runnerchild

This one, and one more, and I'm caught up! Then it's time to play more.

( Blind, by Arman. Some spoilers inside. )

Time flies! I actually played PataNoir a while ago, so I may have forgotten some details. (I always take notes, though, and I have my transcript, so I'm not just making things up here.)

( PataNoir, by Simon Christiansen, is a noir-themed game with a wordplay game mechanic. )
A side note about the games: This year, the comp is allowing authors to update their games throughout the competition. While I understand the rationale behind this decision (allowing authors to fix minor things that make a big difference, rather than stressing for six weeks about how all the reviewers complain about the same thing that could be repaired in five minutes), I'm not playing any updated versions. Partly this is kind of a gut reaction about deadlines: You knew when the game was "due," and you had plenty of time before then to beta test.

More than that, though, is that I feel like trying to keep up with updates puts a burden on the player/judge. I downloaded all the games in one go right after they were released, because I like playing them on my computer rather than online. (For one thing, it lets me save a transcript, which I will email to the author afterward and which I use in writing reviews.) Sometimes I'm playing when I'm not connected to the internet, like on the train, and I literally cannot go check to see if the game has been updated since I downloaded it. Even if I am connected to the internet, it's an extra step, and I'm kind of lazy.

The last point is that it doesn't seem quite fair, since I played some games on October 2 and some I still have yet to play. If "Cold Iron," which I played around October 3, gets updated on October 30, I've already used up my two hours' play time on it and I'm not going to go back to it. But "Calm," which I haven't played yet, has been updated twice. It's only luck of the draw that my random game order put "Cold Iron" and not  "Calm" first on my list, but "Cold Iron" could be effectively punished by that.

Another late night, so another attempt at a short review!

A non-spoiler note about Luster: I was unable to play it with Zoom (the interpreter for Mac that I normally use). It started all right, and I got through the intro. But then it asked me for my name, and when I entered it, it froze. I was able to get past this point using Spatterlight instead.

Now: Luster, by Jared Smith.

( Spoilers inside. )

As predicted, I've played another game before writing another review. What can I say.

Also, it's late and I haven't been getting enough sleep, so this is going to be pretty short.

( Fog Convict, by Andrew Metzger (a.k.a Arman). Spoilers follow. )

That was NOT short. Why am I bad at this? It's definitely past my bedtime now.

Evidence suggests that I enjoy playing the games more than I enjoy writing about them. I have four that I've played and not written reviews for!

The Hours, by Robert Patten, is a time-travel game with a plot like an action movie. It has some strengths, but also some bugs and some things that, while not bugs, didn't really resonate with me. Incidentally, the first thing I typed in my notes as I played was, "Is there any connection between this game and the novel/movie based on Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway?" It is not a spoiler to say that the answer is absolutely no.

( There are some spoilers in here, though. )

Okay, now I'm only three games behind! The next games on deck are Fog Convict by Arman, Luster by Jared Smith, and PataNoir by Simon Christiansen. Though I'll probably play more before I fully catch up on writing these...

A side note about these reviews: Every time I play a new game, I make a transcript of it. (This is easy to do: just type "transcript" at the first prompt.) I'll be sending these transcripts to the authors of the games eventually, but possibly not until the end of the comp. If you're an author and you'd like your transcript sooner, leave me a comment here!

I'd also welcome comments from anyone else, even if I've never met you. No one I know IRL is playing these games, but I'd love to "talk" about them!

( Now: Keepsake, by Savaric. )

I felt ambivalent about this game, all in all, but it was an interesting concept and a very short play. I do keep thinking about it , a few days later, which does say something good. I think more could be done with the idea, but it's worth a look.

Cold Iron, by Lyman Clive Charles (a pseudonym), is an atmospheric little fantasy game.
  ( Review, with spoilers. )

I must admit that I'm curious about the pseudonymic author's identity. It sounds, from the ABOUT text, that he/she intends to come out of pseudonymity after the comp. I'll have to remember to check.

Next up: Keepsake, by Savaric. I've already played this one, too, but I think I might go play yet another before writing more reviews.

I was rather amazed when, after playing through this game, I discovered that the author, Carolyn VanEseltine, was one of the creators of One Eye Open, which took third place in last year's comp. One Eye Open was extremely gory and dark. Beet the Devil, in contrast, is rather lighthearted, especially for a game with "Devil" in the title.

( Review behind the cut, with slight spoilers )

Next up: Cold Iron by Lyman Clive Charles. Wasn't Odie's original owner in Garfield named Lyman? I wonder how often people mention this to Lyman Clive Charles, if that's not a pseudonym.

Summary: Kerkerkruip is a combat-focused game with randomly generated elements. It is apparently similar to a "roguelike" in these regards, and also in having permanent death if you lose - you have to restart entirely. Unlike traditional roguelikes (or so I read; I was not previously familiar with them) it does not have graphics, ASCII-based or otherwise. In this game, you play a nameless knight/adventurer/something who is out to kill a wizard in a dungeon.

( My reactions (some minor spoilers, I guess?) )
One piece of advice I'll send to the author of the game is to advertise the Beginner's Guide more clearly in the opening menu. My first playthrough was completely baffling because I missed it. I know it was in there, bundled with the other game files - but I didn't bother opening each of those to explore them before getting into the game. I'm leaving this note outside of the cut because I don't consider it spoiler-y and because I think it would help others to know that such a thing existed.

So, I really don't write here anymore, but the annual Interactive Fiction Competition has just begun! So, as I've done before, I'm going to try to write up reviews of the games as I play them.

All these entries will be public, so anyone can stumble on them. However, most of the review will be hidden behind a cut so a) I don't clog up anyone's friends page with long entries that you might not be interested in, and b) more importantly, I will hide spoilers.

If you're not familiar with Interactive Fiction, also known as IF, you can see my old entry about it here. If you are interested, leave me a comment or send me an email and I will hook you up with more information!