Short impressions on IFComp 2020 entries (n-n)

[n-n]

I’m trying to keep them spoiler-free.

Move On
Mother Tongue
You Couldn’t Have Done That
The Copyright of Silence

At Night
The Moon wed Saturn
Electric word, “life”
Alone
The Shadow In The Snow

Trusting My Mortal Enemy?! What a Disaster!
Amazing Quest

Big Trouble in Little Dino Park
Stoned Ape Hypothesis
Captivity

Equal-ibrium
Congee
The Arkhill Darkness

A calling of dogs
Desolation

Fight Forever

Limerick Quest
SOUND
Deelzebub

Captain Graybeard’s Plunder
Deus Ex Ceviche

Turbo Chest Hair Massacre

The Call of Innsmouth
Accelerate

The Knot Games
Sense of Harmony
Sheep Crossing

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Jay Schilling’s Edge of Chaos

Quintessence
Last House on the Block

Chorus
Babyface

Phantom
Under They Thunder

Equal-ibrium
Congee
The Arkhill Darkness

What the Bus?
The Cave
Flattened London

[n-n]

Move On

At first it was not obvious to me how this game works. I played it and liked the action-packed text and, after finding out about the mechanics in a review, I went back to it. Unfortunately on every subsequent replay I managed to do worse than in my first attempt. I’ve not been able to complete it. Maybe some kind of visual cueing would help (like a subtler version of the 2017 entry Salt). Edit: it turns out the visual cueing is there. Too subtle for me!

Mother Tongue

Really nice IM-like interface, and it hits the right balance between a language quiz and character-driven fiction. After the initial Spanish-derived greeting I thought I would have a chance, but I got my ass thoroughly kicked by Ma. It has good replay value, and the character voices are very convincing. At some points I felt that all the answers were a bit mean to Ma, I missed a friendlier alternative.

You Couldn’t Have Done That

The plot is very similar to my own entry, so I got involved with the story right away. I found the PC very well written, but I didn’t expect the antagonist to be identified from the start (I have the idea that these predatory types tend to conceal their intentions). I loved how passage backgrounds are color-coded depending on the threat level felt by the PC, it works brilliantly.

The Copyright of Silence

The engine is complex and the writing is consistently funny (I didn’t understand the hostility towards John Cage, though). I completed the game only once, but reading the guide I see that I missed many elements. The simulation depth allows for optimizing your play and gives a lot of replay value.

[n-n]

At Night

It starts with nice artwork and retro-computing theme. But I run into a confusing RPG-like combat and navigation mechanic that I could not complete.

The Moon wed Saturn

Having recently played the stunning The Good People, I expected a great presentation in this one. At first I was disoriented by the arty writing and the column-based layout, but it made more sense as I went along, and I ended enjoying this one quite a bit. I especially loved a specific passage that uses background animation to great effect.

Electric word, “life”

I can’t really tell too much about this one without spoiling it. Long passages can cause wall-of-text fatigue and the writing could be more dynamic (like, if you click on someone’s name on a scene description, they will say hello every time). It has good writing, good characters and most importantly, I got proper chills in the key moments, so I give it a thumbs up.

Alone

Follows established SF-horror setting conventions. The game world is well organized, the atmosphere is great and the goals are always clear for the player. I got really engrossed and was solving it on my own until the final area, where I resorted to the walkthrough. This game involves a lot of moving around and machinery manipulation, and the heavy typing required was a bit exhausting on a phone (desktop playing is advised). I got to the optimal ending, and really enjoyed this one. It manages to be old-school in a modern way (these days I might give up with games if I run into strict turn timing or encumbrance limits).

The Shadow In The Snow

Very similar prologue to Alone, with the PC’s car breaking down. The 1st person writing is interesting, and the game kills the player liberally, which is to be expected in the horror genre. I had explored several areas and found some intriguing stuff, but the game hung after I clicked on some link. I might come back to this one.

[omrpps (Óscar)]

Hello! I am the author of At night , first of all thank you for playing. The truth is that the topic that you comment on the navigation, what I intend in some parts is to create despair and frustration . Has it ever happened to you to try to get out of your room at night and be unable? … That is the sentiment.

I know it is a difficult game , it is something that I dragged from my experience as an arcade player of the 80s, without intending to, I bring that spirit of punishment to the player into the narrative !!

Thank you very much for your and I hope I can get some of mine to play your game.

A hug!

[n-n]

Trusting My Mortal Enemy?! What a Disaster!

A slice of life superhero story. It’s unusual that the player controls both the hero and the villain, which feels more like playing with action figures than a usual CYOA or CRPG. The characters are well written, and I liked the contrast between the superpowered characters and their daily lives. I think I reached the ending the game wanted me to, but I didn’t play again (the story is long and the passages have certain initial delay so it’s not straightforward to speed-click through it).

Amazing Quest

Minimalist story with randomized messages that have an early Ultima vibe (the C64 setup adds to it) . This precise type of atmospheric text generator is something I like to play with and write myself, so I’m liking this more than some people probably will.

[techniX]

Regarding “Move On”:

@n-n

Maybe some kind of visual cueing would help

The small bike on the top of the game window is the visual cue.

The outcome depends on if it’s moving or stopped

[n-n]

@techniX

The small bike on the top of the game window is the visual cue.

omg, I can’t believe I missed it. I’ll play again!

[n-n]

Big Trouble in Little Dino Park

Jurassic Park-inspired story. The writing is funny and the game usually warns you before you try something dangerous. Unfortunately I got the game to crash twice (first after being eaten by Daisy and Vicky, and second around the Dino Nursery, with a different course of action).

Stoned Ape Hypothesis

I expected some psychedelia from the McKenna references but the tone is sober, playing a bit like a point-and-click version of The Edifice. PC is a hominid evolving into civilization, acquiring technologies (tools, fire, clothing) and learning by imitating other people. Each step involves a different challenge, like fighting or playing board games (presented with text only). Difficulty level is gentle (I didn’t have to restart), nicely done.

Captivity

The setting is like an edgier King’s Quest type fantasy, with brilliant comedic writing. Rich game world with a lot of detail. NPCs offer amusing conversation about practically every topic I tried. Puzzles are hard but there’s a built-in hint system and progressively detailed walkthroughs (I admit having used level 3). The game can’t be put in an unsolvable state, but will reprimand you for trying, which is a great compromise between old-school cruelty and modern sensibility. Very polished, one of my favorites so far.

[n-n]

A calling of dogs

We play a caged victim in a torture porn. Well written in a stream-of-consciousness style, with digressions and flashbacks. There are some typos that actually add to the sense of urgency. This game does a great job building up tension. I crashed the game (clicking on All the Metal for a second time) and restarted trying some different options. There seems to be a lot of optional content, but I’m not sure how much the story is changed by my choices. I reached an intense ending which I assume is the optimal one (are there others?).

A few errors I noticed

1. The crash mentioned above (clicking on All The Metal for second time)
2. Serial killer Kemper’s name is Edmond, not Edward.
3. Broken image link: https://2306.play.ifcomp.org/content/Arah_hands[2007].png

Desolation

The apartment sequence will be inevitably compared to Shade. Despite not having played “Two braids girl” (so I don’t really know who I’m escaping from) and some shortcomings in the implementation (many suggested actions don’t work, you can take most of the scenery with you, objects shown in room description after being taken) I found this game strangely compelling, and happily neglected my work until I finished it.

[n-n]

Fight Forever

Martial arts management simulator-RPG. The amount of options is a bit overwhelming at the start. Presentation is minimalist and text-only, but has some glitches (character age is displayed with sub-second resolution, like 16.134615384615383, and sometimes training options are described and sometimes not). The tone is suitably over-the-top. In my playthrough I played a boxer, was disqualified for the Olympics, became a pro and was knocked out in every single fight after that!. Another thing is, I found no way to save and load states, so I thought it was autosaving. But I closed the tab and when I browsed into the game I had lost my progress. There seems to be a lot of content in this game, so autosave is pretty much a necessity.

[n-n]

Limerick Quest

World model feels parser-like regarding player movement and inventory management. The writing and programming are impressive, but the metalinguistic nature of the puzzles made the game difficult for my level of English. I had to look at the walkthrough to get past the catapult puzzle, there’s no way I could have solved that on my own.

SOUND

The less one knows before playing this game, the better it works I think. The story seems intentionally vague, although the character dialog includes some great points (I liked the bit about enjoying repetitive machine sounds). The overall experience reminded me of a certain type of digital installation seen in modern art museums.

Deelzebub

Great comical fantasy writing, with very distinctive characters and funny gags (the demon summoning scene is hilarious). It starts in a very laid back Pratchett-like tone and becomes more serious in the mid-game. Some roughness in the implementation which does not detract from the playability. I liked the open structure and the different endings.

[n-n]

Captain Graybeard’s Plunder

I liked how the pirate and literary themes are entwined in this story. I had the idea that real pirates predated the quoted novels, didn’t they? On the other hand, the representation of the pirate adventure and its archetypes might have been actually created by them. Great work with the text stylings.

Deus Ex Ceviche

Trippy, techno-mystic solitaire with a piscatorial twist. I loved the words and the graphics, but during my playthrough I was focused on winning and probably missed some narrative elements. I enjoyed this one a lot.

[omrpps (Óscar)]

Hello! I was reviewing the answer that I offered you about the At Night game and I forgot to tell you that a fundamental aspect that I wanted to make the battle system as confusing as you say is the sound. It is essential to play with headphones to recognize the place of the attack of the demons. That may have caused you confusion since without headphones it is very difficult to know the correct place that the attack comes from. They are the risks of trying to make a game not just a story. When you defeat the enemies the story continues, like life itself …

Cheers and thank you again!

[n-n]

Turbo Chest Hair Massacre

More expansive worldbuilding than expected from the blurb. I got strong Maniac Mansion vibes while playing this (warped setting, estranged look at everyday objects, collaborative PC-switching puzzle solutions). The writing is superb and there’s great chemistry between the main characters (the voice of enamoured gynoid Marigold is genius). Some parser roughness, but there is something here for everyone, I think: classic puzzling, great setting and a big heart under the naughty jokes.

[n-n]

The Call of Innsmouth

Lengthy piece of choice-based Lovecraftiana. It mostly follows a gauntlet structure, where a wrong choice will get you killed. The author has been kind enough to implement a system that, after reaching a sub-optimal ending (there are a lot of these), allows you to rewind the story to the point where you picked the wrong option to try again. My gripe with this game is that all the mythos tropes are really blatant right from the start. The earliest passages heavily foreshadow what’s wrong with Innsmouth, the Deep Ones and certain NPC, and you get Miskatonic University name dropped (you can go there to check out the Necronomicon, and of course you’ll do). The game has the pace of an action story, rather than the slow burning, ominous buildup of the source material.This a minor problem and any Lovecraft fan will enjoy this, though, I certainly did.

Accelerate

Incredibly detailed sci-fi story that references every item of counterculture under the sun. It does it in a very Robert Anton Wilson-esque way, like Mike Russo noted in his review. It’s all very cryptic and I don’t think you’re supposed to understand it all (every player will get their own set of references depending on their background, that’s probably the point). At times I got confused, but I kept going and enjoyed the William Gibson-ish textures and the deleuze-guattarian phrasings. The game has a complete musical track, with each tune segueing seamlessly into the next one. Given the size and complexity of the game, it generally worked well for me. I didn’t experience long loading times, but sometimes I needed to click twice on the advance button. I also hit a blank passage (at the beginning of Chapter 16, I think), but I closed the browser and the auto-resume function did the magic(k).

[n-n]

The Knot Games

Adventures in the Tomb of Ilfane
Terror in the Immortal’s Atelier
Incident! Aliens on the Teresten!

Three games with interlocked puzzles, so they have to be played in parallel. There is a lot of lore to read through (each game seems to have a slightly different version of it) and the info-dump is intimidating at first, but the key clues are appropriately underlined. It’s all very clever and well written. The puzzles are straightforward to solve, and autosaving is handy when you have to switch games and accidentally close a tab. I played this after Accelerate, and there are some common themes (the tone here is more light-hearted, though).

Sense of Harmony

The engine is quite brilliant, with the Terminator-like augmented perception cards. I like the glitch effect on the links, it looks amazing. I got really absorbed by the characters and the story (a pensive kind of cyberpunk). However, this is just the first episode and the story ends with a cliffhanger and little sense of resolution.

Sheep Crossing

Parser-based version of a classic logical puzzle. When I first saw it I worried that the mechanic could be cumbersome, but the parser is smart enough to make moving around, loading and unloading the boat very simple (you can drop an object from the boat without worrying about taking it or moving the PC to the bank first). Well done and fun.

[brwarner (Brook Jensen)]

@n-n

The engine is quite brilliant.

Thanks It’s something I really hope to expand on soon.

[n-n]

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Strong edutainment feel but, doesn’t the plot downplay Newton’s contributions to physics?. I had fun searching for authors in the library, and the narrative technique of describing contemporary stuff for someone from another century is something I usually like. Not very long, but polished and well done.

Jay Schilling’s Edge of Chaos

A farcical detective story with emphasis on comedy. Writing is strong, and the story reminded me of Ace Ventura. There is some smart social commentary and references to current tech and news. The structure is mostly guided, with self-contained scenes following one another in a pre-defined order. Solid implementation, especially the memorable NPCs. I found every TADS game in the comp really cool, each in its own way.

A weird detail I noticed:

Amanda’s Bedroom

This room also gets a ton of sunlight in the evening. Amanda’s bed is unmade, and I’d put the size at a Supertwin. She has a nightstand on each side, with a drawer. 

>look under bed

Which do you mean, bed on the ground or my bed?

[n-n]

Quintessence

Cosmic story with allegorical pets. The big scale reminded me of Out from last year’s comp. Reaching the end required a bit of backtracking (not too bad, though). The writing is great and I loved the backgrounds and the cursor changes, too. Very nice.

Last House on the Block

It starts really cool, with a promising setting. I got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of items to be found in the house, and very little clue of which ones were really useful. I used the walkthrough to complete it. The ending was a bit of a letdown, I expected the scavenging to be rewarded by some kind of reveal or deeper message. I got a bad conscience for grabbing all that stuff (which is realistic in some way, I suppose).

[n-n]

Chorus

Strategic simulation in which the player has to assign nine characters to tasks, taking into account their special abilities. There’s a lot of information to process to complete this game and, like The Copyright of Silence, it will reward multiple playthroughs. It’s not likely to win the first time, maybe adding a prologue or tutorial (using just a subset of the team, perhaps) would make the game friendlier.

Babyface

A very creepy story, perfectly delivered. The presentation is amazing (the photos with the scratched eyes gave me good chills, a classic horror movie trick superbly executed). I can’t complain of the lack of interactivity, this type of story works best when the author controls the tension and the tempo. The cover art gives off Miguel Angel Martin vibes (the story itself not so much).