Note: this was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: Itās a bad idea, and itās a movie! In this game there are three budding young rockstars called GUT who want to make a horror movie. Unfortunately, they donāt have very much money. But they will try anyway! They just need you, whoever you are, to settle a few disputes.
Thoughts: Not very spooky, unless you canāt forget about the background of the characters (which are not mentioned again), but humorous instead. Itās very silly and chaotic, but the games shines even more when replayed, as the different combinations of choices give some special flavour.
Thoughts: Short but effective in relaying feels (sadness and grief, but also joy and hope). The descriptions are powerful even with so little words. Thereās a lot of unsaid between the lines, that makes it all the more tragic.
Last one for today, cause I played a bunch so far.
Will continue tomorrow.
In the meantime, I'm going to hunt some bugs :sob:
Note: this was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: ConfigurationUploader is a program for uploading configurations.
Thoughts: Honestly thought at first Autumn had coded a new program and this was a legit bare documentation, but no, this is pure sci-fi fiction (I hopeā¦). The whole gameplay feels like going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole (where you open the links on the page in a new tab to read later, because who knows if youāll find them again) mixed with trying to understand an incomplete and obtuse documentation. The implication of the whole thing is quite frightening and bleakā¦
Kuddos for doing all this in 4h!
also wondering if this is part of the Archivist and the Revolution mythos?
Summary: Alone. Terrified. Locked in. Consumed by rage.
Forenote: Iāve dealt family members with dementia in the past. Among them, two have had the most impact: a grandparent who was caring for us kids when I was still quite young, whose physical health deteriorated with their mental one (I remember thinking we abandoned them in the care home during their last weeks, which was unfair because they were so kind to us kids), and my partnerās grandparent who passed fairly recently, but whose state was almost child-like at the end, and had turned extremely violent. So I went into this with some baggage alreadyā¦
Thoughts: This was not a 5-15min game for me, mainly because I suck at parser and finding the correct command to advance. But while it is frustrating when playing most parsers, I think it helped me understand this game better. Like the PC, I felt like I didnāt have control over what I was doing (getting so many error messages), like I didnāt understand what I was supposed to do next, or couldnāt remember which word to use (also ooof the response of typing hint). You know you have a fork on the table but you canāt use the word fork in there, itās a pointy thing that you stab other with. This confusion and frustration worked so well both in term of narratives but also gameplay.
I think it was pretty smart to use this point of view with this theme.
Amanda, you were impressed at how much there was in other LPM entries, but yours is as on par as the others!
Also, hugs
Small thing I found
hit door in the room is neither accepted nor is given an error message. Seems like it was implemented but thereās no response when using it.
Summary: I wanted to make a small dungeon crawler. It became very simple and at the same time probably very unfair, difficult and hard to beat. But it is possible (with luck and cunning
Thoughts: Dungeon crawlers, my nemesis. The difficulty of this one is not understated, itās hella hard and you need to be pretty lucky (maybe undo-scum?). Iāve just kept dying with not more then 40 gold pieces in my bag. Itās pretty humorous tho, and the cover image is pretty cool. But I think Iāll wait for someone to post a map with the enemies/items to pick up or the order do go at it before I go back to it.
Dying is funā¦ but with moderation
Note: This was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary:I hope he calls me back.
Thoughts: Subtle horror behind the rambling of an older woman through a voice message, complaining about everything and nothing around her, verging by end to paranoia (or just being full on paranoia). With some bits, I wondered if the woman was out of touch, and if her neighbours were that hateful, or about the reason why Mark leftā¦ I would honestly delete her message
Summary: Itās Halloweāen night and youāve joined your three friends in the forest to tell scary stories around the campfire. But storytelling turns out to be more complicated than you expected!
Thoughts: Cute and short, with the Dee Cooketm graphics and vibes. as well as simple commands. Listen to some spoopy tales around the campfire. I think Iāve tried all possible actionsā¦ unless I missed something? It felt like thereās no real winning state. Iāll wait for the walkthrough to popup to know for sure
EDIT: Turns out there is, I just didnāt go back and change certain talking bits properly.
Summary: Three years ago, you were abducted by aliens and since, youāve been subjected to a slew of experiments, always alone, the only human on the ship. But now, youāre going to be joined by a few othersā¦ with potentially deadly consequences.
Thoughts: Game Theory/Prisonnerās dilemma, ethics and morals. I managed to āsaveā everyone on my first play (maybe Iām too much of a goody-two-shoes). Felt a bit too verbose in the descriptions sometimes (especially since you canāt do much than follow the directives, nor does the background of the other prisoners come to play). Out of the 11 rounds, I was asked 2 questions (the two first rounds) and that was itā¦ just wait and pass the plate.
Summary: Itās bonfire night, and they need a sacrifice.
Thoughts: Very cult vibes/survival. Bit of an obtuse parser (def not beginner friendly), managed to exit the first building (by chance!) and exit the field maze (by change again, only to find myself stuck againā¦). Would benefit from a mini-walkthrough, or hints for some puzzles, because I chose each action at random at the endā¦
EDIT: I ended up replaying the game and getting to the end! I do think that the it would help to have a bit more hints (like to get the bullet).
Thoughts: Now thatās different! Instead of going through a dungeon and fight your way through monsters and solve puzzles, you shape the maze and fix up the traps. This is the kind of small game where you could spend hours trying out different combinations to stop the adventurers from getting to the treasure (and breaking apart the library ). A great brain-picker and time-wasterā¦
How this was done in 4hā¦ There is so freakin much in this entry, from the books content to the puzzle itselfā¦ Thatās honestly insane. Do you have access to some time-wrap or something? Can you share?
Also, thank you for the dark mode and essentially having part of the solution on the game page
I have yet to beat those good-for-nothing adventurers, but I am reeeeaaaaallly close! Iāll get them next time!~
The real secret is less impressive, Iām afraidāmost of the puzzle planning was done on paper, so not counting against the time limit (moving coins around on a grid in different ways), and most of the mechanics actually come straight from published extensions! All the room-layout stuff is Dynamic Rooms by Aaron Reed, the adventurersā logic is Dijkstra Pathing by Daniel Stelzer, and the automap is Dynamic Automap by Daniel Stelzer.
So the vast majority of the four hours was spent on writing up all the room and book descriptions. Iām glad you had fun with them!
Only three left in La Petite Mort category. Then 15 more in Le Grand Guignol. And then about 20 Bare-Bones to do~
Also, Iāve been queuing the reviews on my Tumblr and the IFDB, with a tad more substance and better sentence structure.
Summary:Oh, my dear, theyāve destroyed you, havenāt they? They could never understand a being such as yourself.
Not to worry. Weāll build you a new body, with which you will take your revenge.
Thoughts: Build-a-bear but make it monster and also yourself. And also pretty creepy.
It was fun to try to be one specific kind of āmonsterā or mix-and-match between the different parts given (min-maxing the stats was fun!). The responses from each options are quite playful and with lots of charm. While part of me wishes it was longer (control yourself with this new body and interact with other people), it is also quite perfect the way it is now.
Summary: Straying into darkness is easy, returning is far harder. What lurks in the ancient forests where mortals should fear to tread?
Thoughts: Light-horror poem about walking in the woods, with a bit of a Romantic vibes. I liked how the different lengths of the lines made the cadence a bit wrong (which adds to the horror bit). While there are difference choices, it seems like the end is always the same (how do you get the other ends?). Having a fear meter in the on the main page felt a bit distracting, as the poem holds on its own just fine.
Pretty impressive for just 4h.
EDIT: Keep track of what choices you picked and which order. It is indeed possible to reach the other 3 endings and get all achievement, but you need to be bit smart about it
Summary: An ad for an all-night retro-fest at Chuck E. Cheese on Halloween. All those video games to play! For a flat fee! You havenāt been, forever. There are a few that just arenāt the same on MAME. Like Robotron, which freezes up if you try too-fancy moves too often.
Thoughts: First time playing an Andrew Schultz rhyme game*, so had no idea what to do at first. Went to download and check the walkthrough to get the gist of the puzzle (a.k.a. make rhymes matching the name of the room instead of using regular commands). The alliteration is pretty fun, but very difficult, imo*. Because it was done in such short time, there are no hints/help (but there is a downloadable walkthrough) to get to the next phase. Itās a lot of the guessing game there.
So I ended up following the walkthroughā¦ and got stuck. The Ho Hum command doesnāt seem work, so the next āeventā isnāt triggered. Final score: 14+1/23
But the premise is very silly, and the writing is funny!
Note: this game seems to only be playable on Android devices, or requiring an emulator. I luckily have an Android phone, so I did the risky thing of downloading and installing from an unknown source FOR SCIENCE!!
Youāre welcome
Summary: nothing is exempt from resurrection: THE SWAMP RAMBLINGS OF A MAD SCIENTIST
Thoughts: This is a short VN where you seem to be reviving someone, and ramble on like a crazy person about your past, and why you revive them? The prose is quite cryptic and nonsensical at time (which is very much that authorās style). It also seems like a sequel to wretched star, I think? (which I also found super confusing). I didnāt get itā¦
). A great brain-picker and time-wasterā¦
There is so freakin much in this entry, from the books content to the puzzle itselfā¦ Thatās honestly insane. Do you have access to some time-wrap or something? Can you share?
