Judge: Mike Snyder
The Nessa Springs Slasher | Marius Müller |
SCORE: 5.0
Comments:
I like the concept of this one. Through a series of quick deaths (each a different character), you set up
a situation where the fourth member of the family is finally able to stop the killer and escape. There are
a LOT of problems in the text, though, which kind of detract from the experience. A little more time for
polish, not afforded by the speed-IF limitation, would have helped. It’s also a guessing game as to what
will actually work, because there’s not much indication until the very end that each of the prior scenes
was done “correctly” for a win. I just went by what action seemed to lead to the most detailed scene in
each case, and then tried a couple combinations of them to finally figure it out.
If the author is interested in doing a post-competition update, here are some things I found broken. The
woman’s body is only listed in scene 4 if you read the novel. The dog is able to examine the novel and see
its title. When you spill the soup, it’s still there in the room description in scene 4. If you get off the
chair in scene 2, you’re still described as getting out of the chair when the killer attacks. You can go
north from the living room in scene 4, into basically an undescribed hallway. Even if I pick up the poker
in scene 2 and it drops when the killer attacks, it’s once again leaning against the fireplace in scene 4.
It would be nice if “figure” could be called “stranger” in scene 4 too (because that’s what I kept typing).
“Out” or “get out” should imply going south, in scene 3.
Not bad, really. It was interesting enough that I kept playing until I figured it out, which is a plus.
Played 11/04/2013. Play order: 21
Crater Creek | Angela Shah |
SCORE: 8.0
Comments:
This one managed to squeeze in quite a bit of content, although with the trade-off of having quite
a few unimplemented pieces of scenery. It needs a little post-comp polish, too. It’s not hard once
you get into it, but I got a little stuck at first without realizing what I needed to do to get things
started. I remember /trying/ the exact thing I needed to do, but maybe I wasn’t at a house when I did.
I thought I was, but if it’s a real problem, I wasn’t able to reproduce it on a restart.
It’s an interesting premise: Halloween at a post-apocalyptic community out in the woods near a crater
(presumably bomb-made). At times, I expected it to become some kind of survival game or feature other
strange horrors, but it ends up being charming and thoughtful instead.
A nice entry for the Ectocomp. Definitely among my favorites so far.
Played 11/02/2013. Play order: 14
The Cenric Family Curse | Jonathan Snyder |
SCORE: 5.5
Comments:
I’ve given up on finishing this one. That’s unfortunate, because it looks like I only needed to finish one
more thing, with a score of 100 out of a possible 110. The writing needs a good proofing. The author
managed to fit a lot into his speed-IF, which left very little time for polishing it.
So in the end, I’m stuck in an undertomb with no clue what I’ve missed or what to do with the sarcophagus.
Update: With help from Healy on the intfiction.org forum, I was able to find the undermoss. I had tried
looking /behind/ the coffins, searching them, looking inside, and nothing worked. I finished the game
with 120 points of a possible 110, apparently the result of finding the hidden study.
Played 11/03/2013. Play order: 19
The Hallway Phantom | Tyler Zahnke |
SCORE: 2.0
Comments:
Not much to this one. It’s a super-short, silly CYOA done with nine plain-text stand-alone web pages.
I wonder if the author is young? It kind of reminds me of my daughter’s entry, in that it’s kind of
pointless and seems like the kind of thing that was done primarily for the author’s own amusement;
an author that seems to really like the number “googolplex” (a googol being 1 with 100 zeroes after it,
and a googolplex being a 1 with a googol zeroes after it – if I’m remembering right).
Inoffensive, kind of cute, and easy enough to mine for all the paths (standard HTML, so the visited
links change colors).
Played 11/02/2013. Play order: 12
Personality Rights | Sumana Harihareswara |
SCORE: 2.0
Comments:
Most of the size of the Ectocomp zip file is this one game, dwarfing even the second-largest-by-size, Boogle.
It includes dozens of supporting files for the library or engine or framework it’s using, plus its ultimedia
assests. That’s a shame, because this kind of simple CYOA would be perfectly suited for Twine, with a little
CSS to go with it. You can even play sound files in a browser, although for me the song that plays was a
little distracting. Appropriate, maybe, but distracting. You can turn it down or off in Preference, or just
adjust your computer’s volume.
Were all these files even needed? It looks like a whole lot of engine stuff that might not even necessarily
be used by the executable. But I don’t know for sure.
As to the game, it’s a very short CYOA with three initial branching paths and then a final branch near the
end. It’s kind of interesting, but there isn’t much here story-wise. It seems like more of a showcase for
the theme song and selected artwork than anything else.
Played 11/02/2013. Play order: 13
Trick Or Treat | Adelynn Snyder |
SCORE: N/A
Comments:
My daughter’s game. She was excited to enter the competition, although I came close to talking her out
of it when explaining that she’d be competing against grown-ups. She spent quite a while writing things
out on paper, drawing lines between scenes, and getting things ready. When we sat down to code it, she
came up with more ideas. It was worth it just to have her laughing so hard at these silly ideas. I gave
some advice and helped with the spelling and grammar, but this is exactly the game she set out to make.
Hill of Souls | Angela Shah |
SCORE: 2.5
Comments:
This one’s short and surreal, and a little hard to figure out at first. Between this and Angela’s other
entry, Crater Creek, I think this is the weaker entry. It’s told in past tense, and each move clears the
screen, shows the brief room description with a random bit included, and then displays the results of
the action just attempted. There isn’t any feeling of trying to accomplish something, which makes it
difficult to know what to focus on.
I don’t /dislike/ it, but at the same time, I’m not sure what to make of it either.
Played 11/03/2013. Play order: 18
Blackness | Michael W Phipps Jr |
SCORE: 4.5
Comments:
Very first thought: The opening bit reminds me of the hospital janitor job in Persona 4.
Here’s a fun, short entry. A post-competition update could fix a few minor problems in the text (some
small problems due to the rush, and an odd switch from second to first person in the closet) and small
implementation issues (being allowed to remove the uniform, for instance). It seems like the very first
time I tried to mop the floor, I got a message saying I couldn’t because it was fixed in place. But I
wasn’t able to reproduce it on a second play-through, so I’m not sure what I did.
Good use of the Ectocomp theme. Short and fun.
Played 11/03/2013. Play order: 16
Jack | Jason Lautzenheiser |
SCORE: 6.0
Comments:
Short and linear, but not too short for speed-IF. It definitely captures the spirit of the theme. I was
distracted at first by problems in the writing (which appear to be the result of the necessarily rushed
work rather than intentional), but I was into it by the end. There’s just enough plot here to show that
the author had something specific in mind. It hints at a backstory that sounds interesting. Nice work.
Played 10/31/2013. Play order: 4
A Slight Problem with Zombies | David Whyld |
SCORE: 7.0
Comments:
Ectocomp was originally an ADRIFT competition, wasn’t it? It’s interesting that none of the entries this
year are in ADRIFT - not even David’s, and he has traditionally been one of the most prolific ADRIFT
authors. Anyhow…
Fun game. It’s been a while since I’ve played anything else of David’s, but I remember liking his particular
style of humor. It’s probably because it’s almost exactly the kind of humor I go for when I’m going
for humor in something of my own; kind of unncessarily formal and flowery.
In what’s essentially CYOA without ordered end-choices (the new norm, I think), David tells a short story
about one man’s attempt to escape or defeat a zombie. A restart option at the losing endings makes it clear
that you’ve lost, allowing a quick restart under the premise that it’s not really how things happened. I
found myself using “Back” in the browser rather than restarting, just to mine the other options faster.
Ultimately, I reached a brief ending where I escaped (was also not real), many where I died, and one in
particular which seems to be the true ending. It was kind of a bummer, but fitting of the game, I suppose.
Final thoughts. I enjoyed it. Not my favorite of the competition so far, but a fun entry.
Played 11/01/2013. Play order: 8
ZombieDating.zom | Anonymous |
SCORE: N/A
Comments:
This was mine. Since it’s anonymous, I wonder if people are going to write it off as just a gag entry?
I actually meant it to be a legit entry, after helping Addie with hers, but before I decided to write
another in Hugo. I entered it anonymously mainly in support of the faux-website concept. There are five
distinct endings to the game (eight, if you count all four variations of the “results” ending). What I
consider the “true” ending is the one that includes a footnote. It’s very short, and I had planned to
do more with it, but much of my time was spent adjusting the Twine CSS and working on the logo graphic.
Still, I’m happy with the end result. It’s very short, but I think it achieves the high concept piece
that it’s meant to be.
You are a Blob! | SoftSoft |
SCORE: 3.0
Comments:
Healy dedicated her game to my daughter Addie, since it was conceived as a way of ensuring that at least
one entry would rank below hers. But it’s actually pretty interesting. Pointless, sure, but there’s enough
here to like: over-the-top faux software company disclaimers, cute blob-speak with some of it actually
explained, and a great (and optional) use of YouTube. Extra points for picking something from OCRemix –
love it. “Blob” ends up being more charming than pathetic, which probably isn’t a bad thing.
Played 10/31/2013. Play order: 6
The Voodoo You Do | Marshal Winter |
SCORE: 6.5
Comments:
I don’t have too much to comment on this one. It’s a pretty solid entry, with just minor bugs (“your’s”
instead of “yours” and a blank response if trying to give anything to Papa). I tend to make guesses as to
the twist in games (maybe because I’ve put a twist in every work of IF I’ve written since 1999), which
kind of ruins the fun when I’m right.
Played 11/02/2013. Play order: 10
Ice House of Horrors | Sean M. Shore |
SCORE: 4.0
Comments:
Very well done. It works on a timer, so success involves getting a few things just right as other things
happen to you. It’s short, but not too short. It’s an interesting twist on horror, where something pretty
ordinary becomes a nightmare through role reversal. I’m fond of games that put you in the place of a
non-human character and restrict your actions to those that are sensible to that character. This one
succeeds at it nicely.
It’s becoming difficult to see a clear winner emerge from the entries. This one is another of my favorites,
which are quickly piling up. I’m surprised but pleased to see so many well-conceived entries succeed like
this one does.
Played 11/03/2013. Play order: 17
Boogle | Buster Hudson |
SCORE: 2.5
Comments:
Similar concept to my ZombieDating entry, but here, “Boogle” is – maybe? – a scary version of Google?
There seem to be a number of issues with it though. After getting “search results” there’s a broken macro
that Twine throws up at the bottom. Apparently there were supposed to be images for the “Happy Kitty”
chain of passages, but they don’t appear. Less frequently, a “Life Companion” result appears, which
doesn’t go far before Twine spits out another series of errors.
If I hadn’t already played “Blob”, I’d think that this was Healy’s entry to ensure that Addie’s
Trick-or-Treat adventure gets a better placement. As it is, I don’t know if it was supposed to be bad,
or if the author really just had enough time in three hours to bring in some Google-like scripting.
Update: It works in other browsers. The first screen even says so, but since I’d already read that on
the first day before actually playing, I skipped it when I came back. Since I haven’t put a score with
any of them yet, and there’s no rule about having to stick with your first impression, I’ll take that
into account. I’m not really inclined to play it again now that I know it’s fine in Chrome, though.
Played 11/01/2013. Play order: 7
The Horrible Pyramid | Ryan Veeder |
SCORE: 10.0
Comments:
Really, really impressive. There were a few missing spaces in the text, and I was able to get stuck in the
tunnel with seemingly no way out (possibly a bug, because it mentiones a blocked northeast path that’s
supposed to be listed in the wheel room), but still, really impressive.
The game has a few light puzzles that seem well-clued. Aside from being stuck in the tunnel (causing me to
restart), everything moved forward at a nice pace. Room and scenery descriptions change (multiple times)
based on progress in the game, and not just in small, expected ways. It would have been less effective if
I waited to wear each of the three items until the end (which I did try out, just to see how things go),
but playing with a normal sense of curiosity helps the game succeed at what it’s trying to do.
It’s now a tough call for my top pick between this and “The Argument-Winner’s Ghost”. I liked both quite a
bit. Maybe I’ll vote them the same score, just to avoid picking a favorite. Well done, Ryan Veeder.
Played 11/04/2013. Play order: 20
Wisp | Lea Albaugh |
SCORE: 1.5
Comments:
I’m not sure I get this one. Spoilers follow.
I got the impression pretty quickly that the answer was to wake up. But the game insisted I wasn’t sleeping.
I needed to sleep first – which doesn’t seem to affect my ability to move around and continue doing
things – and /then/ wake up. I tried looking at the light and following it in the direction indicated, but
this went on for longer than I would have thought necessary. The bread gives a clue if examined a second
time, but the watch doesn’t appear to do anything. Going in the same direction over and over doesn’t work.
All in all, I’m left wondering if there was more to the game than I discovered. It admits to being a very
small game, though, so maybe Lea just ran out of time? Three hours really isn’t much time to do much, but
maybe she wasn’t able to plan things out beforehand? It would have been nice to have a little bit more.
Played 10/31/2013. Play order: 3
Chemistry and Physics | Colin Sandel & Carolyn VanEseltine |
SCORE: 7.5
Comments:
I was happy to see that the CYOA intro bit morhps into more of an adventure game a short ways in. This
one was more substantial than I expected. The writing works to make things seem urgent, and the game’s
primary chase mechanic support that. I encountered some odd bugs, like Twine errors that started showing
up in the sidebar, and there seemed to be some odd formatting/spacing issues with the inventory. Most
likely, it’s nothing that another hour of post-comp cleanup wouldn’t fix. There is a surprising amount of
content here for a speed-IF entry, so it’s not surprising that bugs slipped through.
It seems like the backstory was probably important enough to get more in-game attention than it does,
and I finished without really having a sense of who these two people were. There are recollections of
prior events found by looking at certain things along the way, but I never really had a sense of who
these people were, or whether or not Lee had any notion that Dane was going to be that psychotic. Depending
on whether that’s intentional or just a byproduct of limited time, it might be something to address in a
post-competition update.
I managed to get a winning ending; the only winning ending? Not sure. But I had to use “back” to undo
a few times to get it right. That was my third playthrough. Initially, I just tried it from the beginning.
Satisfying as a sort-of puzzle game. Less satisfying for the story, but still a worthy entry.
Played 10/31/2013. Play order: 5
The Tale of the Cursed Eagle | Slat Leering |
SCORE: 3.5
Comments:
This was the last one. It’s an interesting story, but it too suffers from the limited time in which it was
created. I managed to reach several different endings, which amounts to walking around to different locations
and sometimes entering a place for shelter. I was initially confused by the flashback paragraphs, thinking
I attacked the guard at the bridge, but I caught on afterwards.
This could – and perhaps /should/ – have been done as a CYOA. Aside from one item I was able to pick up
to trigger one of the endings at a different location, there doesn’t seem to be any stat tracking involved.
The author put the room exits in the title rather than in the text, which initially threw me off but was
a blessing when I realized how the map opens up.
The fairy circle is a little buggy. It can teleport you to the same location, or to the location where the
beast is waiting. If it teleports you directly to the fledgling, the end scene isn’t triggered unless you
leave and come back (and assuming you’re carring what you need to trigger it).
So, not bad. Interesting. Could have used more time and polish, as was the case with most.
Played 11/04/2013. Play order: 22
Fish Dreams | Carolyn VanEseltine |
SCORE: 3.0
Comments:
This one’s basically a short story with an IF interface, framed in a way that allows it to be told
in snippets that aren’t in chronological order. (Possibly reverse order, but I’m uncertain.) A second
set of snippets can be missed by, well, doing the right thing early on. It’s worth a second or third
play-through not only to see them, but to try to make better sense of the whole story.
Now that I’m finished, I /think/ I get it. It’s a story of betrayal and mistaken assumptions; I think.
Anyway, it’s well-written and interesting, and requires a person to put the pieces together to get the
most of it, perhaps filling in the gaps with guesswork.
Played 11/02/2013. Play order: 11
The Profile | Mike Snyder |
SCORE: N/A
Comments:
(From 10/31/2013 and 11/01/2013)
I had the idea for this game on February 13th, 2006. I know that because every once in a while I’ll add
something to my “ideas” list – a text file I keep for this very reason. It was meant to be a lot more
involved, though, because I didn’t know I’d choose it as my speed-IF inspiration. I had already helped
Addie with her game. I had already submitted ZombieDating.zom in Twine. But on the last day before the
deadline, I decided to do something in Hugo. This meant a lot of planning, and a lot of re-learning Hugo
after a seven year gap in games.
I chose this idea because it allowed for a built-in explanation as to why things were sparsely implemented
with very brief writing. Plus, it allowed for some replayability, which would further extend the play time.
It’s only marginally “halloween-themed” but I hope that’s enough. I mean, it IS a serial killer simulator.
Initially, I had a disclaimer at the top stating that it’s not a game suitable for children. Then I removed
it, to make the climactic scene all the more shocking by contrast to the rest of the game (and to what I’m
usually known for creating). It’s possible that most players are going to “catch on” pretty early though,
from the opening text to the “x myself” description (incidentally, there are unlisted mirrors in both
bathrooms as well). That, and the fact that the title kind of gives it away if you’re thinking along the
same lines. But we’ll see. Hopefully it works. Hopefully it’s not fatally broken in multiple ways either.
I wonder if there will be players who object to the thing you have to do to progress, and simply refuse
to continue? That’s a valid response to it, although one that’s likely not to work in the game’s favor.
Update: The day following the deadline, I found a number of bugs in The Profile. The one I’m most concerned
about is that the kitchen’s description doesn’t mention the exit that leads south into the hall – which is
pretty important. I’m hoping most players will figure out the layout by going in through the front first,
or worst case scenario, randomly trying “south” in the kitchen. The east and west exits from the down-
stairs hallway are also unlisted, but that’s less important since those two rooms are optional. Then, there
are a few stat-tracking issues, like it not putting fingerprints on the knife the first time you pick it
up, or if you remove the gloves and then drop it. A missing period at one point. No message if you drop the
knife then pick it up again. Unimplemented “sit” for the sofa and chair in the living room. All of it could
have been avoided with a little more time, but hey – speed-IF! [emote]:)[/emote]
I’ve already fixed what I’ve found, and it’s ready for a post-competition update. I plan to include the
original and updated source code as well, for the morbidly curious.
Faithful Companion | Matt Weiner |
SCORE: 9.5
Comments:
I started this one last night, but got stuck in the second room. With help, I got past that and finished
the game pretty quickly today.
I really like the puzzle mechanic of this one. It would be interesting to see it explored in a longer game,
although something like Mobius (from a prior IFComp) may already have done something very similar. An NPC
character repeats your actions after the second turn, so that on the third turn, it’s doing whatever you
did on your first turn, and so on. I’m not sure if this was made possible by an existing extension or if
the author was able to come up with the coding for it specifically for this game, but it worked very well.
What threw me off is that I have this perception of ghosts as being able to pass through walls. Despite a
bit early on that makes it clear the ghost is of a sort that can pick up and hold things, I just didn’t take
it to the next logical step, still holding onto my long-standing idea of what a “ghost” can and can’t do.
For those who figure that out quicker than I did, I think this will be a favorite in the competition. I
liked it too, but felt silly after spending at least thirty minutes trying to get the three latches open.
That’s even after I had already decided that it wasn’t possible, thinking of it like math; anything doubled
is an even number, so there wasn’t a way to trick the ghost into leaving any of the latches open. The actual
solution is simpler than that.
Played 11/02/2013. Play order: 9
The Argument-Winner’s Ghost | Andrew Schultz |
SCORE: 10.0
Comments:
I quite liked this one. A few things seemed a little buggy (missing a blank line if pulling the bar, was
able to set the bar to a different value sometimes but other times it wouldn’t work, etc) but well done
for such a short amount of time. Quite a bit to see and do, and a pretty interesting story and premise.
Awesome work for the constraints of speed-IF. I played a second time and got a better ending, but haven’t
experimented to see if there are certain ways to achieve additional endings. I chose this to play first
because it got my attention more than any of the others I briefly spot-checked. I wouldn’t be surprised
if this is the 2013 Ectocomp winner.
Oh, there’s a walkthrough included. Multiple ways to win. Nice. Yeah, this is a good one.
Played 10/31/2013. Play order: 1
Dead Pavane for a Princess | Emily Boegheim |
SCORE: 8.5
Comments:
Short, but well-implemented. It occurs to me that there are a couple of ways to approch
speed-IF on such a short deadline. One, you try to make a longer game by sacrificing detail and
implementation. Two, you sacrifice length to make something very short but well-written. Emily has
done the latter. It’s a perfectly bite-sized game for Ectocomp. From the ending, I couldn’t tell if
there were alternatives to what I did, or if this is the one and only solution. Probably just the one?
Played 10/31/2013. Play order: 2
Headless, Hapless | Geoff Moore |
SCORE: 9.0
Comments:
It’s really interesting to see the variety of things people come up with, not only for the theme, but as a
means of working within the speed-IF constraints. Geoff’s game provides a fairly large play area, with the
impetus being to fully explore it all in search of your missing head. The premise provides a built-in
explanation for having no object-manipulation puzzles. And I guess the point is to depend on a player’s
motivation to solve things without help to ensure the game world does get explored. Ultimately, though,
hints from an NPC in the castle’s dungeon seem to be the only way most people will solve it. But again,
that seems to be the point. Eventually, you give up and get the whole answer.
I kind of stumbled on the solution earlier, though. I thought the head might still be on my neck (“you’d
forget your head if it wasn’t attached”), so I looked there. Nope. With that implemented, I tried other
body parts. I understand the reasoning for the actual solution, but kind of feel like “examine” might have
realistically done the same thing. Another cliche I thought might lead to a solution was “it’s always in
the last place you look,” but that isn’t the case.
It’s well-written and mostly bug-free. There’s a missing blank line if you try to “enter” the lake, but
I don’t remember coming across anything more serious than that. A few unimplemented things, of course, but
a surprisingly high level of detail. (Even “haunt” and “scare” are implemented.) I’m glad this one wasn’t
left out, as it almost was. It’s one of my favorites of the competition.
Played 11/03/2013. Play order: 15
Afterword - 11/04/2013
This was a lot of fun. It was cool to see how different people chose to spend their three hours. There were
entries that were so short they must have been conceived and created in that amount of time, and others
(like mine) that made use of the “loophole” that allows for offline planning outside the three-hour limit.
Some went for larger games by giving up detail, and others went for detail but ended up with very shorter
games.
I’d like to see more themed mini-comps, more often. But I’d like a full day for development, at least. I
know the focus is probably to just get people creating, but I think a little more time would keep the spirit
of things yet allow for games with a little more polish.
Less than a week into the competition, and it seems like many (most?) are already finished playing all the
games. There are scores popping up on the IFDB, and reviews with discussions posted to intfiction.org. In a
way, I miss the “old days” when participants couldn’t vote and discussion was prohibited until after the
voting period. I don’t know if that ever applied to Ectocomp, since my experience was always with the
IFComp, but I liked not knowing anybody else’s opinion of a game before playing and voting on it myself.
It’s probably possible to predict the results just by collecting everything written about the games, and
if scores keep popping up on IFDB, it might be even easier. Nothing to prevent it, but I kind of like the
idea of it being a surprise right up until when the results are announced. I think it gives every author
more time to hang onto hope that they’ve got a chance at ranking high or even winning. As it stands, I kind
of know what to expect already: a small chance of 3rd place (but no higher), with a more likely ranking
between 4th and 10th. And I’m cool with that. [emote]:)[/emote]
And ZombieDating.zom? Well, it’s probably good that I found the motivation to enter a second game. Even
though it was meant to be a legitimate entry given the three-hour constraint, I think it’ll be generally
dismissed as just filler. And maybe that’s all it ended up being. So we’ll see.
So here’s my voting results, omitting Addie’s game and both of mine. I know the voting says 10 is perfection,
but I’m going to ignore that so that my scores can be used to better effect. Score first. Game name after.
10.0 - The Horrible Pyramid
10.0 - The Argument-Winner’s Ghost
9.5 - Faithful Companion
9.0 - Headless, Hapless
8.5 - Dead Pavane for a Princess
8.0 - Crater Creek, 2113
7.5 - Chemistry and Physics
7.0 - A Slight Problem with Zombies
6.5 - The Voodoo You Do
6.0 - Jack
5.5 - The Cenric Family Curse
5.0 - The Nessa Springs Slasher
4.5 - Blackness
4.0 - Ice House of Horrors
3.5 - The Tale of the Cursed Eagle
3.0 - Fish Dreams
3.0 - You are a Blob!
2.5 - Hill of Souls
2.5 - Boogle
2.0 - Personality Rights
2.0 - The Hallway Phantom
1.5 - Wisp