Yellow card thrown on @prevtenet! Please remember to stick to the positive for fan commentary about competing games.
(This rule is not meant to imply that negative criticism is invalid. See the FAQ for details.)
1 Like
I don’t dislike it; I just don’t get it. It’s possible I am emotionally stunted. In any case, I only played it a couple of months ago, so I lack historical context. I think I’ll play through it again to understand it better.
FWIW, I find
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
to be extremely moving prose.
1 Like
I was rather impressed by Harmonia. Great pacing work in the first several chapters, very intriguing setting, and a light touch on characterization that fits the story well. It would have been very interesting to see how it fared against Anchorhead.
1 Like
These are both long works of IF and I didn’t finish either one. More accurately, I got about 2 hours into each one and that’s not very far, based on what I believe about them, it looks like without walkthroughs these could take days or weeks of hacking away at their puzzles. So this is truly just a “first impressions” response.
The Mulldoon Legacy has an unusual start that is confusing to me. It was exciting, for certain, but I didn’t really understand what was happening which I suppose was intentional by the author. But this gave me the idea that the Museum in this story is definitely not nearly as straightforward as I imagined. There are a lot of puzzles here, and the map is enormous. I wandered around aimlessly after the initial puzzles to get into the joint. There are some neat things to see here, but I wasn’t really able to see a lot of the story other than the obvious “legacy” goal that the player is given at the beginning. The descriptions are well done, but I feel this is a true puzzle-love-fest that requires a lot of hours of studious note-taking and trying lots of ideas to figure it all out. And sadly, I didn’t have time to really give it justice. I feel like this will be one I come back to after I’ve solved several other smaller puzzle games.
Endless, Nameless is very off-putting at the start (intentionally, I feel) which isn’t unusual for other games I’ve played by Adam Cadre. The Troll at the start of the game is hilarious and a fantastic, well-implemented idea that shows this isn’t quite what you think it’s going to be. If you were there in the '90s on the Usenet’s rec.arts.int-fiction to experience the Usenet trolls, you’d really appreciate it.
There are some clever puzzles hidden in what looks like some kind of text RPG that isn’t actually a text RPG at all. And then the character’s whole world changes, suddenly, and that was a hoot. I love the reality-warping in Beyond, Nameless, and the story gets very interesting after about an hour into it. This is just an initial impression. I really liked where it was going, and I liked the writing style.
I look forward to spending more time with both of these.
-virtuadept
1 Like
Photopia - I did play this the first time in 1998 when voting for the IF Comp 98 games. I cried. It was tragic. It was beautiful. It was art. It changed how we all felt about what Interactive Fiction could and should be. IF could no longer just be about running around frotzing lamps or nitfoling frogs anymore. IF had to MEAN something, now, man! Today I replayed the 2.01 version; it uses Glulx now, the original was Z-code. It has a bit of fancy border art and the colors work correctly and I liked that aspect of it more with this version than I remember the first time. This is really a must-play game for anyone interested in the history of interactive fiction. Yes, there are games with better stories. Yes there are games with better puzzles. But this game – was a game changer – you have to respect that.
Digital: A Love Story - This is a “text message love affair” game similar to Emily Is Away which involves a relationship carried out over a retro AOL interface. Digital is set in 1987 (or 88) and involves a relationship carried out over a dial-in BBS (Bulletin Board System) with a modem from an Amiga-like retro 1980’s interface. The game completely succeeds at capturing the flavor of the old BBS scenes. Having actually operated a BBS between 1989 and 1991, and been involved in the BBS scene even before then, I was pretty stoked about this game. It definitely has delicious nostalgia dripping from its lovingly crafted interface. And then, maybe a third of the way through the game, there’s a major and delicious twist. I loved all the Gibson references. I loved the humor, like the original Star Trek fan deriding Next Generation. This is a wonderful game, and it is worth the time to put up with the intentionally archaic retro interface; after all, that’s kind of the point, to harken back to the early days of computing. One interesting aspect of Digital is that when you, the protagonist, reply to the messages, that part is never shown. All you see are the replies of the correspondents, so you are never actually given a voice to either agree or disagree with. Nor are you given any actual choices in your relationships with the cast of the story, so calling this game a Love Story is, well, it’s a bit of a misdirection? One that hopefully the player can forgive to get to the actual meat of the narrative, which is fascinating.
3 Likes
OK, the majority of votes strongly favors the prediction game for Rounds 2 and beyond. Here’s how it will work:
-
Players must submit their predictions in one of two formats: graphical or text. (See below for details.)
-
Predictions should be sent to me via DM by the deadlines (see below). To maintain fairness to other players, no late submissions will be accepted.
-
The winner will be the person who correctly predicts the most winners of games. In the event of a tie, the winner will be the person who correctly predicts the most winners of games with the lowest mean squared error for specific predictions.
-
Score predictions may be given in terms of either absolute points or relative percentages. Predictions of absolute points are more specific and will win over relative percentages in the case of a tie for correct predicted wins.
-
The winner will be announced within one week after the tournament ends.
FORMAT OF SUBMISSION
The easiest way to submit predictions will be by copying and editing the graphics from each division’s current standings. The far left column (for Round 1) should be ignored, and can be left as-is or removed/cropped at your preference. For each match in Round 2, circle your predicted winner and optionally add a predicted final score. For the blank boxes in Rounds 3 and 4, write in the initials of the games that you predict will be matched based on your predictions from Round 2, and again optionally add a predicted final score.
For each division, your submission should look something like this:
If you would prefer to submit your predictions in text format, then the simplest format for each division will be something along these lines:
**DIVISION N**
*Round 2*
GameA vs GameB -- A wins 56-34
GameC vs GameD -- C wins 67-21
GameE vs GameF -- F wins 79-43
GameG vs GameH -- G wins 96-19
*Round 3*
A vs C -- A wins 69-39
F vs G -- G wins 70-15
*Round 4*
A vs G -- A wins 83-64
and for the Final Four, something like:
**FINAL FOUR**
*Division Champions*
GameT vs GameR -- R wins 37-21
GameJ vs GameL -- L wins 61-17
*Finalists*
R vs L -- L wins 71-20
Again, the prediction of a score for each match is optional.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Predictions for Divisions 1 and 2 must be received before noon UTC time on Saturday July 06. Predictions for Divisions 3 and 4, and for the Final Four, must be received before noon UTC on Saturday July 13. It is not necessary to wait until the end of the current segment to send predictions for Divisions 3 and 4 and the Final Four, but it is recommended to do so.
If you send in a prediction but change your mind, revised predictions will be accepted up until the applicable deadline.
That only leaves a few days for Divisions 1 and 2 entries, so don’t put it off too long!
1 Like
That’s hard. Some of us don’t know how to do that easily. I’ll submit something textual in an approved configuration if that’s OK, but this way doesn’t look fun.
Totally fine! A template for text submissions is provided, too. (Just trying to be both device-friendly and terminal-friendly.)
Ugh, I didn’t read your whole post, a thing that annoys me when other people do it to me.
So, most likely, 4x4 Archipelago vs The Impossible Stairs is the one matchup I’ll have time for this week.
I played through one game of 4x4 Archipelago, as a random character with Survival, Diplomacy and no fighting skills to speak of.
- The game seems to handle bad fighters reasonably well, having plenty of non-fighting challenges and signposting how hard the fighting challenges are.
- Exploring the 4x4 archipelago is fun on its own. You can check for information about other islands and the writer manages a good illusion that you’re actually talking to travellers and not just getting canned responses.
- A lot of these things are gated behind the Diplomacy skill. I get a similar suspicion that a lot of the dungeons are effectively gated behind the Combat skill, considering how frequently I was driven off by random goblins. I’m suspecting non-combatants are supposed to pick up a mercenary companion for protection.
- I eventually died in what seemed like a Colossal Cave-esque maze. Mapping would probably have helped, but I didn’t have the patience for it.
- Then I restarted to see how much would be different, and apparently even the main quest changes for new characters. It still pointed me at the Academy to get started, but that was nice.
The Impossible Stairs is perfectly playable without playing The Impossible Bottle before, but hey, they’re both nice, short games.
- Impossible Bottle plays with time-travel. Not really a spoiler.
- I got a little frustrated at certain people giving seemingly odd answers, especially the father referring to a treehouse that doesn’t exist, but it makes sense if you assume everyone is talking from the perspective of the player having finished the game.
- Does the family in The Impossible Bottle know that the daughter has godlike powers over the house? Probably not. Does the family in The Impossible Stairs know of the main character’s time travel powers? It’s strongly implied.
This was a nice evening, but 4x4 Archipelago gets my vote in the end.
5 Likes
The first predictions have already been received, and I’m seeing some interesting disagreements in them.
So far nobody has included scores in their predictions – don’t forget that scores will be used to resolve any ties. Revised predictions will be accepted until the applicable deadline.
I’ve made some edits to the prediction game instructions post to clarify certain things based on questions that have come up. Specifically:
-
It’s not necessary to delete the Round 1 column if submitting predictions graphically. (I only cut it out of my example format to avoid even a hint of influence in any actual division.)
-
Scores provided in percentage form will count as more accurate than predictions without scores, but winning preference will be given to predictions of actual point scores (which are even more specific). (The original intent was for absolute points only, but I think allowing percentage guesses is a good idea. I got the faked scores in my prediction format examples by random number generation between 1 and 100, and didn’t anticipate that this might make them look like relative percentages.)
Harmonia vs Savoir-Faire:
From the outset, Harmonia creates an atmosphere of tension and mystery. “College intrigue” isn’t usually one of my preferred settings, but Harmonia’s opening is so effective that it sucked me in anyway. At first it’s not clear whether the PC is simply reading ulterior motives into the NPCs’ actions because of her nervousness or whether there’s actually something suspicious going on. It doesn’t take long for that question to be answered! Harmonia is definitely worth playing; even if you’re not a fan of the tropes it appears to be invoking, it will probably surpass your expectations.
Savoir-Faire, on the other hand, is my personal favorite of Short’s works (at least among those that I’ve played.) It’s a true “systemic puzzle” game - the Lavori d’Aracne is implemented as a general-purpose system instead of as a collection of special cases, so you can link anything to anything and get reasonable results. Furthermore, like many Metroidvania games, Savoir-Faire features a number of side areas and puzzle-gated collectibles in addition to the main path. This makes the game fun to play around with even if you’re not making progress on the main story; you can spend hours exploring the map, finding valuables to “reclaim”, and seeing what happens when you link two random objects.
Final Verdict: Savoir-Faire.
7 Likes
This is a relatively close set of matches. Some metrics:
The average ratio of points between victory and defeat in each match for Division 1 was 1.638.
The ratio of the sum of all victors’ points to all defeateds’ points was 1.48.
The per-match average in Division 2 was 4.039.
The all points ratio was 2.73.
The per-match average in Division 3 was 2.932.
The all points ratio was 2.13.
The current per-match average ratio for Division 4 is 1.928.
The current all points ratio is 1.73.
1 Like
Which really speaks to Emily Short’s skill at implementation, because if I remember right, she said at one point the code for links in S-F truly is an enormous collection of special cases! Part of the reason to write Damnatio Memoriae was to see if I7 relations could handle a more general version.
4 Likes
It’s hard to share commentary without explaining your reasons for your choices. I’d allow factual “negative” commentary, like “But the cruelty of this game was a drag” when it’s a fact that the game is cruel. But saying something like “I hated this game’s writing/theme/etc” should be out of bounds.
5 Likes
4x4 Archipelago vs The Impossible Stairs:
4x4 Archipelago is a game that pushes against the boundaries of IF, but doesn’t break them. It’s strongly reminiscent of traditional “roguelike” video games like FTL or Pathway, and in turn it has gone on to inspire a number of other similar Twine games, like recent Spring Thing entry Voyage of the Marigold. Unlike most roguelikes, however, 4x4 Archipelago has a 4X strategy game-like power curve instead of remaining hard until the end. Near the beginning, it’s difficult to make any headway, but once you pick up a few skill levels and the mining tools, the money and XP start flowing in in ever-increasing amounts. It’s enjoyable on a moment-to-moment basis as well: the combat is simple but satisfying, and the writing has charming moments and plenty of exclamation points.
What really raised my opinion of 4x4 Archipelago is the fact that when I started a second game, I found a set of entirely new islands, quests, and organizations that I hadn’t seen the first time. I had initially assumed that there were only 16 islands, arranged in different layouts, but there are many more than that. This is a game that avoids the fatal trap of putting most of the content into one playthrough, and as a result has more replay value than any other IF game I’ve played.
The Impossible Stairs is a light puzzle game, short enough to play through in a few hours. The longest puzzle chain involves convincing a young version of your cousin Ada to pursue a robotics career, and repeatedly delivering the result of her life’s work to her younger self to improve. By condensing centuries of robot development into a single moment in this way, you end up with (major spoiler follows) Uncle Rob, a fully intelligent humanoid android who manages to be the funniest character in the whole game, even though he only gets a few lines. This was a really good idea and, in my opinion, the best use of the time travel mechanics in the game.
Final Verdict: While TIS is a decent puzzler, I think, in the end, the sheer mindless fun of 4x4 Archipelago wins my vote.
2 Likes
Yes, I agree it’s hard to be 100% positive when comparing titles. I gave up trying to explain my choices or even announcing my choices. Firstly, my votes are subjective anyway, and since I’m spending at most 2-3 hours per game I’m only finishing the shortest ones, so my votes are literally based on first impressions, and there are quite a few IF games that have abysmal (IMHO) first impressions, but “grow on you” in a good way. Alas, those will probably fare poorly from me.
As an example of this, there was a game I played by an author I truly adore that seriously rubbed me the wrong way at the start. It was difficult to come away from that first impression with much of anything positive. And yet, by all accounts from skimming a few reviews, that work was a bit of a “joke at first, but then it gets real” type game. Anytime an author does something like that, they take a risk that folks quit before they get to the good stuff.
I decided to only post positive things about any titles here, even if, overall, I didn’t actually enjoy the experience. Every game I’ve played so far has something it got right. And quite a few probably just are for folks with different preferences than mine, and maybe for the intended audience it’s a true gem. What I love about participating in this event is getting a taste of a wide selection of IF across a huge span of time. It has helped me see how the medium has evolved since I stopped paying attention to it in the early 2000’s.
For any of these games that I end up finishing (either during this event or later on), I’ll probably post an actual review on IFDB. I feel that’s really the best place for commentary on the games, anyway. In a review, I would certainly point out any perceived flaws as a courtesy to the author in the nicest way possible. Constructive criticism is sometimes more valuable to an implementor than gushing adoration, after all.
4 Likes
Make it Good has another protagonist that many people may find difficult to empathize with, let alone enjoy “wearing their skin.” And yet, despite this, there is an amazingly deep mystery here that requires a great degree of attention and most probably multiple replays to completely solve in the best way possible (I say probably because I didn’t have time to do a lot of replays to try to optimize outcome). There are believable, flawed characters in this mystery, and interaction with them and the ever-changing environment was challenging but highly rewarding. What I love about this game is that the characters themselves ARE the puzzles, not just obstacles or guides to hinder or help solve something more esoteric. This is gritty noir at its best, from the point of view of the guy bumbling around trying to solve it. The author Jon Ingold states that Make it Good was inspired by Stu Galley’s The Witness, which was in turn inspired by Marc Blank’s Deadline. Both were published in the 1980’s by Infocom and are “Noir Detective Mystery” adventures. All of these games involve a small cast of memorable, detailed characters to interact with, and are timed puzzles with events that occur that the player can miss. This makes them difficult to accomplish a “win” without replays to “do better” having figured things out from bumbling around the first few times. I like this style, because they are short games, and usually you know when you’ve missed something important, but not always.
Worlds Apart is filled with gorgeous descriptive landscapes of alien worlds, that are presented to you, the player, in the role of an amnesiac character. You have no idea who you are, so your goals at the beginning are just to explore and try to figure out who you are, what you are, where you are, and eventually, what the point is. This act of self-discovery is great for a setting-rich story like Worlds Apart because the protagonist doesn’t withhold information that they would know and the player obviously wouldn’t. As the protagonist discovers themselves, the player discovers the details of this amazing science fiction setting. There are long sections of text, some of which are told in flashbacks, emphasizing and legitimizing the author’s claim that Worlds Apart is an interactive novel, in terms of word count. A lot of the game is optional, but the more you read and discover, the more rewarding the journey. This makes it the kind of IF you want to savor over many sessions. I did, unfortunately, rush through to try and see as much as possible. This unique world is full of wonder and amazement, implemented with amazing attention to detail. I am eager to continue exploring this world more. Perhaps even more amazing is that this was author Suzanne Britton’s first and only foray into IF authoring. A sequel was planned, but over 20 years later, it is unlikely to ever surface.
3 Likes
Alias ‘The Magpie’ is a clever comedy “heist” where you take on the role of Sir Rodney Playfair, a self-proclaimed and infamous “gentleman thief” who is known to the world as “The Magpie”. There’s a lot of humor just in the names of all the characters. The situational humor had me rolling, and it is just so fun to try all the various antics. The game doesn’t punish you for trying things, and even things that don’t work have many humorous responses. The other characters in the game really make this game shine - well-implemented, engaging, and hilariously deranged. I am reminded of the Pink Panther films of the 1960s; probably, most of you are too young to remember those goofy heist movies filled with physical humor and odd characters.
Cragne Manor is a love-letter written by 80+ people in the IF community to Anchorhead on its 20th anniversary. It is the Frankenstein of text adventures, full of puzzles with a massive map and of course, uneven implementation and writing. The fact that it even exists is a testament to the “producers” Jenni Polodna and Ryan Veeder’s skill at stitching and informromancy. Not only is the story of how this game was created unusual, but the content itself is wacky, creepy, and bizarre. In a good way. It is best to come just to explore for fun and mirth. Taking Cragne Manor too seriously or trying to make sense of it, like the works of HP Lovecraft, will lead to madness, madness I say!!
2 Likes