Very slow to start reviewing. I’ve been incredibly ill over the last few weeks, asleep almost all the time, including during the day. So even though I’d drawn up a target list of Spring Thing games to try early on I just couldn’t get to any at all.
I will probably play through some of the shorter games, given the limited competition time left. A priority for me, as always in Spring Thing now, is the Senica Thing series of short games. So I’ll tackle one of those first.
John the Swan by Vitalii Blinov, in the Senica Thing set.
This is a very short branching game, where every section is told in rhyme, which is a nice approach. You usually have a couple of the words in the poem that you can choose from, by clicking on, e.g. whether to go left or right. Sometimes only one word can be clicked on, to move the story on.
I have to be honest that I wasn’t sure what was going on. The poetry is sparse, yet still somewhat charming. Do I play a literal swan? Or someone who thinks they are? There are clues in different branches, but it’s left unclear.
However I liked the concept, and the rhyming poetry presentation was neat. It would have been nice to have had a bit more depth though. And I always like to read an author’s explanation bit at the end, which this game was lacking.
The Perilous Plot by Carrie Berg
Onto this choice-based Twine piece, where you’re the villain in a gothic novel, and have to beat the pesky heroes. This is a fantastic concept for a game. And I think I read the Guardian article too, many years ago, that prompted much of the design elements! Assuming that it was this one …
The game is limited in total moves allowed, but you can score points against the heroes in a number of ways. Particularly re making them faint (that archetypal gothic “swoon”!) or by doing some dastardly plot tricks. There are detailed introductory notes with advice, but I’m afraid I largely skimmed these, and dived straight in.
And it was fun. I think this would be well worth a few play throughs, although I only played a couple of times, and it’s a short game. The setup of antagonists and target goals is different each time, and there’s enough of a challenge there, including push your luck, to make you want to play again.
I was really rubbish at scoring dastardly deeds re plot, and to be honest these seemed rather hard to spot. But I did have a lot of fun trying to make people faint. Usually not very subtly, by glaring at them, although over time I learned to wait more, and grab my moment. I did feel the pressure of the limited number of moves you are allowed, but I got a good ending.
I ran into what seems like a bit of a bug though. At this text:
You are well prepared.
Steal an item from the heroes.
Cause the heroes to faint.
If I selected the second option, nothing seemed to happen, with no text on screen, good outcome or bad outcome, and the faint count remained unchanged. I ran through this choice option several times in play, before learning to avoid it.
I also encountered one line with typos:
You watch the heroesas they stand on the brdige ...
- should be "heroes as" and "bridge".
But generally the game was solid, and so moreish. Bugs aside I had fun, though I think I need to think through my strategies a bit more. It felt a bit scattergun, but that was also the approach that I was taking, so I didn’t mind so much.
The Underground Dungeon by A.S.M., in the Senica Thing set.
Another short play for me, with a second game from this year’s set of students / newbies to IF.
This is a short branching Twine game, very minimal, where you play a chef, who will go to rather extreme lengths to explore a mysterious dungeon below a castle.
It’s a very quick play through, even if you go back to explore all the branches. But there’s imagination there, a nice fantasy world, and I wonder what the new author might do if they had more words and branches to play with. Encouraging anyway!
Exchange by Peter Johnston
This is a short choice-based Ink piece, the first in a planned three act scifi story. As such it’s incomplete, and just a taster of the full thing, but it’s an intriguing start, though still leaving the reader with more questions than answers. Later planned sections should clarify what’s going on more fully, but at the moment what we have isn’t detailed enough. For me anyway.
What I found most thought-provoking is that you are given an initial choice which determines whether you are a patient about to undergo a major procedure or the medic (??) operating on them. And playing the story from these two different perspectives, assuming that after the first play you try the other one, gives a very fresh take on things. Indeed I wonder if it might have been better if the game had forced you to see both perspectives rather than make it an option.
The writing is generally minimal but effective, and makes me want to know more about what ultimately happens and is going on. But at the moment the story is too incomplete, and ends abruptly. It could have been a good fit in IntroComp, though it’s eligible for in the Back Garden here too, albeit leaving me a bit much wanting more.
Latinorum by Roberto Ceccarelli
Next up this very retro Commodore 64 parser game by experienced author Roberto. I had a Commodore 64 back in the early/mid 1980s, so this is great fun for me. I played Latinorum using the VICE emulator on my Mac, though it’s easy to play online in a browser using the link on the competition website.
The game is a puzzle fest, where you’re trying to track down a school test paper, to copy it before an exam. The map was surprisingly sprawling for me, with many very similar rooms (especially the classrooms) which can confuse. But the game is forgiving, and you can wander around as needed.
The reduced parser was generally ok to cope with. Apart from one big exception, which constantly caught me out. GET X doesn’t work - you have to type TAKE X. As a very long-term GET X typer this was a toughie for me! To be fair the game does have a COMMANDS command, which tells you what it understands, like POWER X not TURN ON X. But the GET/TAKE was a constant bugbear for me.
At the start you are told what you need to do, but in practice you only need to complete part of the task, and the game will then take things from there. I think there could have been a few more steps for the player to do, and I felt as though things ended a little too quickly. But it was a fun game. Early on I was anticipating having to avoid teacher NPCs wandering the rooms, but that turned out not to be the case.
Recommended, whether you’re an old C64 fan like me or even born way after the 1980s. This is a piece of retro fun.
A Swarm of Spiders by DiBa, in the Senica Thing set.
Ok bravely tackling this choice-based piece. I am somewhat spider phobic …
You’re a kid at your grandparents’ house, and wake in the night to find a bunch of spiders. Do you investigate what’s going on, or try to go back to sleep?
Technically it’s branching narrative, but in pretty linear form, because if you don’t choose the right investigative options early on the story ends abruptly, with no consequences or fall out. I’d have liked to see the author explore these other branches more, or merge them into the main one if necessary. Because at the moment it doesn’t feel as though I have other options than one main route through, and so my interactive options are in practical terms rather limited.
However choices get more significant later, and there’s a particularly interesting ending to uncover, which I should have anticipated, but was pleasantly surprised by.
I am suitably unsettled after reading this story. So well done to the author! It also incorporates this year’s Senica Thing theme of a “swarm” really well. Disturbingly well.
Thank you for reading my short story and for your kind words.
Someone has already pointed out the “GET” issue to me, which has a straightforward solution; the “TURN ON” issue, however, is less straightforward: the parser was originally developed in Italian, where only the word “ACCENDI” is used.
The parser treats the first word as a verb and all subsequent words as nouns. (“GET RED BALL” would be accepted). Since I’ve been enjoying rewriting some Commodore 64 programs, I think I’ll develop an improved version of the parser that can handle these situations as well.
Swarm of Thieves by SKIT, in the Senica Thing set.
Another Senica Thing entry, and this one’s by a former participant in Spring Thing. So some experience here.
The opening intro has a mass of different colours and text layered over each other, and I found it rather hard to read. I remember running into legibility problems with the author’s previous Spring Thing game, and giving up on that as a result. I have extra difficulties reading due to neurological disease / brain damage. This time the large picture of the archer in the background appearing underneath the very colourful overlay and text together hampered readability, though the problems were not as extreme as I found last year.
TRUTH was clearing snow in front of her house when she heard
the police shouting his name.
There’s some muddling here - and later too - of her/his. I’m not sure if this is intentional, but it was confusing for me.
Then the game moves into a quasi medieval musing on democracy, politics and philosophy. There is a lot of text for the player to read. And not many choices to make.
For an interactive story I like to have a feeling of interaction and control. This feels like a one way lesson, with few key choices for the player. Though I was pleased to be able to choose to acquit the king in the trial (END 5).
The ideas in the game are interesting, but I recommend that the author thinks much more about player agency. What makes a player feel like they are participating and controlling the game? Think about it more from the player perspective, rather than focusing on delivering a message to the reader. Because at the moment it’s much more the latter than former.
If it’s intended to be educational, it might also be nice if the game at the end offers more information to the player about relevant reading, followup activities etc. Interactive text-based fiction is such a dynamic medium, and offers so many options for further contextualisation. Might be a good use case here.
Right??? This happened to me too!
Good news (for those that follow)! The author has since added the GET command!
Not in the online versions yet I think. I downloaded the d64 disk image the other day to use in an emulator, and GET still didn’t work, which I was a bit surprised by given your prior discussion. The online play version also still doesn’t support it. So it may be being fixed, but online it’s still not there.
I have just uploaded a modified version to my site, which also provides links to the online and emulator versions on IFDB.
I think it’s too late to update the Spring Thing website.
In addition to the GET command, I’ve added TURNON and TURNOFF (without the space, which the parser doesn’t handle)
I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.
Thanks Viv for reviewing on Senica Thing entries. Again 
The diplomas are not printed and there is deffinitely a place for a couple of quotes from your feedback
Sorry for some stalling. I had 15 hours total sleep yesterday. And then today a long day of medical scans in hospital. Expect to be wiped out tomorrow. But crossing fingers to manage more games on Thursday, Friday and any of Saturday I can fit in.
Apologies to any folks whose games I don’t get to, but well done all of you for entering!
WHAT A MESS by T.H.K., in the Senica Thing set.
Another in the “swarm” themed set of mini games, and this is branching narrative, quick to play. The choices are quite sparse, as is the writing, but the imagination is vivid and fun to play through. Recommend exploring all the branches. Like another reviewer I was also impressed to see some branches converge, which is not what I expected from first timers.
A Quiet Scurry by Moss & Quill Studios
This is a short branching story where you play a harvest mouse, trying to survive a night in the wild.
There’s a lot of writing at the start, but it’s effective, and gets you into the mindset of this tiny creature.
The smallest of stretches, a tiny yawn. Paws the size of sesame seeds comb through your soft fur as you furiously start to clean yourself.
Once the story starts you explore the world, and have to make your choices about what options to follow, and how to react to threats when they arrive.
I particularly enjoyed one encounter with another creature (the hedgehog).
I died a lot, but each time was keen to replay. I did eventually survive the night. Though I’m happy to leave it at that. I’m not confident I’d survive another one.
Well done to the author for an evocative and affecting piece.
It’s Here by Chaos, in the Senica Thing set.
This is a branching choice story by an older teenage author, exploring the player’s interaction with a mysterious swarm that appears in the sky.
The writing is confident but, at least for this reader, might have benefited from slightly simpler wording. At the moment it is a little overwhelming in places.
I was surprised that quite a few of what looked like different branches near the end ended at the same ending. But it is still worth following up different branches.
A very promising piece. I’d definitely like to see more from this author.
Note to the author there is a typo in a very late choice: “Finaly” should be “Finally”.
Strings: a (bug)folk song by Tabitha & baezil
I loved this short parser game, easily my favourite game so far of the festival.
You’re a bug bard, trying to drum up a band of four other musicians. And no surprise with starting exits to north, south, east and west, those are the directions you need to look in.
Generally the puzzles are very easy, but one of them is very hard, and felt rather like being in a horror movie. At least until I read the comments by another reviewer (thanks @lpsmith!) about the definite need to use the COMMANDS command. Do that folks! Definitely do that! Otherwise you’re doomed.
After that I was motoring, albeit using hints in places. I loved the imagination and worldbuilding, and the NPCs. And bonus points for including my favourite musical instrument that I have played for nearly 50 years. Well not my exact one, but another accordion. That element made me grin so very much.
The ending wrapped things up well, and I’m honestly still just smiling about the whole experience.
So yes, type COMMANDS. Definitely do that. But after that it’s great fun, very smoothly implemented, and well written.
Afraid I won’t get through any more games before tonight’s deadline. Today I’m incredibly heavily sedated, even more so than my normal, about to struggle through dinner (hope I stay awake long enough!), then fall back asleep after!
Well done again to all the competitors. Thanks to all players and fellow reviewers. And thanks to organiser Mathbrush.