of a life half lived” (source).
It’s rare that media conveys what a messy, iterative process self-discovery is. It’s narratively cleaner to have a cathartic realization be followed by self-acceptance and unwavering commitment to who you are. But I think the bruised writhing of I Got You’s protagonist, this self-pummeling separation (but not full escape) from Tom is probably closer to the truth of things.
Walk A Mile In My Shoes (Olaf Nowacki)
(review not hidden, because it’s short.)
I put all the clothes on in the right order first try. I didn’t even know that there was a “right” order until I talked to my partner. I no-scoped it. I’m very good at games, is what I’m saying. Basically a pro-gamer. If G-fuel wants to sponsor me to stream IF games and show people how it’s really done, hit me up.
Anyway, I liked the player character. They were so happy to be wearing human skin clothes! Love when a malevolent entity has fun being creepy and evil.
10 Likes
When the TV decides to Murder your Girlfriend - The Game (Martin Shannon)
A really fun concept! I enjoyed meeting each new appliance and learning about their weird power dynamics. The little puzzles were fairly simple bring X to Y to get Z, but in context I had a lot of fun playing this game because of how engaging the world and characters were. (Though I would’ve liked to know more about Amanda, and whether all of this dramatic appliance conflict was normal; maybe you’ve got to read the novel to learn more, haha.) Hidden below are two paragraphs about parsers, Gruescript, and how that affected my experience with this game. Hidden, because I’m fairly negative on it, and it’s not fully about the game, and honestly it feels presumptuous to just include raw. Who needs more opinions these days, y’know?
Warning: subjective & unsolicited opinions inside!
A revision: I mostly had a lot of fun. This was my first Gruescript game. It feels like a parser, with the same sort of world model but a very different UI. The thing is, parsers are (sometimes elegantly, often frustratingly) archaic constructions, but when player input and author programming connect and the world changes, it’s magic. I think there’s an instant player buy-in with a parser, because typing commands and seeing something new (even if it’s just a customized failure response) feels good and makes the world feel larger and more dynamic. The trade-off is that parsers don’t allow for the same kind of authorial voice or control that you get from, say, a choice-based game, and when input and programming clash it instantly breaks the spell. I also think that unerneath that magic spell, a parser’s actual gameplay can be quite dry and clunky.
Gruescript dares to ask, what if we took a parser, skipped the magic trick, and got right down to business? I found the UI cramped (everything was squeezed in the top half of my laptop screen), I don’t like dark mode (which you’re locked into in this game), and the gameplay consisted of clicking buttons with the verbs and nouns you’d normally type. This doesn’t feel particularly good to do, and there’s nothing inherently fun about mini fetch-quests (imo, ymmv). The button commands, while preventing the “no such object” type responses you might get in a parser, drew attention to the limited gameplay mechanics, and clicking on cardinal directions (as opposed to typing them) made it harder to remember what was where. This all put the world at more of a remove from the player, which is a shame when the setting is so interesting.
All that ^ is mostly a critique of the program and not the author (though the dark mode is one sin that must be laid at their door haha). I enjoyed the actual content of this game. I wanted to see what the vacuum would say when I brought it a bag. I felt bad for the cheesed microwave. I wanted to visit a thrift store, which sounded like it’d be a wild experience in this world. I think this game is quite unique, and I’m glad I gave it my time.
5 Likes
You’ve nailed the inspiration. Thanks for playing the game.
2 Likes
Thank you so much for playing it, and for your kind words! This was my first ever text game and it took me a while to get the mechanics down, especially with the microwave just yammering in the background. You’d think someone forgot the sacred duty that is the paper towel. shaking my head.
1 Like