Editor’s note: this is not a response following my standard format, but more of an explanation as to why I am not able to respond to this game at this time. Since I am going based on my personal shuffle order decided by the IF Comp randomizer, I thought it would be weird to just skip from 13 to 15 with no explanation.
14 | THE CURSE
14 | THE CURSE
By: Rob
I was really intrigued to play this one based on the front matter. Great cover art, and an interesting blurb. Unfortunately, I was not technically proficient enough to do so.
Since this is presented as an .exe file, I had to teach myself how to run a Windows application on this computer in order to proceed. (I’m someone who is not super technically proficient at this kind of thing, but I’m also stubborn enough to keep trying). This took a lot of attempts and some scurrying around the internet trying to find the best approach to doing this. Or really, any approach that I could get to work.
How it felt at the beginning: I want to execute this file!
How it felt several hours later: oh… I want to execute this file.
But, I was able to open the game late last night, so I decided to call it a day so I could approach the game on its own terms. With a fresh start this morning, I decided to attempt to play the game and was able to get through three screens: the title menu where you pick an option from 1-3, and then I encountered two pop-up screens (with white and red text respectively) describing the intro scenes to the game but could not progress past that point. I restarted to try the “skip intro” option which resulted in the title screen window disappearing, a door opening sound effect playing, and no new window appearing to interact with.
I think the most fair thing for me to do here would be to skip and not vote on this entry. I believe the issue I encountered is almost certainly a result of the software environment of using workarounds to run a file that by all rights shouldn’t have even been runnable by this computer, rather than anything wrong with the actual game. I’m honestly amazed that I even got to see as much of the game as I did given my technical skill level.
For future entries that require me to run .exe files, I will make a similar attempt to at least try to run them just in case I happen to be able to truly play them without encountering this kind of situation. The good news is that given that there are many weeks left to judge, I might have a chance to go back later and try again to play this game. But I don’t want to get stuck and lose momentum in my response process right now as there are so many games left.
I am truly sorry to Rob that I am not able to play and respond meaningfully to the actual content of the game that you crafted at this time.