I’ve been a fan of IF for a few years now, and have experienced some really fantastic games. But, I feel like there are a lot of classics I have never played, so this is mostly functioning as an literacy project, with a dash of review, analysis, and some interest on how the medium has advanced, both in technique and storytelling. As you can see, this is going to be fairly casual and fun. There may be fan art/works, depending on when the inspiration bug strikes. Link to my blog for more details: https://thescribbler9.wordpress.com/reviewing-ifcomp-and-xyzzy-winners/
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Oh wow! You’re about to dive into such a vast sea of awesomeness.
Will you announce new reviews here as you add them to your blog? I’m looking forward to following your journey.
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Yes!
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Wow, this looks fantastic! Are you going to start from the oldest to newest, newest to oldest, or hopping around based on your mood?
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Glad you are interested, I’ve really enjoyed your reviews. I’ll be going oldest to newest, so I can get a better feel for how things have changed over the years.
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Very cool, I think you’ll have a lot of fun! And it’ll be interesting to see what still holds up years later and what doesn’t.
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First post is out: https://thescribbler9.wordpress.com/2024/07/19/1995-the-first-ifcomp-a-change-in-the-weather-uncle-zebulons-will/
Largely enjoyed these games, even if I had some trouble with the A Change in the Weather. Neither were games I would have chosen myself, but I’m still glad I played.
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I’m always amazed at the different sense of relative difficulty different people have with the same games. I have been stuck for ages in games that some others have breezed through, and vice versa. This makes all the more notable when a game achieves wide consensus about its goodness, because some players find difficulty very off-putting and others revel in it.
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A Change in the Weather is definitely the hardest IFComp game in my opinion and one of the hardest short games I’ve ever played. Fun reading this!
(also, at least on my browser, it looks like the last half of the article got duplicated)
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Thanks for reading, I’ll edit that!
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I enjoyed reading this, looking forward to seeing your project progress!
For what it’s worth, I’ve never actually played Zork either; it is nice to have a sense of it to get the references and vibe, I agree, but I’ve found that there are some good writeups like Jimmy Maher’s (link goes to the first of a series) that were probably more fun for me to read than it would have been to bang my head against the game.
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Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the suggestion, that looks like a fun read.
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I had meant to write this post sooner, but my family was in the process of moving, so it’s been an interesting two weeks. These games were both fairly lengthy endeavors. So Far, despite being incredibly frustrating, was very innovative and is almost certainly is on my list of favorites.
Link to blog post: https://thescribbler9.wordpress.com/2024/08/04/1996-two-methods-the-meteor-the-stone-and-a-long-glass-of-sherbet-so-far/
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Very nice and fun to read! I liked the Dr Who analogy.
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Hey, sorry everyone. I will be continuing this project at some point, but I’ve had a very busy few months of it (college, personal life stuff). I’ve played both winners for 1997, and have my review for the Ediface written, but have no idea how to approach I-0 (for various, somewhat obvious reasons). What a terribly aged game that I would not have played other than for this project.
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I know what you mean! Out of the ones coming up, Varicella has some problematic parts as well (including a character who has been raped by several people and a priest that has been repeatedly raping a child), and Vespers has a lot of body horror. I think there’s no problem in skipping one that you don’t want to write something for!
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Hello everyone, I am back from hiatus. Lots of life stuff has been going on. Anyway, here is my most recent set of reviews: (minor content warning for a brief discussion of I-0, though I go into the vaguest of details)
1997: Evolution (The Edifice, I-0)
I’m really looking forward to 1998. I’ve had both Photopia and Spider and Web on my list for some time.
Note: In the past year, I have played some very good games, that, while not IF, are very well written. I’ve really enjoyed both Disco Elysium and Kentucky Route Zero. The latter even references Colossal Cave Adventure.
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Good timing! The author of The Edifice just barely came back to IF by competing in an Iron Chef/CH"IF" competition where he had to code a game in a week. Iron ChIF: Season One Episode 1 (lpsmith vs. Afterward, using Inform 7)
So your review is helpful for providing context for the game!
I hope your enjoy the 98 games. While not nearly as popular, I like the 99 comp winner for its really beautiful snow text effects.
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Hey, it’s my game! Thank you for the review; it’s always fun to see new people discover it. I’m particularly glad that you had a better experience once you started thinking ‘what would I actually do here’. That’s definitely how I approached writing the game (and arguably how I still do).
I’m mildly curious (if you’re up for indulging me) what influences you were thinking of when you said it was ‘mildly unoriginal’? Don’t get me wrong; you are 100% correct that the game had a couple very strong influences (‘Why Man Creates’, and ‘Civilization II’). But I’m curious what it reminded you of, and if any of them were IF games.
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Thanks for replying! “Mildly unoriginal” was a flippant comment, I mostly meant in terms of the introduction being reminiscent of 2001. Otherwise, I found the game original. Civilization didn’t necessarily come to mind when playing, but as someone who has played a lot of the Civ games, I can definitely see the connection.
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