Hawkstone is a retro-type parser adventure, using old-school RPG elements to drive the puzzles, and a Scott Adam-style of gameplay (not all locations are listed in the directions and puzzles can be obtuse). The game includes a walkthrough listing the required commands and order of actions*, and a built-in help system (pay in-game currency to get it).
*I messed up wanting to go my own way and skipped some steps
To say this was not the kind of game I am good at is an understatement. It combines a confusing worldmap (with weird locations) and difficult to almost impossible puzzles (hit the wrong butterfly and meet an early end). I did try to give it my best shot, but after finding myself stuck, I exclusively followed the walkthrough - save for not wanting to drop loot (but that’s me playing RPG).
So Hawkstone is essentially an RPG exploration game. You get items, break some stuff, give stuff to people, maybe sell some items maybe buy some, attack harmless butterfly, and go round and round you go around the map. Do some actions and maybe level up and your skills, or get a random dice roll for extra stats. If you finish enough puzzles, you get to the end (I didn’t).
There’s not much direction given to you (aside from the start text telling you in case of stuck, look at stuff) and you have to rely on guess work (or just be like me and follow the walkthrough) and thinking of silly ways to solve things. The combat system is pretty fun (though it would be nice if there had been more opportunities to use it), and the game as a swanky stat/inventory system. There is quite a bit of humour in the text, especially in the reaction of actions, and if you manage to run the game without any glitches, it’s pretty cool looking too!
But darn, you need to be a level 9999 experienced parser to do this adventure on your own… even a sword is not enough.
If someone manages to actually complete the game without the walkthrough, they need to be given a prize or something…
It makes me feel a bit better than @mathbrush had to use the walkthrough too
I don’t want to make excuses. You should judge it on the experience you had. There was going to be a lot more characters giving clue-giving dialogue and a more useful help system.
The intention was to have three games in one, choose which path, but have to dabble a little in each to complete the game.
I just ran out of time to implement all the things I intended.
The innocent butterfly, however, was purposefully overpowered, leading players to discover a part of the game they’d normally think they were supposed to avoid. And what could be funnier than fragile underdog butterfly kicking a bully’s ass.
I agree the puzzle to escape that situation was a bit lame and it will be better when I’m completely done with it.
There was a lot of unlisted features to discover, too. I’m wondering if I should have mentioned the world map.
Did you mean you found / used it and it wasn’t helpful?
Anyhow, I thank you for the review and will keep you in mind as I continue to improve it.
I think we all run into that issue I know I did last year. But it does make sense to know what was planned and looking back on what there is (which was quite a bit of running in circles).
And it worked quite nicely, imo. It does play on the tropes of RPG, with those enemies you reaaaallly shouldn’t try to fight when you start out (or like, the chicken in Zelda). It brought an interesting puzzle with the Limbo (it was just too hard to get out without the walkthrough).
You probably should I had no idea there was one (did you need to put all the map fragments together? I don’t think I found them all anyway).
Artful Deceit is an old school parser, made for the Commodore 64 machine (or a C64 emulator), where you are a detective hired to solve a murder, one the victim had been expecting. As the game has specific commands, reading the manual is highly recommended before starting the game.
I managed to find some clues on my own, before using the walkthrough (thank you for including it! and the maps too!). The game crashed* about 2/3rd through the game.
*not sure if it was because of the emulator or the game itself.
I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to parsers, and my frame of reference on what is or should be in an old-school parser rest essentially on what other people say about certain games. There are old-school and old-school parsers… like the ones who will only run on 8-bit machines that haven’t been around since the 90s. This was the first time I dared to try out a game like this.
Even with an emulator, this was honestly an experience just loading the game and faffing about. There’s something quite charming about those retro-style games (even the cluckiness of it or the loading of the command added to it), a style you can emulate visually with the likes of Adventuron nowadays. But it feels different with games like this one - sort of keeping some traditional alive in a way.
Aside from the novelty of it all, which was quite a lot for me, the game itself is a corny who-dunnit murder mystery, with a bit of a cliché revelation (but in a good way, it fits the vibe). There are some neat puzzles with hinting items close by, the ANALYZE mechanic was fun (I did send the other detective on wild goose-chases…), and I was glad to find I didn’t need to read some of the clues on the tiny screen. But it wasn’t too long or too large, it was just enough to solve the mystery, and seemed large enough to not feel unsatisfied.
But old-parsers also means frustrating commands, especially when trying to interact with some elements (you need to type out the adjectives, all of them) or conversing with the suspects (I barely managed to get a response from them). It’s not always quite clear when an item can be open or not (like that painting) or why you have to take some objects to read them (but that might be an old-parser thing).
But the thing that frustrated me the most was the maze-like environment, especially in the manor. There are so many empty rooms where there is nothing to do… It was a bit disorienting at times. Even if the map helped a bit, I still think there were too many rooms…
I’m not against trying other games like this one in the future (hopefully they don’t crash on me…). This was fun and new!
Bali B&B is a slice-of-life management game, where you are tasked to run your grandparents’ B&B in Bali for a week. Between taking care of the guests and the house, the trials and tribulations will make you realise whether this is the life you want to live. How will you do on this test?
Slice of life games, especially the cosy ones, work like a balm on a heavy heart or mind. They make you forget about the harshness of the world and transport you into a world where you may have some things to overcome, but there is no real danger, no impending doom - worst that can happen is a disappointed NPC. BBB does just that.
Wrapped in a blanket of spice and sweets, the game makes you feel right at home, complete with the overbearing family, anxiousness of one’s life’s dreams, and the plethora of good food. The prose is quite lovely, short but saying everything and more - the secondhand embarrassment of my failures were palpable…
There is a lot to enjoy in this entry, from the delightful and diverse cast of characters, the different approaches to run the B&B (I’m happy to report I was terrible at it…), or dealing with unforeseen issues. But also: the food, the descriptions of the environment, the food, the cats… It was a good time, but also a bit too short of a time.
Who Iced Mayor McFreeze? is the second instalment of the Gumshoe series (or is this a prequel?), which I remember quite fondly, a noir-esque story where everything is candy. In this game, you must solve the disappearance of Mayor McFreeze, and piece out the mystery. I used the hints for the last puzzle.
Having played Who Shot Gum E. Bear? last year, I was excited to play another instalment of the series, putting my feet in Gumshoe’s shoes (which I don’t think she has?). WSGEB was full of saccharine fun and pulp-y detective tropes, which I looked forward to find in this new entry. In that regard, WIMMF didn’t disappoint.
From the dame barging almost suspiciously into your office, to the dreary caramely rain, the goons locking you in a dangerous place and dang the body of the missing person right in front of you… the game happily takes on those tropes again, humorously throwing it back into that world full of anthropomorphic candies.
Also… the smell and taste commands are still hilarious!!
Compared to last year (sorry, hard not to compare), the main investigation is less obvious. The main clue is not shoved in your eyes at every turn in the first room (though the game introduction should hint enough at an ending), and you cannot circumvent the game’s puzzle to reach the end. You actually have to go around and investigate - so you don’t feel cheated when you reach the ending.
Though, while last year was throwing hints at every turn, this entry was much more reserved with it. The descriptions of the environment, items or people are more bare (which is a bit of a shame imo). It was not always clear what should or could be done (lots of trial and errors, the hint/waklthrough were nice).
I was a tad disappointed with the ending. While it felt a bit expected, I would have loved to be able to ask questions or accuse (or call back up) during that part. The conversations bits in WDGEB were very fun, and I think it could have made the final act a bit stronger with it.
Last Valentine’s Day is a fairly short linear story about love and heartbreak. Set in a Groundhog-Day-like loop, the story uses references to Greek mythology to drive forward its messages. Side-story are interwoven between loops. Though you have some flavour choices throughout the game, there is only one ending.
I was not expecting the game to be this dark. From the blurb, I thought we’d get some sort of whimsical story with maybe silly ways to stop your partner from leaving, next to serious introspective ones, and maybe a choice or two of leaving it all behind. But you neither meet your partner throughout the story (save for the letter they leave behind) nor can you change much your actions before reaching the end of the loop. And through it all, the story gets darker and darker with each loop.
I liked how the game build up from one loop to the next, with details changing between each, whether it be in the descriptions, in the colour scheme, or the header font, or even the names of the locations. Behind the main story, you find the end of a long-lasting relationship, the loss in interest in a hobby, or the remembrance of a lost loved one. While the main story is quite tragic, and the use of looping to add onto the background of that storyline was interesting, I thought the highlight of the game was those side stories and the bits you could uncover with each new loop.
It actually reminded me of this entry to the Anti-Romance jam earlier this year.
Dysfluent is a fairly short slice-of-life story, where you spend the day as a person with a stutter, trying to get through their day. The game uses text animation to highlight the struggles of living with a stutter. While the game includes achievements, linked to choices throughout the story, there is only one ending.
Aside from my gripes with the timed text (more on that later), the game was quite enjoyable. I found the story especially quite touching with its representation of the realities of living with a stutter (the colour use for the choices were smart!*). Trying to go through the whole checklist of actions made me feel quite anxious (would I manage to go through the day before just calling it quits?), which was pushed further with the formatting of the text. Social interactions felt like a nightmare, and the flashbacks made everything worse.
*though I was a dummy, and put the same thing for the best and worst dish… played myself there…
Though there are heavy moments throughout the story, I felt like the game tried to be as light-hearted as possible (save for the flashbacks). You may have a bit of a hard time saying certain words, or get some weird looks from people, but you leave each sequence with what you needed or did the best you could. It sometimes felt like you struggled more with your own feelings than other around you? Which I makes sense if your upbringing laughed at the ailment or looked at you with contempt at best.
It was a bit of a bummer to find out you wouldn’t get the job, but it also didn’t feel much of a loss when it happened - partly because of the conversation you have with your friend just after the news, but also because there is not much information on the job itself or what the MC thought of the job. Was it a job where talking is required or an added bonus? Did we really want that job? Did we need the job? Was there outside expectations with getting this job? Why didn’t we disclose that we had a stutter before*? Would it have changed anything if it did? Was the company open to accessibility? Did we prepare ahead of the job at all?
Just having to pick up a suit at the dry cleaner didn’t feel enough, I guess?
*maybe because we feel ashamed, prob
I understand the choice of using animation and timed text to emphasise on the hardships of having a stutter, how seconds feels like minutes when words don’t want to come out, how frustrating it can be to be blocked for no reason, how anxious it can make you knowing something requires speech… but the overuse and drawn-out length of the timed text becomes more a friction than pushing the point (especially as a fast reader). For many passages, I would be doing something on the side, waiting for the page to load fully before continuing to play.
As the animation setting is locked behind the ending (for understandable reasons, also makes replaying the game more smooth), I would advise a reduction of the use of the timed text (instead of bits of sentences, show the whole paragraph) or of the time between each block (at least by half, not more than 2s), or transforming it into a type-writer animation, or making the player click-to-reveal (trying to push the words out of their mouth).
If 17th century France is considered modern convention… sure
the topics of play formatting could make a great separate thread in Authoring or something…
In The Details is a very short game revisiting the Deal with the Devil trope, especially the moment when the Devil comes to collect its due. You play as an artist who traded something for musical talent, for a year. Long overdue, the Devil comes at the most importune time. There are 3-ish endings, with an indication the game will be updated at some point.
The entry has quite an interesting premise and a teasing build-up, with a probably love-to-hate main character, sort of a trope-y artist full with arrogance and self-centredness. Staring with very limited actions (inspect and consider) to set up the stage, the game soon adds more actionable ventures and zest in the writing. However, the game ends, quite abruptly, when tension is at it highest.
It kinda felt like a teaser…
The cover art is hella dope…
Also, don’t know if it was a bug or on purpose, but you couldn’t tell the truth for some reason?
The Finders Commission is a relatively short game, set as some sort of escape-room-puzzle piece where you are tasked to retrieve an artifact from an exposition, in broad daylight. There are 5 characters to choose from (though I am not sure whether they influenced the gameplay) and a handful of different puzzles to interact with. There are two endings: you retrieve the item or are caught trying. I reached the score of 92/100 after a restart.
TFC takes the campy traits of heist story, with the strange buyer requiring your help*, the security officer that has a tooth against you, the maybe-naive damsel/himbo that slip out important information, and the sneaky exit… The puzzles are diverse and interconnected, some requiring manipulation of an object, others to find a specific object to interact with another, and some to distract NPCs to enter new rooms. And there’s a maze-like feel to the main location.
*I don’t know whether it was a jab at like the British Museum losing artefacts recently or not wanting to give some back, but the thought of it being the case was funny
I played the game twice essentially, one where I felt completely lost, interacting with anything I could, solving puzzles a bit at random, and hoping for the best… and finding myself stuck, unable to find a way into a certain room to get the item to unlock the case with the artefact. Turns out, you have to interact not just with objects around you, but with NPCs (which I thought was a bit weird, you don’t really want attention on you). So the second time around was easier… Though I still found myself running around the place, even after getting the map*.
*would have been nice to find a map at the start, with more indication of displayed elements on it. It’s a gallery after all… and it’s a bit hidden within the satchel, I would have put it in the sidebar imo. Or the rooms each have a name, like with parsers.
It was a bit bizarre to not be able to examine the case until you open it (a nice description of the item could add to the vibe, maybe staying too long would have the security guard be extra suspicious of you), or even examine anything that wasn’t puzzle-related object (as a way to “blend” with the other visitors). Also a bit of a shame not to be able to interact with your rival or find a way to have them getting caught (they were really sus), or with the guard (I’m a sucker for taunting your “enemies” even if it would lead to a bad ending), or even further with the tour guide (I was promised romance ;-;*). I was a bit confused too with the need to include other locations, since you don’t really have anything you can do there (unless it’s the locations for future episode?).
*since the subtitle was Episode 1, maybe they’ll be back in the next episode?
TFC is the kind of puzzle game that when you get it, it’s smooth as butter… but if you struggle finding things or examine something at the wrong time or don’t follow the steps as intended, it can become quite frustrating. With a bit more tweaks here and there, it could make for a well-rounded game.
As a little aside, you may want to separate directions and interactions link on the page, or have the direction actions in a proper compass (I was thinking of this game about this element).
I’ve also been wondering whether the whole museum/gallery part of the game would have worked a bit better as a parser…But it could just be because I was missing hints/walkthroughs when stuck…
Fix Your Mother’s Printer is a fairly short and linear story, with a visual novel-like interface, where you try to help your mother fixing her printer ahead of an important presentation, through a Zoom-like app. There are multiple points where the game can end: you can go through the whole ordeal and fix the printer, give up before it starts, or annoy your mother and quit half-way through.
Printers are such fickle beings. They always whine and beeps when you don’t use them, and refuse to work every time you have an important job for them. And when something goes wrong, they will never tell you what. Is it enough paper? Or enough ink (or the correct one)? Are the cables properly plugged? Is it a computer issue instead? Or [roll dice to select the issue of the day]? It’s already a struggle for people who get printers, so when you don’t have the magic touch… you just want to throw it at the wall.
Enters you, called through a fake-Zoom app, asked for help. There are multiple ways to handle the call, every as exhausting and anxious-ridden as the next. It brought back the many many times I’ve been called to resolve computer-related issues for my family, especially the passive-agressive snippy comebacks, the eye-rolls, and the conversation changes half-way through explanations. I seriously wanted to throw the whole printer away half-way through*. But I did like the little vignettes of the mom, especially when reminiscing old memories.
*and of course the solution is dumb, it always is with printers. they are the devil’s invention…
The interface was quite playful (you wouldn’t have guessed it was made in ink), with your mother’s expression changing depending on the situation*, moving around when she had to do something, and showing an unexpected visitor at some point. It was nice to be able to just click the text box to advance the story, rather than finding the arrow every time. And the dark mode is great**!
*the images sometimes took a few seconds to load, which I’m assuming had to do with changing “passage”
**How are you a tech bro and not using darkmode as your theme from the get go
Anyway… +1 for the doggo, -1 for not being able to pet it
Hi Manon,
Thank you for playing and reviewing my game! I really appreciate the time you took to play the game and write this review. Your feedback is very helpful. Also, you usually help me in the sugarcube category so in a way, you helped with this game, too.
I may write another episode, that was the plan anyway. Early on, each of those locations was going to be playable and whatever character you chose would alter the outcome slightly. Obviously I ran out of time.
But I learned a lot and had a blast with this.
Thanks again!
The Whale’s Keeper is a proof-of-concept piece for the Plotopolis engine, a system where you can play IF through a chat engine like Telegraph or Slack. It takes on the story of Jonah and the whale, as a metaphor for life’s struggles and the need to escape those negative aspects. The game includes a sanity meter. I found one ending (a fairly good one?).
I struggled connecting with the story for this one, as the game went from quite vague about who you are supposed to be to a detailed bleak recollection of your life (which felt a bit of a whiplash honestly*), only to end with a milkwarm connection with the mammal, somehow. I think there must be a specific path where things fall into the right place and the passages flow better into one another.
*also not sure why the loss was treated with such nonchalance… it’s a bigger deal than just a passing mention. It’s a never-closing wound…
Part of my struggle I think stood with the engine itself and the interface of the game. Meant for communication/texting apps, the input works like a parser game (without the fun agency interactions), but the game is built like a choice-based games (with different passages to go through) - it made me wish the options to be clickable links like in a Twine or have more interaction with the environment like with a parser.
There was also quite a bit of friction with the display of the texts and images. The latter were so large, you’d see just half at most when on the screen. It would have been nice if the size could respond to the height of the screen, to be able to enjoy them fully.
As for the former, a lot revolved on how the text is displayed and the timing between the messages. Though there is a setting to increase/decrease the reading speed, it was finicky to set up, and I didn’t feel like it helped quite a bit. The new messages would also push up the previous one, sending you back to the bottom when a new one appeared, so reading large block of text* required scrolling up and restart reading the message.
*some of these blocks were quite long, I wonder whether they were maybe too long for a phone…
**the font helped with the whole old school book/typewriter vibe, but not the easiest to read…
On the positive side, I really liked the illustrations, especially the analogue ones in ink(?). Some of the descriptions of the whale’s interior were quite vivid, and I thought the interactions with Jonah were interesting.
All Hands is a short horror-y interactive piece set on a ship, one you can explore, and maybe find its secrets. Its prose is atmospheric horror, with a hint of lovecraftian. In each screen, the game offers up to three actions (Regard/Approach/Take) to interact with the text or the environment. There are multiple endings, but found just one.
Due to the vagueness of the prose on what is truly happening or even your own backstory, the entry leaves quite a bit to the player’s interpretation. Called to the sea, but always forbidden to sail, you find your way to the Devil’s Delight, a singular type of ship. Aboard, almost pulled in by a strange tune (music? voice?), you can explore the different rooms of the ship, or interact with the Captain’s. At the end, I found myself back on the shore, believing Albertina was some sort of a mermaid, and I was her prey; and the ship itself felt a bit ghost-like.
I quite enjoyed the interactivity of this texture game, with the different actions (almost parser-like kind), how you could explore the ship and interact with different element (the books made me giggle a bit). The few available actions give the illusion of restricted agency for the character, as if the PC was restricted in their movement or abilities on this strange ship. That and the imageries from the text really gives a creepy and almost suffocating vibe to the game.
But I wonder if Texture was the best engine to use for that, due to the lengthy hidden content shifting the text formatting (I liked the content a lot! Texture formatting it less so).
Xanthippe’s Last Night with Socrates by Victor Gijsbers
Entry
Foreword: my knowledge of Socrates does not go further than the basic philosophical teachings from high-school.
Xanthippe’s Last Night with Socrates is the imagined final night between Xanthippe, Socrates’s second wife, and the philosopher - the night before his execution. Though your goal is to sleep with the man, your conversation may take a different turn… or ten.
As we know little about Socrates (and what we do is only through posthumous accounts), and even less so about Xanthippe (who is often represented in a negative light), one has quite a bit of leeway when interpreting those figures into a piece of fiction*. What comes out of this entry is a very nuanced and multi-faceted characters with fears and hopes, convictions and grudges, and a deep sense of love for the other.
*did they really spend that last night together?
The writing of the game is delightful, with a modern tone that one might not expect with the setting. Take aside, the piece seems to be walking the tightrope of implausibility, especially during discussions of consent and marital commitment, or the role-play between the two lovers turning into a philosophy lesson with the roles reversed. For most of the game, the modern tone is not quite noticeable, but overly crude tone at times breaks the illusion.
What worked for me the most was the real and vulnerable moments between husband and wife: the want to spend those last moments together, the hurtful words and maybe petty way to get an apology, the truthful confession of one’s feelings and hidden acts… The way the game turned a known and revered historical figure as just a man - with strong principles, so strong he’d choose death, but just a man still - and an unknown variable as more than a passing disregarded line into a fleshed out person.
The start made me hungry, which turned into pain and wish for Xanthippe to take some sort of revenge, to a soothing and warming discussion about love and respect… I could have taken or left the more spicy elements*.
*actually I would have welcomed an extra option at the end where you maybe just… cuddle?
Thanks a lot for reviewing Dysfluent, I appreciate your detailed breakdown of the story and mechanics!
You bring up several interesting points (some of which I’ve definitely been thinking about and am looking forward to exploring in the postmortem), and I’m really happy to hear that some of the game’s elements were enjoyable or impactful.
I also loved reading your thoughts on the MC’s motivations and emotions, they’re very insightful! It’s cool to see how someone with a different perspective interprets these things (and in many cases you definitely “got” what I was going for).
I’d actually considered putting in a check to prevent the best/worst foods being the same but I figured it probably wasn’t necessary – it’s funny to hear it ended up happening to you!
I’ll keep your lovely feedback in mind when improving the post-comp version merci encore!
This is my boiler-plate thank you, which I need to explain because today I received two reviews (oh, how wonderful!) and this is too similar to my last comment…
Thank you so much for spending time and effort reviewing my game. I am choosing not to make any specific comments about reviews until after the comp, but I assure you that I am grateful for any and all comments, which are so useful in improving my game and future games.
I know I did last year. But it does make sense to know what was planned and looking back on what there is (which was quite a bit of running in circles).
I had no idea there was one (did you need to put all the map fragments together? I don’t think I found them all anyway).
merci encore!