I don’t want to dismiss any of my last votes this time around, but I only had eleven, so here’s nine more.
First, the old eleven:
Photopia
Galatea
Spider and Web
Best of Three
Shrapnel
The Firebird
Blue Chairs
The Act of Misdirection
Rover’s Day Out
The Baron
A New Life
And now some more. There will be a bit of strategic voting.
Counterfeit Monkey. Its scale and the well-thought out way that the puzzles are implemented and integrated into the world is amazing. I have some issues with a puzzle or two (generally where it switches to adventure-game logic rather than the wordplay mechanism), but overall a great achievement.
Ultra Business Tycoon III. I kind of want to vote for Myriad here but that would be an empty gesture so I’ll just put a note here saying Myriad is great, incredibly expansive for its size. Anyway, UBTIII. Impossible to ignore the things Porpentine has done with Twine, which have revolutionized IF over the last few years. This gets a huge emotional impact by moving back and forth between the retro game world and the real world. (I might have voted for Angelical Understanding or Skulljhabit but my browser eventually locked up on them.)
Calm. It took a lot of post-comp revisions to get to a really playable state but it does an amazing job of suggesting a world of possibilities and multiple paths through. Hmm, I’m realizing that I really value the sense of a big developed world in a game.
Taco Fiction. Modulo that bit that demonstrates why you need the describe what’s on scenery supporters rule, just a really superbly written story with great implementation. In a way a bit of a placeholder for “You need to play Ryan Veeder’s stuff.” (I still haven’t got around to Robin & Orchid which might merit this slot. Yeah, breaking my own rules. If you’re asking “Why isn’t X here?” it’s probably because I didn’t play it.)
Analogue: A Hate Story. Christine Love is amazing. This is a bit strategic since I want to vote for don’t take it personally, babe… but Analogue is getting the votes… actually I have enough room for don’t take it personally babe too, don’t I?
don’t take it personally babe, it just ain’t your story. You’re not going to find much better writing anywhere in the IF world.
Walker & Silhouette. So charming!
You Will Select A Decision. Another for the funny & well-written pile. (If we have to choose one of the two I pick Girl Lost in Woods.)
…and last time I said I wanted to put on Pick Up The Phone Booth and Aisle so this time I will.