Thanks—I’m so glad you enjoyed the game!
When/where was this? If that option’s not unlocking when it’s supposed to, I’d definitely like to look into that.
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So off the top of my head I think it was after I’d spoken to someone (Victor?) who identified Jack’s handwriting. There was definitely something mentioning speaking to Bob at one point before the accuse option unlocked but I can’t recall exact phrasing. As I said, I might have misread what it was saying about Bob - I was very excited to get to the next part so may have been reading a little too quickly! Apologies for wasting your time, if so.
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I think you may have completed the whole unlocking the phone quest earlier than we intended! Did you by any chance get this info before getting locked in the power station?
(FYI, this is really difficult to do that early so congratulations on your time management abilities!)
Yes I did, that’s probably it! I really front-ended that task haha, felt important so I made it my first priority
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In that case, it should be an easy fix! Thanks so much for bringing it to our attention.
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You
Carter X Gwertzman
Note: Edited this review as I initially couldn’t work out one of the puzzles, but have been able to move past it with the help of @alyshkalia - thank you!
I think the format here is really lovely. It’s surreal but with a light touch, very playful, with some nice writing—I especially enjoyed the dialogue with the other characters you meet. The first few puzzles I encountered were quite intuitive and felt satisfying to solve. The colour and format changing was a clever approach, but did make the text very hard to read in some places. I liked the gentle learning curve, and the fact I didn’t have to panic about conserving resources. It allowed me to play in the space through trial and error rather than punishing me for messing up on early attempts, which I really appreciated. I didn’t opt to use the accessibility features but I think it’s great that they’re available!
I got stuck on the puzzle where you have to talk to the column of mushrooms. I looked for a walkthrough but there isn’t one available for this game, so that might be a helpful addition for future players.
I think the number of puzzles is perfect for the length of the game, which is short and sweet. The ending rewards you for your efforts thematically, and it feels like a really neat package altogether.
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From when I tested the game (so not sure if anything has changed since then), this was what you had to do for that puzzle! Wolfbiter reviews IFComp 2024 - latest: A few hours later . . .; The Saltcast Adventure - #34 by alyshkalia
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Oh brilliant that worked! Though I think I had to go to the cave to do the above-underline as the river just did below. Thank you so much!
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Ahhh, I must have gotten those two mixed up!
Metallic Red
Riaz Moola
It’s been a while since I had time to play anything in the comp, and today I had some free time so decided to treat myself to a session of one of the games that caught my eye a little while ago. I’m so, so glad I did—this is a truly exceptional piece and a real standout of the comp to me. You had me at The Chard Sphere.
First and foremost, the writing in this is really, really excellent. I’m an academic researcher in Creative Writing, so I spend a lot of time reading and writing fiction and thinking about what makes it work. There’s some really masterful prose here and I was delighted to come across it. A couple of examples that really caught my eye, out of many:
No matter how many times you run the callibration the gravity is way too high. The ball plummets to the table almost instantly and refuses to bounce, the bottom of it slightly compressed from the high force.
The room smells damp, like a river bed. On one side of the room oyster mushrooms burst out of hanging columns of substrate. An automated maintenance crab creeps along one of the beds, harvesting radishes and placing them in a wicker basket on its top surface.
The style is wonderfully descriptive while retaining the sort of clarity that kept me from zoning out and skimming. I think that the computer tabs are of particular note; it takes real skill and confidence to switch between registers like that, and I found all of the voices believable and compelling. There’s also some brilliant moments of humour in there too.
The worldbuilding is excellent also—unique but restrained, never bashing you over the head with too much extraneous detail. It takes confidence to trust a reader to piece things together for themselves rather than spoon-feeding them context and this was pulled off brilliantly here, I think. In a way it reminded me a lot of Tom McHenry’s ‘Tonight Dies the Moon’? That sort of science fiction that lingers on the minutiae of everyday life.
There was just enough interactivity to keep me engaged, and the writing was so good (have I mentioned this?) that I didn’t mind that the story seemed basically linear. I wanted to keep reading because I was invested in the world and the protagonist. I loved how their motivations and background were kept partially obscured from the player, which made the final conversation far more compelling when it happened.
I loved making the salad dressing. The sudden inclusion of that little cooking minigame was such an unexpected delight. If I have any critique, I might have liked to see a few more little scenes where the player is actively engaged in something like that. But that’s a very small criticism.
The layout and styling is very clear and readable pretty much throughout; I found the white background in the dream sequences a bit hard on the eyes, but that’s a minor quibble.
I could go on and on about this one. I adored it, I really did.
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