Reviews by tggdan3
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Wonderful Short Escape Game, November 24, 2010The title says it: You are in a dark cell, having been captured by guards, and must escape it.
As far as difficulty, it's not too hard. My first try I got out in about 100 moves. There were some minor nitpicks with the parser, and one of the puzzles, but not much.
(Spoiler - click to show) You pick the lock, but can't open the door, something else is holding the door shut. Part of the puzzle is learning what that is. There is another cell with a prisoner opposite you. It seems like you could just look at HIS door to see what the problem is, but the game doesn't recognise his door. Further, you can't seem to ask the other prisoner about the bolt, you need to see it yourself. You also must use "GIVE [x] to [person]" instead of "THROW [x] to [person]"
The writing is appropriate, I noticed no glaring errors.
Now the puzzle itself is beautiful. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the puzzles, I can't say too much about them without giving something away, but suffice to say it isn't quite as easy as using your lockpicks to get out. (Though lighting up the room is very easy and straightforward). The game does provide a false hint. (Spoiler - click to show) It suggests making a projectile to share items with the other prisoner, though no projectile is needed, you merely tie items up for safety and throw them, which had me wasting time trying to make a slingshot or something . I'll be fair and say I'm generally not a fan of IF escape games: I've played plenty of flash based ones that were garbage, and plenty of text ones seem to involve trite tropes or nonsensical scenarios, but this one makes even the done-to-death escape a jail cell fun.
Once you escape the cell the game ends, though the endstory makes reference to the need to get past the guards and steal horses. It would have been nice to see this part of the story (either as part of this game or as a sequel).
In conclusion, the scenario is trite, but that was the contest: a one room escape game. And the author did this one beautifully.
Not AS Minimal, November 24, 2010The minimalist game 1 was a simple yes/no question asking you if you want to win.
This has 2 rooms, each room with one implemented (barely) item, and 6 turns before you die.
I get it: it's minimalist, but even still, there are a few things that need fixing in it.
>ENTER CAR
You mount that car.
Not sure if this was on purpose, but you should probably get in a car rather than mounting it in order to drive.
>NORTH
You can't.
You are supposed to drive (ride) the car north, maybe a different default message.
Then the two items are That Car and That Door. (Probably should have not been capitalized).
The intro tells you that you can go to that door and win or wait until 9:05 and die. In this case, it might be nice if the status line gave us the time of day instead of the turn count. (It turns out you die after turn 6 FYI).
There's still that issue as to whether practice games should even be released or put on this site. I don't want to discourage you from writing more... but delay your desire to release things until you have a working game you can be proud of.
I rate this low, not to discourage, but because you just can't put this up to other games, even very short "minimalist" games, such as Aisle, Pick Up the phone booth and die, and similar games. If the author insists on short games like this, I suggest he play those those games for inspiration.
Not Quite Useless, November 22, 2010I first read some of the other reviews on this site. Apparantly the game is supposed to be unwinnable. It's not- I won it on the second playthrough.
Your cat is ticking. It must have swallowed a bomb. I thought this was funny- such a simple premise: survive the explosion of your cat. The parser keeps the tension up by reminding you of that damn ticking throughout the game.
There were some implementation issues: listen to ticking doesn't exist, bed is not a synonym for mattress, and so forth, but nothing horrible. (Some more testing would have handled this).
Of course, there's a twist to the puzzle, which is why it may seem unwinnable at first. When you figure it out, you smack yourself. There are some nice touches- such as when you try to get rid of the cat out the door or window, great reasons for why this is not possible. And the sparse apartment is well described.
To those reviewers, I suggest they try a re-play of this game. I gave 3 stars, some cleanup of the implementation would earn 4.
Ug..., November 22, 2010You are in the 0th dimension. Sounds promising.
The description of the 0th dimension is: Welcome to a Zeroeth Dimension
Then there's a list of what you see. Many of these containers are empty (an empty fridge and drawer, a cupboard full of mugs).
As far as the writing, it is intended to be in the 1st person, but it continually switches to the 2nd person (when default messages come up).
>BREAK MUGS
Why would I attack a group of mugs? I see no reason.
>TURN ON LAMP
That's not something you can switch.
>GET OFF COUCH
I get off the couch.
You get off the couch.
These little things kind of grate on me. The game is intended for first timers, it seems, as it constantly prompts you.
>GET REMOTE
if you want me to get off the couch, say EXIT
Watching the TV instructs you to keep watching the TV if you want the advertisement playing on it to continue.
As is, this seems to fall into the "my apartment" trope, despite the fact that it takes place in some 0th dimension. There's no indication of what you should realy be doing, or why.
The hint tells me to watch TV, but the same message plays each time (at one point it just stops continuing the progression of events and starts over- a glitch?). Some of the hints have writing errors.
>Z
Since there's else to do, then I believe the only thing to do is watch TV.
Since there's nothing else to do?
And that's it- there's nothing else to do. The game has no in game hints- waiting is supposed to provide a hint, and that hint does nothing, so I guess I'm giving up on this one.
Beautiful- but linear, November 22, 2010I love the premise here- an angel who is bored with heaven taking niceness lessons from gabriel.
The game starts off slow, but that's the point: heaven is boring. Once you've explored it a bit, gabriel shows up and has you attempt to tempt some mortals to evil, while he overrides you by forcing them to be nice.
There were some frustrating lack of implementation:
>POLITICIAN, KILL THE LOBBYIST
>
No error message, just a new blank line, meaning it understands that I'm asking the politician to do something, just not one of the things it understands.
The premise and writing are very good, and a lot of other actions seem to be implemented, just the most important area of the game- the commanding of mortals, seems to be missing some key implementation which is frustrating in the puzzle solving. There are some standard error messages (Gabriel has better things to do.) but there are also plenty of error messages customized to an angel in heaven- very nice.
Still I'm giving it 4 stars, with that bit of fixing, I'd probably go up to 5. It's a simple and fun game with an interesting premise. The ending is very good also, no surprises, but it's nice how this game twists expectations.
This is the game that "The devil made me do it" should have been!
A need for Beta, November 22, 2010You are a man. You are nude. You wish to find a place where naked people can live. Off you go on your adventure.
The premise seems simple enough. The game is very short, the puzzles are fairly easy. I solved the game in 33 moves on the first try. The puzzles are very hinted, but I don't want to give too much away.
The game could have been better tested. You find a sausage:
>EAT SAUSAGE
That's plainly inedible.
Also there's an ocean.
>ENTER OCEAN
That's not something you can enter.
>GO NORTH
You head into the water...
These are just small polishing items that would have been easily caught in the testing phase.
As far as the writing, some of it is kind of funny.
"You're on a beach. It's very sandy where you're standing. To the north it becomes more watery, mainly thanks to the ocean."
I didn't see any dinosaurs, but I did find cerberus.
As far as this being inspired by a true story... I find that a little hard to believe, unless he wandered a city naked.
It's a short game, like I said, 33 moves. Don't expect anything crazy, and it doesn't seem to quite be AIF or anything (you aren't exactly fully implemented either). Seems like a starter game for a I7 programmer, and I'd be interested in seeing what else he comes up with once he learns the system a little more.
Loved the Story, November 8, 2010This was a very enjoyable game with lots of replay value that focuses on converstaion. You are the hunter from Snow White in charge of bringing her heart back to the queen. But you plan on bringing the heart of an animal back instead and leading her to the dwarves.
The story takes several unexpected turns from the Disney version we're all familiar with, as you question Snow White and try to determine whether you should side with her or the queen, or do something else. The writing is superb- you get a feeling of really being there, and the side graphic of Snow White's face adds something to the story as well.
As far as the parser itself, it seems a bit too smart, so smart that it makes some obvious mistakes. It seems to trace possible questions from your previous questions. So if you ask her about magic and she mentions a witch, asking her about witches takes you down the next logical step in the conversation. The parser helps by making suggestions on what to ask about next also.
Some problems arise here. First, the parser seems is still limited to ASK [character] ABOUT [subject], though the prodding from the parser made me think I could do more.
(You could ask about witches)
>ASK ABOUT WITCHES
Doesn't work, you still need to ask HER about witches. Which isn't so bad, except that some topics are complex:
(You could ask why she feels this way, how long she's felt this way, or why she thinks the queen wants her dead)
> WHY DOES THE QUEEN WANT YOU DEAD
> ASK WHY THE QUEEN WANTS HER DEAD
both don't work.
That's forgivable though, I've played enough IF to know better, I just worry about newbies falling into this and making mistakes. The second problem I had to do was with the non-conversation actions.
(Spoiler - click to show) Upon learning that Snow White drank blood, I tried to offer my own blood to her.
>OFFER BLOOD
(the blood reserves to the hart animal)
Which caused an animal to come to life, stop time, and start some kind of exorcism ritual, which I was completely blindsided by
Which was more of a problem with the parser's choice of supplying missing nouns, but seemed like a surprising supposition.
Those aside, it was very well written, and I really liked how it tracked your endings so you can see what you've already accomplished for multiple playthroughs. Interactive Fiction of the past (Infocom) perhaps should have been called IAF for interactive adventure fiction, because this works seems like more of a story that is interactive than many of the previous games I've played.
Evolution of a Joke, November 3, 2010The game is cute, and it's a little bit more complex of a puzzle than the original (BOOTH). You'll probably want to play BOOTH first, because without playing it, you probably won't get this joke, which is kind of a shame. If only all the BOOTH parodies could be combined together into one big game, with all the variants, so they could be reviewed together.
As a joke, this works. It's easy and there isn't too much to do. The only thing that doesn't work is the assumption that you have played the first. Seeing them both in IFDB, one might not know which came first, and which is the joke and which is the parody of the joke.
If you're a fan of the BOOTH game, or the other parodies of it, you'll like this. If not, move on.
Hmm, November 3, 2010How do you make that trombone sound they play in sitcoms for disappointment? That (wow wow wow woooooow) sound? I heard that playing in my head for this game.
This game would have been fine in and of itself. The problem is that it's a sequel to a one shot joke game. As such, I had certain expectations. Yeah, you pick it up, or push it, or pull it. But soon I found that I had an inventory, and there were other rooms to explore, and suddenly the whole game got very big. Much bigger than a joke game ever needs to be.
What would Zork: A troll's eye view, be if you could leave the troll room?
What 9:05 be if you could (Spoiler - click to show) not kill that guy ?
The only thing I could conclude is that this is NOT a joke game, but a light humor puzzle game, and that's fine, but it's very misleading as a sequel to Pick up the Phone Booth and Die.
I'm sure the game ends up being okay, but I just couldn't concentrate. It's like taking a one line joke, and making it into a long drawn out story to get to the same punch-line. Some jokes need to be one-liners.
Do we make a listing for everything?, November 3, 2010I'm beginning to see why some reviewers get irritated by the "games" that are posted on this site. This is not a game- this is a yes/no question. That question is "do you want to win". (Spoiler - click to show) The correct answer is yes.
There is nothing else to this. No story, nothing. At least mystic travels had a lot of meta-reference jokes. This was a waste of time.
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