Although much interactive fiction discussion occurs online, meeting other enthusiasts in person is a wonderful way to make friends, get feedback on personal projects, and trade opinions on existing works in real time. Besides Seattle’s group, there’s a few others in major cities — see this page’s sidebar. But if you live in New York, please join in on this thread and express interest!
This year’s IF Comp has finally completed its run, so now is a great time to discuss and dissect the games with actual, real-live people! Seattle I-F will next meet at 3:30 at our usual location on Saturday, the 10th of December. Since the meeting is still some three weeks and a Turkey Day holiday away you — yes, YOU — still have some time to play what Comp games you’ve missed. New and lapsed members are especially encouraged to attend, as the post-Comp meetings always have more verve to them and many — at least 38 — things to talk about.
Taco Fiction is a game about crime. Discuss!
This one has good imagery, imagination, and world-building, though the prose doesn’t flow all that well. (Did I just get stabbed in the kidney? No, no that was a metaphor.) The opening reminded me of Floatpoint and despite some initial problems with the game I enjoyed it until it turned into a puzzle-fest. I’d better judo chop right now before saying too much, though.
(Though EXAMINE, READ, and STUDY really should be perfectly synonymous with each other.)
EDIT TO ADD: oh, I do mention below that I consider this to be the best game in the comp so far. That’s not really spoilers, and I feel it needs be said.
(Hopefully not part one of an ongoing series.)
Vestiges, because it doesn’t belong in a competition.
Operation Extraction, because it seems more like a tech demo than story. While moving the “camera” around separately than the characters is interesting in the abstract, do I really care about the fates of agents A, B, and C?
Dead Hotel, because it’s Windows-only.
PataNoir, because despite the incredibly creative idea at its center, I’m 1) very bad at detective games because I don’t examine much, 2) very bad at anagrams, riddles, Scrabble, and wordplay IF which this also qualifies as, and 3) told the gun belonged in the drawer but the walkthrough told me to take it, so I feel jerked around. Besides, many other more qualified reviewers covered this game, including those bloggers who only wrote two reviews for the whole comp, so I figured PataNoir already has the appropriate coverage it deserves, and I don’t want to dent its review scores with my ineptitude.
Kerkerkruip, because it’s playing in the wrong sandbox. If it does something unique to Rogue-likes I’ll never know, but it has no IF elements as far as I can tell. While Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress feature player-led construction of places to serve as the overall arch of their gameplay so that combat is only one flavor of struggle, Kerkerkruip has (as far as I can tell) only naked combat and a high score list. Perhaps it’s also a tech demo?
(If anyone wants to call me a cold, heartless reviewer, feel free to comment. I don’t mod this group blog.)
::excited sports-announcer voice:: And with the third female redhead in the comp comes BLIND FOR THE HAT TRICK! The *crowd* is *going* *wild*!
But seriously, ya know, if I were to be violently kidnapped and were to, ya know, wake tethered to a dungeon wall, I wouldn’t be, ya know, so nonchalant about it. But since I am not a redhaired woman, I don’t possess those powers of blithely ignoring danger and/or the fact that Jesus attended my friend’s wedding and is over there standing by the fruit punch.
Reasons I didn’t play this one very far receive a well-deserved judo-chop.
This is a cleverly constructed little game that I nonetheless didn’t much enjoy playing. The game centers around its gimmick more than the characters or plot, which are intentionally generic, and I stuck to the walkthrough for the last half of the game, all twelve turns of it. More after the judo chop.
Bible-related works tend to have three problems. One, they’re poorly crafted because the author’s enthusiasm for the subject matter outruns his abilities. Two, they assume the reader knows as much as the author does about the subject, so there’s many allusions to stuff the reader isn’t familiar with. (And if it’s plot-relevant, it could be a major sticking point.) And three, they tend to take themselves too seriously for any enjoyment to be wrung from them.
Happily, this work avoided all three problems so I can recommend it as the well-implemented, hinted, traditional (but non-adventure) IF that it is. Details after the judo chop.
:: the sound of sporadic typing ::
“Wow, this Alan game sure doesn’t understand much. I can’t believe the gnome wasn’t implemented. …Or the abbreviation for ‘examine’. …Or EXAMINE at all. …Or LOOK. …OK what gives, game?”
“Ah, I should instead be playing ‘Mac Alan-for-Gargoyle Startup Instructions’. This looks fun! Wee!”
“…Oh, now it seems that where formerly I could call up the intro paragraph, now I can’t start the Alan game at all. Hm. Well OK, I just can’t start Gargoyle by clicking on game files. I had this problem just before re-installing it a few days ago, so no biggie. …Oh, it seems I can’t start a Glulx game either. …Oh, it seems I can’t start Gargoyle at all anymore. How interesting. …Oh, it seems that that long folder name the .zip file created had the magic sequence ‘x86′ in it. …Oh, it seems Zoom doesn’t do Alan. And it seems I’m about to download and install Gargoyle for the second time this week.”
“Screw you, Ted Paladin.”
Not much to say, so let’s get straight to the not-saying. Continue reading
It’s interesting that after I finally get the protagonist’s voice into my head, she begins traveling and the description of her surroundings, though likewise spoken by her, immediately drop into that same default register that I hear all games’ room descriptions in.
Also, since almost all rooms have two exits, would it have killed the author to omit describing the exit she just came from?
(EDIT TO ADD: Since posting I’ve added more to this review, beneath the judo chop.)
