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.
CODENAME OBSCURA is a relatively simple parser with a retro-vibe, reminiscing of 80s spy movies (à-la James Bond), where you must rescue your partner in a small village in Italy, finish his mission… and save the world! The game includes in-game hints and an external walkthrough. I used the walkthrough a handful of times to solve some puzzles.
From the premise, the game screams trope spy movie, almost to a silly degree*. You must catch the big baddy that took down your partner, or at least foil his plan to maybe save the world(?). Getting to him is not an easy feat! You must clear(-ish) your name of a murder you didn’t commit, run around town buying/trading/gamble things for something else, pick up anything you can on your way, not get scared of the crows**, maybe pet a cat (or not), spy-ily find a way into the baddy’s villa to find some secrets, and “break” some things to stop him. Oh, and there’s the fighting sequence!
*a boomerang?!?!?
**are they following you???
The visuals of the game feel very retro, with 8-bit pixelated illustrations* and little colour**. The illustrations have different sizes or placement, adding a bit of depth into the mapping of the game. It was pretty neat and added to the funky vibe.
*there was the hangar one that didn’t change even after the plane was gone :: /
**a bit of contrast with the different text elements would have been neat.
Most of the game is relatively smooth, though I did find some friction with certain commands: insert instead of use, or having to use adjectives instead of the noun*, or not having synonyms for certain verbs (pet/pat/stroke; climb/climb over; turn/move…). There were moments where the game reloaded the page, removing important information a bit too quickly (for passwords), while it wouldn’t automatically for actions like opening/unlocking a door or digging. It would also have been nice to have the translation of Italian phrases in-game/passage (please keep them, they added a lot of charm), to avoid missing information (Adventuron doesn’t allow copy-paste…).
This is not the game’s fault but just me being an idiot, but I keep examining items before picking it up… and there were a lot in this game xD
The puzzles were a-plenty and quite diverse, but I still struggled a tiny bit with some, especially the box in the bedroom, the safe password, and the computer one. The rest involved quite a bit of running around*… I think I liked best the changing your costume ones the most (reminded me a bit of Agent 47).
*this was a bit annoying, but by the time you enter the villa, no more frustration
I’m glad you think the retro vibe was somewhat ok. That vibe was exactly what I was aiming for with this game, to echo the style of the early games of the 80s.
For the next bug fix version, I’ll take a look at those commands to make it a bit smoother. Thank you for the feedback!
The Italian language is there for the atmosphere, there is no real requirement to understand any of those phrases for completing the game. But I understand your point, the translations could have been somehow included in the dialogs and texts whenever needed, to make it more accessible for the player… Anyway, there actually already is a complete translation of all those Italian phrases, but it is in the walkthrough, in case someone is interested in those details
Oh my, this is a naaaasty bug that I have somehow managed to miss, but will fix it for the next version, thank you for pointing this out too!
Thanks again for playing and reviewing Codename Obscura. I hope it eventually turned out to be at least some fun, and not too painful
Entry
Because of the super NSFW nature of the entry, it will be hidden behind spoilers.
Citizen Makane is an adult deckbuilding RPG, based on mythos of The Incredible Erotic Adventures of Stiffy Makane, in a game-within-a-game type. The goal of the game is to help around the town, by completing different tasks and helping the scientific research, to escape the the “game”. There are 3 endings, the usual RPG good/meh/bad (I did not reach the end yet). The game includes a walkthrough, which I used once or twice.
The game starts strong with its prologue/tutorial, made to spoof and critique the infamous original Makane game, before turning into some sort of sci-fi Venus utopia, where you are essentially the last man on Earth, following the Gender Wars. As the focus of research, to see whether the re-introduction of man would be positive enough, you need to increase the good-will of the town by completing tasks. Certain puzzles requiring a certain level, you have to bump ugly with women on the street to gain exp, formatted as a card combat system.
The writing is incredibly witty, and over-the-top horny, so much so it becomes absurdly funny. Every detail of the game is thought out. From the BDE-wink to the absurd book titles, the writing doesn’t shy away to make jokes when it can. But it doesn’t just play on the joke, but thrusts into it as far as it can.
Though the game is essentially horny central*, the worldbuilding behind it is surprisingly thought out. Just attending a lecture about the History of the past 300, which as a player you missed, and learning about the Gender Wars and its consequences (essentially: pretty good for women, not so for men); or listening-in on a conversation at a café about the fears of the “Stiffy’s study”; or learning about the went-back-to-trading economy, but also maybe not really? It is honestly more layered than it first appears to be.
*gonna fuck them all!
It is also quite interesting to see how NPCs look at the player. The player is shamed when he cannot live to expectations, or pitied - never quite enough in this women-only society, which has achieved incredible technological advancement. There is a hint of tragedy, where the lone man is essentially used by the women around, either for research purpose, prestige, or novelty. Few try to connect with him on a personal level (aside from that AI/robot, which hints at an emotional climax, but I didn’t get to that yet). At the same time, it is quite a funny commentary on other pornographic game (like the one based on this), where the women are essentially just used for the pleasure of men and discarded often without a second thought.
The game is quite deep.
Some little stuff I picked up
error on the walkthrough → After talking to the mayor the first time, you need to go west, not east
when meeting the dead the first time, “talk to dean” doesn’t work
"The professor continues. "In th ← quote at the start
one-one-one sessions
How was this your first published game…
(I’ll def be coming back and finishing it later… )
I thought about this, realised it was a really good idea, and added it in the new version of the game that I just released. (Apart from fixing a few typos, this is actually the only change in that new version.)
Thanks for the review. Its really awesome to get so many detailed reviews. I would have never imagined.
As I am interested in the details of your critics, I would love to know whether you became fixated in the psychiatric ward, as that is clearly a dark moment. Can you name anything from the dark side, that you feel is missing?
It’s been a few weeks, but I think I did?
Even if it’s supposed to be a dark moment, the formatting of the page and the tone of the overall text kind of dampens the darkness (if that make sense?).
Maybe thinks like losing your job because you spiralled for days and didn’t leave your house, or how your relationship with your family/partner? changes (iirc there was a card about friends but not really about family), or that you maybe didn’t take care of yourself (eat/shower/etc…), or maybe they hurt (physically) someone without realising, or staying in bed for days because you’ve lost any kind of motivation, or the doctor not believing you’re sick, or the medication makes you feel worse/nothing…
(that’s all I could think on the top of my head)
I’m sure you’re not shocked to hear I adored your very charming review. Could I possibly put you in the game credits? And, what name would you like me to use?
merci encore!
