6 | CAMPFIRE
6 | CAMPFIRE
by: loreKin
Progress:
- I played through the game and completed my camping trip in about 20 minutes. In this playthrough, the items I purchased were: corn, vegetables, magic fire, camping stool, newspaper, and juice.
Things I Appreciated:
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This was a relaxing slice-of-life style simulator, so as far as I can tell, there are really no “bad” choices you can make as a player. I thought the piece was successful in creating that feeling that you can just do what you want without ill effects, while still giving you a small push to be realistic about your choices.
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I liked the detail of tracking the amount of money you had left for camping supplies etc., even though it’s low stakes since you can’t really mess it up unless you are intentionally trying to (which I didn’t attempt but maybe someone else will), it did make me feel like I should be at least a little thoughtful about my purchases and actively consider what elements I’d want to include on my camping trip.
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I thought there was some interesting use of the click-link mechanics. For instance, during the fishing activity, you have to re-click the same link to wait multiple times, encouraging the player to experience a pace slowdown that matched the situation.
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There was something rather melancholy about returning to work at the end. I feel like that captures the sense of how fleeting a vacation/respite is, and how the time spent camping is almost made more valuable because of that fleeting nature. If you didn’t have to return, you’d value the experience less, yet, the act of returning triggers these mixed emotions.
Feedback/Recommendations/Questions:
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I encountered a noticeable bug on the morning of Day 2. The counter for the number of activities I had time for increased, rather than decreased, when I did an activity. After doing three activities, my counter was at five, so I just chose to leave at that point. I hope this should be an easy fix since the counter works as intended for Day 1?
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Something odd that happened was that I encountered objects that I didn’t pack. This included smokies on Day 1, and the various breakfast items on Day 2. I don’t have any issues with these being included, but I think for immersion it would help to mention them in passing during the packing-the-car phase so the player knows that they have those things when they appear later on.
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In reverse of the above: I decided to buy and pack the magic fire (because who doesn’t want to change the fire to be zany colors, that sounds fun! Don’t warn me about burning toxic chemicals or whatever and ruin it!) but in my session I didn’t encounter an opportunity to use that item.
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In general, this piece needed more rounds of revision for typos and other minor formatting errors (for instance: during the “at work” scene, sometimes italics refer to the character’s internal thoughts, and sometimes the italics bleed over to actions. I think being more consistent about when italics are used or not used will smooth out the reading experience).
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Second visits: ignoring the issue I had above with the activity counter increasing, the game allots enough activity slots that you can do each activity once and one of them twice (or I guess you could just do the same activity all four times if you wanted to). In my playthrough I decided to go on the hike twice. The second time appeared to be exactly the same text. I think it would be cool if there were at least subtle differences (for instance, time of day differences between Day 1 afternoon vs. Day 2 morning) or something that acknowledged that you’d been on the trail before and noticed different details on a second pass.
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Finally, because of the nature of this game, I feel like it would benefit significantly from even simple environmental sound effects (the crackle of the fire, wind, water flowing, etc). Text only can be fine too, of course, in which case I’d appreciate more detailed descriptions taking me further on this journey. Just in general, I felt like the experience could’ve been made even richer with detail and I would’ve enjoyed having more scene painted for me.
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
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I really liked how this game tracked and displayed counters of the currency and how many activities you had left. These mechanics make visible to the player what resources they have available, when I feel like in other games you don’t necessarily know how many turns that you have remaining.
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I think this game helps illustrate for me how satisfying it is to see your choices pay off (I bought the corn in act one, and then I get to cook and eat the corn, all according to plan!) and similarly, how unsatisfying it is when your choices don’t seem to have an impact (I packed magic fire but didn’t get to see the zany colors, how very dare you!). In short, making sure you pay off what you’ve asked the player to actively set up, feels like an important lesson for me here.
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I enjoyed the cyclical structure of the game and how it lined up with what you’d expect a camping getaway weekend to feel like. Anticipation at Work → Planning → Arrival → Actual Camping → Melancholy of Departure → Returning to Work. The overall pacing of the game made sense for the scope of the simulation.
Quote:
- “Maybe I’m just stalling now.”
Lasting Memorable Moment:
- The recognition of how it feels to have to leave your camping trip at the end. I really connect with that kind of emotional twilight that occurs at the end of a period of escape or celebration, when you suddenly become conscious of how the mood has shifted now that the hour has grown late and the proverbial “twelfth night” is sinking towards its inexorable end.