Thank you for asking! I’ve just tried Spatterlight 1.1 and it’s similar there. It is purely a matter of personal taste and this game. When I started playing early this morning I tried the game in both Gargoyle and Spatterlight. And one just visually clicked more for me, the other clashing a bit. Though again as I look now there’s not much difference. Anyway glad I’ve upgraded my Spatterlight! I do like using it as well as Gargoyle and Lectrote.
Note that the main reason for the visual difference is that Spatterlight by default uses other fonts than Gargoyle. In theory, you should be able to make the output of Spatterlight look like Gargoyle (at default settings) by selecting the “Gargoyle” theme in the Spatterlight theme settings.
1 Like
Thanks for your recension !
I’m sure that after the voting season here’s will be an interesting discussion on the coding of the IFComp entries, and I’m sure will be an interesting debate.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
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Thank you for including the source code for your game in your release by the way! I had a peek at it and will be looking more thoroughly later.
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Thanks for the review! And yeah, this is something we worried about but couldn’t manage to fix. I think the fact that we put in a “skip this bit” is a pretty big indicator by itself that there’s too much text… lol
Glad you enjoyed, anyway!
3 Likes
There’s a doodle on a table in the lounge, next door to the kitchen where the safe is.
I’m glad you’re feeling well enough to engage with so many of the games this Comp. I like reading your impressions, they often make me rethink or reframe my own thoughts about a game.
Have fun with the rest of the Comp!
2 Likes
Into The Lion’s Mouth by Metalflower
This Twine piece sees you stranded in the wilderness of Africa, threatened by lions, and recounting time rescuing a young lion cub. I don’t know if there is a “good” ending to be got. I couldn’t get out of a loop in the game, which I’m not sure was intentional. I’d released the lion, and seemed to get the car started, and it looked like an ending. But then after clicking on “You manage to get the car started again, and drive on.” it restarted again. Maybe it was meant to loop like that? I was honestly puzzled. But I did enjoy looking after the young lion cub that I rescued. I spent ages picking a name for it (Pawamba!). Or imagined I rescued it, because the game seems almost hallucinatory.
4 Likes
Thank you especially for that very kind comment! It’s just so fortunate that I’m alert and able to enjoy the comp so much this time. For the last few years I’ve had a rolling series of 3 month long neurological illness flares, where among many other debilitating neurological symptoms means that I am incredibly heavily sedated and sleeping masses. I am still sleeping masses now. But the difference is when I’m awake I’m alert and thinking clearly. So very happy to enjoy IFComp 2023 as much as I can! My next 3 month flare is likely start in mid November. Which is rather good timing. Maybe I’ll be good again for SpringThing 
8 Likes
That’s me now played, judged and reviewed 20 IFComp 2023 games. Realistically I have another 2.5 weeks to play before an upcoming medical appointment when I’ll have to stop well ahead of the competition end. I should be able to play quite a lot more games in that time, maybe up to 30, or more. But there will be more longer games hopefully getting covered, so my rate of games played will slow. But looking forward to it!
At the moment my average score after 20 games is 6.05/10. I score toughly, and generally use the full range of scores available: certainly up to 10, sometimes as low as 1. After the competition I will put adjusted scores (X/10 scores converted to Y/5) into IFDB. But for now I’m keeping my scores secret.
8 Likes
Barcarolle in Yellow by Victor Ojuel
This is an atmospheric horror parser game, where you play a film actress, and end up caught in a bizarre series of events in 1970s Venice. If you’ve seen the film Don’t Look Now it absolutely has the feel of that. And the terror is real. Especially for me as a woman playing. Yet it was still an appealing world that I felt happy to be immersed in, as much as I didn’t want bad things to happen. Venice is one of my favourite places in the world. We go there in the depths of winter, when it’s so spooky. And quiet.
Where the game falls down is in the implementation. Timing is critical in many scenes, so it’s a special problem if you run into fight the parser problems. So many logical alternative commands are not supported. It makes it less smooth to play than it should be. There are also quite a lot more typos than I expected. I wonder if the game writing time was a bit tighter than the author might like. More playtesting could definitely have helped.
However it was a very atmospheric game. It captured much of the Venice I recognise. And I enjoyed playing. I just wish the implementation had been a bit smoother.
Notes for the author:
spoilers
Almería, southern Spain.
A set made to look like a Far West saloon, in the desertic regions of Andalusia. Most of the extras here are actually Spanish conscripts doing their military service in the most unorthodox of ways.
- desertic? is that a word? (apparently so!) I’d just say “desert”
Gondolas, motorboats and vaporetti make ply the Gran Canal, sailing under the bridge.
- “make ply”? Maybe better “make their way along” or “ply the”
You’re starting to relax – when someone shoves you, HARD, and before you can tell what’s happening, your’re FALLING!
- your’re should be you’re
Your lungs feel ready to implode.The roar of the engine dies down as the motorboat speeds away.
- missing space after “implode.”
Around this point the walkthrough also refers to a bullet, which is also referred to in the walkthrough later. Where the heck is the bullet in game? [I mainly played without the walkthrough, but used it and the THINK command occasionally]
>out
But you aren't in anything at the moment.
- I keep trying this to leave the hotel bedroom. Would be good to allow it as alias for DOWN when out of the bath.
Towards the back there’s the edition room where they process the dailies, featuring a large projector and a rack of tin cans containing the film.
- should that be “editing room”?
Then your jaw slackens on its own, then tightens live a vice around the leather ball in your mouth, holding the mask in place.
- live should be like
At the cemetery island allow the player type “TALK TO TORMENTOR” not just “TALK TO KILLER” or even (and I’m glad this works) just “TALK”.
Loading up the film reel to watch on the project is a bit of a fight the parser situation. Might be nice to have extra verb/noun catch options, including better responses to “GET TIN”, “LOAD REEL”, “PLAY FILM” among others. Also when you play the film why does it say twice “The projector comes to life, sputtering and clicking.”?
Also it’s rather fight the verb with the photograph in the art gallery e.g.
"Possibly. Which mask?" she says with an enigmatic smile... almost as if she was playing along. Is she an actress too?
>show photograph
(to Claudia)
Claudia is unimpressed.
>give photograph to claudia
She accepts the picture and examines the mask under a magnifying glass.
- that first go should work too
The scene by the Rialto was also a bit slow to move on at times. I’d taken so many photos of the bridge and dashed into the shop following the script, before trying THINK to see how to move it on. Even more Rialto photos!
“But it had to be done, you know that. Twelve girls missing in Venice, between 1969 and 1975, all of them last seen wearing red silf scarves… We needed proof, you know. The perverts that meet at San Giorgio, that… cult, if you want to call it that… they have friends upstairs.”
- silf should be silk
Lido
A stretch of fine beaches facing the Adriatic Sea. Now an eery desert under the moon.
- should be “eerie”
P.S. And just belatedly spotted another typo at the very start:
Dirty grey walls. Harsh white light. The smell of sweat, stale tobacco and cold cofee. On the table, the tape recorder is rolling.
- should be coffee
8 Likes
It almost hurts to hear the practicality of that thought.
Nevertheless, I’m hoping for good timing with you.
3 Likes
Escape your psychosis by Georg Buchrucker
This is a choose your own adventure piece exploring the experience of having a psychotic episode (or more than one …) and how you might deal with it. It’s presented as a PDF with active clickable links. Or it can be printed out and read that way.
It definitely made me think about things in a new way. Each time you experience a psychotic episode in the game it feels like an escalating situation, despite much that you try, where the panic is visceral, and it’s not clear what to do. Ultimately time and experience gives the player perspective, and I was eventually able to break out of the loop and get a better ending. Though I’m very unsure how representative that is of real life generally. I’d also have felt more comfortable if the game’s information was coming from a mental health professional (apologies to the author if I am mis-representing you here).
It’s a quick read anyway, and worth your time, either in the PDF version or printed. And it’s likely to make you want to read more about how you might help someone in this situation. Thanks to the author, and to artist Gina Fringante, whose drawings in the PDF were delightful, and really captured the mood.
4 Likes
One King to Loot them All by Onno Brouwer
This parser game sees you as a barbarian king, try to avenge the loss of a friend, and defeat an evil enemy.
This was really something special. The implementation isn’t flawless, but the way that it uses a special gameplay command to change the narrative - without going into spoilers any more about this! - is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a piece of IF before. Initially I was a bit puzzled about what to do at a certain point, then went “aha!” and carried on. And it was enormous fun. I played right through to the end, in about an hour.
Because you are a barbarian you have special commands like SMITE and LOOT. That reduced verb set worked well. But I was most wowed with the world building, the playing with the narrative (which I want to talk so much about, but am trying to stay spoiler free), the use of locations, and the writing of various NPCs.
There’s no detailed walkthrough on the competition website listing but if you get stuck HINT will be a big help. Though at a key point you still have to figure out what to do for yourself.
Yup, that was good! Oh and there’s a story mode you can turn on to step through the game at any point if you get very stuck. I didn’t turn it on though, and enjoyed solving for myself.
8 Likes
Hi Viv,
Thank you very much for playing and reviewing my game! Great to see you solved it! Maybe I should reduce expected play time, I get the feeling some fixes I made helped smoothen gameplay (but of course any and all suggestions for an even better play experience are, as always, very much appreciated. I am curious: did you play the online version?)
Kind Regards,
Onno Brouwer
3 Likes
I played the latest version, but downloading it and running it in Lectrote on my Mac.
Honk! by Alex Harby
This parser game sees you as a clown - armed with clown car, bendy balloons and custard pies - trying to beat a mysterious Phantom who is messing up the circus shows.
This was a lot of fun. Full disclosure: I used the walkthrough a bit to speed through some of the puzzles. There are also comprehensive in game hints. And it’s really smoothly coded.
The core part of the game centres around 3 main puzzles, which can be tackled in any order. After that there’s more to play.
The NPCs are neatly written and characterful. Interaction generally works well with them. And there is clever use of a limited number of objects scattered around the circus. One of the big puzzles especially is just sheer genius (the goose one).
I noted a few things for the author that jumped out at me as not so smooth as I played. But yes, it was nicely done. I do have a soft spot for a comedy themed game. Thanks!
Notes for the author
>stand on ladder
That's not something you can stand on.
>use ladder
I didn't understand that sentence.
>drop ladder
You open up the stepladder and place it on the ground.
>stand on ladder
That's not something you can stand on.
>climb ladder
You climb the wobbly stepladder and scramble for the relative stability of the top of the booth.
- the other ones should work or respond nicely
>score
There is no score in this story.
- I thought that was a shame, and it might have been nice to have some scoring to encourage you through
>talk
(the bendy balloons)
The bendy balloons snubs you.
- I had quite a few cases where the parser defaulted to inteacting with the bendy balloons!
10 Likes
Fix Your Mother’s Printer by Geoffrey Golden
This choice-based piece coded in Ink sees you try to fix your mum’s printer problems, remotely, via video chat. There are lovely graphics throughout accompanying the story, and also showing your mum’s facial reactions as you work through the process.
This was really heart warming. My octogenarian mum has never used a computer and never will. Or a smartphone. So it’s not a situation I’d find myself in. But I instantly felt at home as the player character. You could choose to play it various ways e.g. be abrasive / offhand, or try to be more helpful. I went for the latter option. And I really wanted to solve the problem. Which I managed in the end. Phew!
It was nicely done. I played it through in about 15 minutes, very quickly. The writing was strong, and worked well with the graphics. And the balance between parent-child interaction and problem solving was very nicely done. Thanks to the author!
5 Likes
The goose puzzle is indeed quite magnificent.
Yes, I noticed this too and told the author in a PM. It would not have been such a big deal in any other game, but here it took al the impact out of what should have been the game’s final, carefully built-up triumphant command: In the end-game confrontation, when the flock of geese is approaching:
>HONK !
But now the game thought I was talking about honking the balloons.
Just a reminder, @rabbit 
EDIT: Oops, I see you’ve just replied to Viv. Nevermind.
3 Likes
Thanks very much for the kind review Viv, glad you enjoyed it!
Mostly keeping quiet about specific comments in public until after the comp, but yes, Rovarsson has already had words with me about the bendy balloons glitch, which is a very embarrassing mistake which I’ll push a fix for tonight when I get back from prior commitments.
Other comments are noted for post-comp work. Thanks for reporting!
4 Likes
To Sea in a Sieve by J.J. Guest
Next up this parser game, which turns out to be a tight time-based puzzler about how to survive a sinking ship, and successfully throw a lot of pirate loot overboard despite the wishes of your pirate Captain and so much else.
I liked a lot about this. The writing is really funny. I also had a lot of “Aha!” moments (e.g. when I realised I could type BAIL - yup a bit slow here!). For a one room game it’s remarkably full of detail and content, and so much that is amusing. I had honestly thought I might find the pirate stuff a bit much and overwhelming (!?!), but it was so amusingly written, and the balance of it all is perfect. The anguish of the Captain each time I managed to successfully throw something overboard was just a joy to read.
There were a few things that made the game extra tricky though, trying to find the right command to make the parser understand. For those I ended up having to use the HINT command to figure out exactly what to say. There was some frustration there, including sadly at the very end of the game.
But overall it was a really strong game. I didn’t realise there was another one in the same series (a sequel to this!) written long ago. I need to check that out now too …
Also kudos to the author for including one of my favourite musical instruments in this game. One day I will own my own. Oh yes!
Notes for author
In the walkthrough there are multiple uses of “Carribean” which should be “Caribbean”
I got really stuck with the sun. Until I tried HINT I didn’t know I needed to FOCUS using the glass. I was trying REFLECT with the mirror. Also constantly battling ON/TO/AT the object.
The beaver and the plant bit is so gross! Well done
>get other oar
'Tis beyond my reach. All I can do is look. 03.
- I assume that’s a typo on the end. I had huge difficulty getting the second oar. I think this part needs smoothing. It rather spoiled the ending of an otherwise largely superb game. Luckily the HINT command spells it out completely. But I needed that help, desperately.
11 Likes