Reviews by Vivienne Dunstan

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 11 April 2025.

My first parser game play of the competition! And this looks fun. I am a bit of a coffee nerd myself, daily enjoying freshly ground coffee brewed in a Hario Switch V60/immersion combo. But I have never used a moka pot. Though I have seen some YouTube clips using one. I can so get into the player character’s mindset. No problem!

Note I hadn’t played the author’s previous game. And I didn’t read the manual for this one before playing. I only went to the walkthrough when I got stuck - though more on that in a bit …

It’s a light parser game, where you buy a new coffee maker, and try to make coffee with it. Your girlfriend helps talk you through the process, and gives tips at times. And it’s satisfying getting to the end.

On the downside it was a bit fight the parser in places. And there was quite a lot of parser disambiguation, I think a little more playtesting might have helped smooth things. It’s also perhaps a little harder on the player than it needs to be. Eg the need to unfold a sheet before reading. And I absolutely could not manage to read the back of the sheet, no matter what I tried. That’s when I went to the walkthrough.

However, I managed to make my coffee and I was smiling throughout. So well done to the author for a fun play experience, from one coffee nerd to another!

Must resist buying a moka pot …

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 9 April 2025.

This is a Monkey Island spinoff/tribute game, exploring the question “What was Governor Elaine Marley really doing when she was stuck on the Ghost Ship?” In a textual choice-based format.

It was interesting running this on a low-res screen (1024x665 pixel size equivalent). I use a low-res screen on my laptop as standard to get larger text to read. But in this game even though strictly speaking I was running in full screen mode it meant that I had too little game area, and had to zoom out some times in the web browser to see some things I needed to interact with. Which meant the font was too small for me to read comfortably (I got the same effect switching my Mac temporarily to 1800x1169 equivalent resolution, full screen again).

I can barely remember the first Monkey Island game. Thankfully this does a recap. Including some meta elements. Then it launches into a series of chapter-like “hour” segments - note they do not take an hour of real time to play, thankfully! These segments are choice based, though often not so much about choosing, as going through a series of options to examine the world around you. But there are some nice choices re how you handle dialogue. And I think occasionally some critical choices re what order you do things in.

There are puzzles, but the game guides you to the solutions. It is generally not difficult.

The writing is amusing, on point for a Monkey Island tribute.

On the downside you have to read every unlocked author’s note to unlock the next “hour” portion of the game. And then when you complete that next hour portion there’s another author’s note to read before you can play the next hour segment. The author notes are amusing but not very interactive, and playing them got a bit tiresome after a while. And woe betide if you accidentally click again on “hour one” when you meant to click on “hour two”. You can save the game during the game, but I couldn’t find any way to undo my mistake of stepping back bar full replaying.

Although I think this aspect has been toned down, there is still quite a lot of timed text in the game. Which I’m rather allergic to. I was particularly exasperated as a reader by

"The door creaks open
slowly,"

where the word “slowly” appeared incredibly slowly, and repeatedly if I am remember correctly. I’m afraid that I wasn’t in the right receptive mood for it!

In the end I made it through part of “hour three”, and possibly got near to an ending. But then I ran out of time. I’m assuming there was a better ending to get. I hope so!

I did enjoy this, and it should work even if you haven’t played Monkey Island. At least to an extent. Though it is probably more successful for players who know that franchise.

I did find the load/save game and my muddle repeating hour one frustrating. I couldn’t find a way to access the saved game once you’d clicked into an hour segment. Including when I clicked on the wrong one. Replaying was annoying.

It’s also why I haven’t had another go at “hour three”, because I’d need to replay all of the earlier portions.

But I was laughing a lot throughout. So that’s good.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 7 April 2025.

This is an episodic Twine game about interviews, and the choices you can make during them, and how you are perceived.

Initially I was thrown by the opening, not what I expected. But then the story runs through a sequence of chapters, each with an original take on the idea of an interview, while also moving the plot and your character’s story forward.

It’s nicely done, and the player has choices about whether to deliberately shape how they are presented, or to give perhaps more honest and personal answers.

The later parts of the game are interesting and unexpected, in a way that totally surprised me. But also made me think.

At the very end you can see statistics about the overall pattern of your choices and achievements you unlocked.

Note the game has ambient music for much of it, but I found listening to this very distracting as I was trying to read the text on screen. So I turned my sound off.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 7 April 2025.

Rather curious going into this one. It’s described as “kinetic” interactive fiction, which I think means no choice? I always want some kind of interaction and preferably agency, so will see how I feel trying this. I am keen to try it though, not least because I’ve recently been learning Tarot card reading! So here goes …

First up: the text on the opening splash credits screen is hard to read. White with a black outline against an autumnal/misty scene does not deliver readable words. I’m even struggling, for example, to read the word “Twitter” in there. As well as other words I know. Fortunately the text in game is much clearer visually.

Neat to have a save option. Oh and there are voice credits, so I’d better turn on my sound.

The main screen has the main text being read out in the middle, with character icons around the edge. Nothing seems interactable with. Different characters light up as the speaker changes. The character images also change at times. But the only options you have are to save (which does what???) and pause or play the story. Listening works, with multiple voice actors, but then makes reading (which I do at a different speed) superfluous. This would be blind reader friendly.

Because it’s spoken it appears that you can’t speed through the story. Basically you’re listening to an audio story. And I ended up doing other things while the audio played. But I found out later on that you can tap the rectangle item at the right in the bottom panel to move on between text sections. But that’s really all you can do apart from pause and play.

I expected and wanted some Tarot deck visuals going into the game. I know there will be copyright issues with some deck designs, but going in I had an image in my mind of cards appearing on screen. I was also hoping for random draws, maybe a Tarot simulator. But it’s totally fixed. Not seeing cards feels unsatisfying. The meanings given seem on point.

The story takes about 15 minutes to run through if you let it play through the audio. I think it maybe recaps some of the plot of “Yancy At The End Of The World” which I haven’t played? Or at least has a partial call back to that. But it wasn’t a problem. I liked the ending of the story. It felt satisfying.

I’m still not sure how I feel about kinetic interactive fiction. I was happy watching/listening/reading this. But I would have preferred more (any!) interaction and agency. And give me card visuals! Also the user interface needed to be clearer for the viewer. It took me ages to realise I could click that rectangle to step quickly through paragraphs appearing on screen.

So an interesting idea, but some issues that could be smoothed. And I really wanted some interaction.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 5 April 2025.

Starting with this one, a short Ink story, where you’re a stowaway on a ship, creeping around at night, seeing what you can discover and do.

I was surprised at the start that the game is set in the seventeenth century and the Caribbean. There isn’t much of a feel of the time and place in the story itself. There are also some anachronisms, such as a piano being played (too early). But these pale into insignificance against the creative leaps of imagination the game takes you to.

There are many endings to find. I tried to find as many of them as possible. One ((Spoiler - click to show)performing the ritual) was particularly satisfying to find. Many of the endings come from the branching choice structure. But also from how you can use objects that you discover to further the plot and choice options. It’s a lot of fun.

On the downside the game needs some more polish in coding. It lets you repeat doing things over and over again, with exactly the same responses. Eg if in a given location you select option X which gives you a certain piece of text together with a new item, you get that exact same text and new item on repeated choices of that option.

But it is a lot of fun. A creative and imaginative piece of work. It almost feels like a parser game, in the way you find objects and get extra options to use them.

A fun start!

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 13 Sep 2024.

This one appealed to me a lot: a medieval detective, embarking on an almost archaeological hunt. In parser form.

The game is in two parts. The first more linear, as you get nearer to where you ultimately need to go. The second part is much more open, and a mix of puzzles, and things to uncover. Many secret clues to discover and follow up.

It could be easy to get stuck, but fortunately the game has a walkthrough provided. Though because the walkthrough was compiled partly using Inform’s built in TEST commands it may have been a little confusing for some players to work with.

Much in the game can be uncovered by exploring though, and following up lots of clues. And there is lots to discover.

One problem I did run into is that the game frequently wanted you to type EXAMINE X not READ X to read some writing. But not always, including at an absolutely crucial time.

I also found it under implemented in places, and I was often fighting the parser. The geography was also a challenge for me. I run interpreter Lectrote at usually a gargantuan font. I didn’t realise until part way into the game that I was missing all the available directions listed in the top bar of the window. I saw nothing there until I downsized my font a lot. It can be a good idea to list directions in room descriptions in any case.

I mentioned at the start that this game is about a medieval detective, which I initially assumed was a detective in medieval times. But then I got puzzled by the chronology, and specifically a reference to something from 1711. Are we meant to be in medieval times? Or is the soldier more modern? Or should I not be worried about things like this :slight_smile:

I expected a very different ending though.

But otherwise I enjoyed a lot. Just wished for a deeper implementation. And preferably duplicate the directions in the room descriptions, for folks like me who can’t see the title bar. Either cos we’re running an interpreter with too chunky size font. Or it may also be an issue for screen readers.

But a fun time. Atmospheric and scary in places ((Spoiler - click to show)I’m not sure how I survived my zombie battle). Thank you to the author.

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 22 Sep 2024.

This is a tightly written parser game, where you have to use a time loop to change things and get to a good ending.

There’s a lot to like. The relationship your main character has with their partner is well depicted. And the core puzzle is a good one. Locations are lightly but well implemented.

However I think it could have done with a bit more polishing. Maybe more time for playtesting and development could have elevated it even greater.

I had several instances where synonyms were not recognised and it was rather fight the parser on occasion.

I also found the story movements odd at times. A bit more smoothing here might help.

I think there are multiple endings? I got one but am not sure if I could have got many others, or if my conversation choices earlier had committed me. Unfortunately though there is a partial hints system (thanks!) it isn’t fully comprehensive, and doesn’t e.g. list alternate endings. Why not expand that hints section more? And the walkthrough just indicates one ending, the one I got.

So an awful lot to like, a really strong puzzler game with a neat core idea. But more polishing and playtesting could have made it brilliant.

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 26 Sep 2024.

This is a graphical form of interactive fiction, where you have a series of comic strip panels, and below them text links that you can click to move the story on. You are a cop, trying to catch some criminals. And end up in a tight scene at a gym. As you work through the story the graphics in the panels update to show what happens. Which is really neat.

However I had trouble with the user interface on my Mac. I run it at a very large low resolution. I couldn’t see all of the panels or text initially. Changing the screen resolution helped. As did zooming out from the browser. More seriously I struggled to even see the clickable ? link to the walkthrough. Which I really needed by this point. I recommend that the author provides a linked version of the walkthrough on the competition game listing. Because I had got very stuck, and was going to give up the game, unscored, until I found there was a walkthrough after all.

The story itself is a tight one, where you have to slot in with the right actions at the right time. You will need to replay. In particular you need information you only get later, but then have to use earlier in a subsequent replay. To be fair, I rationalised this with myself that (Spoiler - click to show)if the cop had been watching these criminals, and had intel, then they probably already knew this info. But as a player it was surprising to have to replay with info my character hadn’t then seen in game.

My other interface hitch was that at one key moment you need to not use text choices to move the plot on, but must click on part of an image to see vital info. That caught me out, and I found it really unintuitive. I was cursing repeatedly that the option needed wasn’t a text option. It never occurred to me that I had to click on an image. Until I read the walkthrough.

So I think those two core puzzles are a bit unfair, especially the latter. However I liked the tight plotting, and I was happy eventually playing right through, with the walkthrough’s help.

The art is great. I particulary liked how earlier panels also changed as you did things, e.g. at one point - before you have to replay - something major happens in the first panel. Where your player character isn’t currently located. To be fair that could be easy to miss. But unlike the “click on the image” thing that I did miss I thought this visual narrative trick was good.

So stuff to like, and very creative, but I think at least one unfair puzzle (the image click one), and another that breaks normal game play rules, but that I could just about justify for in game reasons.

However I’d be a lot happier if the game worked on lower resolution screens too. And make sure folks who need it know there is a walkthrough and how to find it. Even once I knew it was there, the ? link was often hiding and hard to click on.

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 21 Sep 2024.

This is a scifi Twine piece, where two former friends face off, against the backdrop of a world with nuns and mysterious sacred algorithms. Can you change destiny?

I liked a lot about this. The writing is strong, I liked the atmospheric music, and the dual perspective view of the world works well.

On the downside I was a little confused by the interface, as can happen to me in some Twine stories. Sometimes clickable options would move the story on, but sometimes they would cycle through options. Even in the latter case I wasn’t always sure if I clicked to cycle through whether I was selecting the option I had just clicked on, or the option that then appeared. And then I clicked elsewhere.

I also was sometimes confused by the dual perspectives. Though not always knowing who was who and what was what was thematically highly appropriate.

However it was an evocative piece. And even though it’s short, it packs a lot in.

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 15 Sep 2024.

This is a graphical RPG, Japanese style, maybe made with RPG Maker? And you’re off on a quest to find your favourite teacup. All in a rather cosy fantasy setting.

On plus the characters that you meet are well defined, and interesting to encounter. The main decisions you have in the game seem to be how you negotiate with these other people.

However the story itself is very linear, more so I felt than the author’s previous JRPG Quest for the Sword of Justice. I felt as though I had more freedom to explore that world, and to decide what to do when. With this one it felt very much as though I was often just stepping through a series of events.

So that was disappointing for me. But I thought the NPCs were really well done. And I did laugh out loud at times. I just wanted more agency, and a better sense of control.

It may also be an issue that I’m a bit too old for the era where these sorts of games were very popular. So I don’t have that strong sense of nostalgia. And in interactive fiction, whether it be text based or graphical or a mix, I want agency.

But yes, the characters were well done and there were appropriate laughs as I played.