A wave of family illness that crested last week pretty much ensured I would not be able to complete playing and reviewing all the games in time for the end of the Comp. So I apologize to those authors whose games I could not complete in time. I tried my best, but I just wasn’t able to get through them all.
That said, I did manage to play three additional games to round out the Comp for me:
The Myothian Falcon — Andy Joel
Calm — Joey Jones and Melvin Rangasamy
PataNoir — Simon Christiansen
As I continue to clear out my backlog of games played, here are three more short reviews:
Spoilers follow!
More play and shorter reviews seems to been working out so far, I’m getting through quite a few more games. We’ve got quite a variety up this time:
So let’s get to it! Spoilers follow…
Three more games up today: Fog Convict, by “Arman”, or Andrew Metzger; How Suzy Got Her Powers, by David Whyld, and The Ship of Whimsy, by U. N. Owen. Without further ado, let’s check them out:
Unfortunately, due to a number of other activities, I’m running out of time in the Comp and I’m way short on games played. I’m going to move to shorter reviews in the hope of focusing the time I have on playing rather than writing. After the Comp is over I hope to revisit some of the more interesting titles and expand on them.
So here are shorter reviews of 4 games: Six, by Wade Clarke; Andromeda Awakening, by Marco Innocenti; Tenth Plague, by Lynnea Dally; and The Hours, by Robert Patten. Spoilers abound.
Oct 28
Next up is Luster, a Glulx game by Jared Smith. Just based on the awkward English in the opening blurb, this game looks like it might be a touch rocky. But you never know. Let’s take a look!
Operation Extraction is another web-based IF, where you control multiple agents in an attempt to rescue Dr. Galland from the “Dawn Militia”.
Let’s take a look!
Oct 27
Next up is a game I’ve been following since well before the Comp: Kerkerkruip, by Victor Gijsbers. Kerkerkruip is somewhat of a demonstration game for Victor’s Inform ATTACK extension, which provides a mechanism for detailed, randomized combat in interactive fiction games.
Kerkerkruip is a textual roguelike game. “Textual” in that there is no map, symbolic or otherwise, and all interaction with the game is mediated through parser input. It’s “roguelike” in that it has a randomized geography, randomized placement of items and adversaries, and an emphasis on combat as the means of progression through the game.
So it runs in an interpreter and superficially looks like IF, but is it really IF? Let’s dive in and find out. Spoilers after the break.
Next up is another Glulx title, by newcomer Lyle Skains. It’s apparent from the initial text that this game is going to be pretty emotionally heavy. We’ve got a somewhat confusing opening, with tones of fear and escape. Mr. Skains (if that is your real name) is unknown in the community so far, so we’ve got no history to guide us here.
So let’s dive in! Spoilers after the break.
Oct 16
Sorry for the gap in reviews this week — I’ve been out of town in Seattle at the SQL PASS conference and tried to squeeze just a touch of writing in while the A/V guys set up before sessions, but that didn’t work too well. We had family for the weekend once I got back, so it really hasn’t been possible to get much playing or reviewing (or really anything) in. I’m finally into the Glulx games, and the first one up is from Carolyn VanEseltine, one of the co-authors of last year’s well-respected One Eye Open, a horror title that was expansive, well constructed, and wasn’t shy about dishing out the splatter.
This year she’s submitted a solo effort called Beet the Devil. Is this game in a similar vein? Let’s find out!
The Quern is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache