Exchange, by Peter Johnston
Two perspectives, a promising start
This is a demo for a longer game in development. It takes place in the future but close-enough to our world with immortality through mind uploading and some shuffling of geopolitical borders going on.
The very first choice is the biggest, as it decides the person you play the rest of the demo as, either a doctor about to administer a mind operation, or a billionaire who is the intended patient of said operation. Both characters have distinct arcs and it’s well worth doing a repeat playthrough from the other perspective (easily doable, the currently released content is not very long). There are some mismatches between first-person and second-person pronouns in the billionaire’s segment that I’m not certain were intentional or not.
I’m looking forward to how these two perspectives will collide in future installments!
The Missing City Council, by Solarius
A perfectly normal location exploration.
The emphasis on “perfectly normal mystery” is a dead sign that we are not, in fact, dealing with the mundane here. Something, or rather, some things are missing when the protagonist ventures inside City Hall. It was at this moment when I knew for a fact that the initial premise was mainly an excuse to go through the building and deal with item puzzles rather than do some social deduction with city officials. I had to use the walkthrough for some puzzles I considered unintuitive (I am also, admittedly, Bad At Puzzles).
Functions such as ABOUT/CREDITS, UNDO, and TALK TO are unimplemented. While there are some grammatical errors around objects that I assume, to my Inform-illiterate mind, are related to how items are created and treated by the development system, I did not find any other typos nor did I find anything that was outright bugged.
Finishing a game, especially your first, is a milestone to be celebrated and I am glad to sample the content and the thought put into it. If the author makes more creations, I’d love to experience them.
(this spoils a puzzle solution)
still, if I were one of those guards, I would not take drinks from strangers nor would I drink from the exact same cup my colleague drank from 10 seconds ago. But the mental hoops my mind had to jump over to suspend disbelief at this section, and the deadpan stoniness from the guards juxtaposed with King George V out of nowhere were funny enough, so I liked this implementation.
My transcript:
hmlog_council.txt (19.5 KB)
The Perilous Plot, by Carrie Berg
Person who has only read Northanger Abbey, reading a second gothic parody: “Not getting a lot of ‘Northanger Abbey’ vibes from this…”
You’re a dastardly villain in a suitably moody mansion, whose antics are limited to threatening the heroes by making quips, attempted blackmail, or, perhaps the most effective, glaring menacingly at them until they faint. You are given a choice between two random rooms to go into (which eventually repeat after eight or so turns), and in each room, decide whether to confront the heroes using your gaze or hopefully cutting words, use or scavenge for items or silently observe your opponents. Your chances of success are up to the random number god, though the effectiveness of your gaze, the location, and the weather can help or hinder you.
There are two ways to win, either by making the heroes faint enough or getting enough plot points. I thought it was pretty easy racking up the required number of faints, but I never found a consistent way of getting enough plot points. The first few times I chose to look for items, I didn’t get any. If you attempt to use an item you already have, the game will automatically pick one appropriate for the current situation or tell you it’s no use and waste a turn. If you fail your gaze checks enough, the effectiveness of your glares decreases, but some smart use of picking locations with appropriate weather (if the RNG favors you, at least), should override that. You may find the game structure and descriptions to be repetitive as you go on. (I did end up spamming Gaze when I had two more faints left to go)
Minor frustrations aside, having a stare so powerful that people faint from it is the energy I wish I could have. I see the author has quite a few (non-IF) video and physical games available which I will check out after the Thing is over.
Stats
Plot points: 4/11
Your gaze is Piercing
You caused heroes to faint 10/10 times
Locations visited: 20/20
You have seen: the Country Road, the Attic, the Garden, the Library, the Study, the Balcony, the Bridge, the Orchard, the Forest Path, the Hallway, the Colonnade, the Secret Room, the Ruined Tower, the Lakeshore, the Bedroom, the Grand Staircase, the Stables, the Drawing Room, the Laboratory, the Terraces
Weather experienced: 9/10
Last Month’s Forecast: Foggy, Windy, Sunny, Misty, Downpour, New Moon, Snowy, Cloudy, Stormy
Mirror-like objected glared into: 4
Items collected: 2/7
Hero items stolen: 0/2
You are holding: Items for Blackmail, Letters from Home