(A reminder that all these essays contain spoilers. Also, I forgot that Zozzled tied with Creme de la Creme and will write one for that as well.)
This game was an unusual XYZZY winner, being a relatively short parser IFComp game that placed 4th in the competition, tied with Birdland for the lowest-placing IFComp game to win the XYZZY Award up to this point.
But after playing through it, it’s clear that it shares features with other XYZZY Award winners, and on IFDB its overall rating puts it firmly in the middle of the pack among the other winners, showing that it remains popular.
What does it do right?
Novel, well-implemented mechanics
One thing many XYZZY winners have in common is their interesting and innovative mechanics. So Far, the first winner, had its sound and pipe puzzles, among others; Savoir-Faire its clever linking mechanism; Lost Pig its color-coded magic.
This game features a ghost, you, who has almost no ability to interact with the world around her. Soon, however, you discover that emotions can affect certain objects. Desire can pull, confusion can turn. That makes this game a limited parser game where new commands can be found, similar to Arthur DiBianca’s The Vambrace of Destiny.
The puzzles the author has devised are quite tricky while still being solvable without hints. Some verbs are learned long before any chance to use them arises, and some objects are placed very early on before you can use the action on them (especially the chest).
Emotional, vibrant writing and plot
Many IF games tend to the analytical and the removed. This game, though, like past winners Lost Pig and Violet, infuses every object and description with emotion, character, and memory. Things tied to those you love or hate have long descriptions explaining their relationship to you and others, while things with no emotion attached are skimmed over with brief messages.
The plot pulls directly from poetry and includes abuse, romance, and murder. The game as a whole could serve as a long poem, one-act play or radio drama, as it forms a strong coherent story.
Mechanics tied to plot
This is one of the biggest things common to XYZZY winners. Like Coloratura, the mechanics are the plot. Why can you pull things? Because you love the one who made them! Why can you hurt people? Because of their regrets. By making emotions into commands like ‘anger door’ or ‘excite mirror’, the player is both solving puzzles and roleplaying, something which its competitors in IFComp that year (though excellent and still-popular games in their own rights) lacked, all three being polished traditional parser games with novel settings.
Conclusion
What Heart Heard of, Ghost Guessed is basically the quintessential XYZZY winner boiled down to its basic components: ‘interactive’, ‘fiction’, and ‘interactive fiction’. It has interesting and compelling mechanics, it has strong story and plot, and the two are wed together by the structure of the game.