Ratings and Reviews by Vivienne Dunstan

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.

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 10 Sep 2024.

This is very short parser game, where you are in a world with no names, and need to get out. It is - as the blurb says on the competition website - heavily inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.

There are very few puzzles to solve, but I enjoyed my time. I think there could have been more clueing re one of the items you encounter. Though patience pays off. And I liked that the ending had various options, depending on what you do.

The game has a reduced parser, even disallowing QUIT. Which can make it extra challenging, but I was pleased that some alternatives were coded (e.g. (Spoiler - click to show)“ESCAPE”).

A slight piece, and very short, but nevertheless fun. It is always nice to see another work inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice.

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 9 Sep 2024.

This is a time-lapse game to be played over a number of days (don’t have to be successive), where you take on a job as an assistant in an apothecary’s shop, and aim to work a minimum number of shifts over the coming weeks. Along the way you are given light puzzles to solve, as well as a series of cryptic puzzles.

Initially I was puzzled by how time worked in the game. But found if I closed the browser tab and reloaded it on a later day it would move the game on, and let me play another session in the shop. There isn’t an advance time facility within the game interface eg a “go to next day” link you can click. Instead you need to open it afresh in your browser. Reloading an existing browser tab didn’t work for me.

Note apparently you are supposed to be able to play more than once a day, but I could never get this to work on my Mac.

The tasks that you are given by the shopkeeper are fairly easy spot tasks. Though some would be a problem for visually impaired people. The author hopes to fix that.

I was not expecting the cryptic crossword puzzles to pop up. I am not good at cryptic crossword puzzles! Over time you are given multiple pages of them to optionally solve. Helpfully the game links to a page of advice/tips/techniques/practice for solving such puzzles. And, surprisingly, I got quite adept at them! I did encounter a slight bug in Safari on my Mac, and in iOS browsers, but the author fixed this after my original review, which is great. Getting things working fully reliably on Safari (all versions) and iOS browsers can be extra complicated.

I was happy with the quasi ending I reached. Though I think I’d have preferred to play the game over a much shorter period. Repeated daily tasks like Wordle don’t generally appeal to me. And I felt constrained by the need to come back repeatedly over a long time. It also made it harder to remember plot elements from earlier days on returning. However the world is charming, and the tasks that you are given to do are satisfying.

The game has a built in mechanism for gifting to charity, where you can optionally gift some of your in-game earnings to several real world causes. A nice touch.

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 an ambitious but well written parser game, that immerses you in a complex story spread across different time zones, uncovering a mystery involving Edgar Allan Poe, plus musings on the nature of writing, authorship, and identity.

The two time zones are the present day and 1849. The former episodes are a series of vignettes, light play throughs, with little in the way of the puzzles. The 1849 scenes, by contrast, are a much more sprawling puzzle based world to explore. Which gradually opens up, as you get further into the story.

The way the world is expanded organically by the game as you play is one of its neat tricks. I also greatly appreciated the journal system, which automatically keeps tracks of the clues you find. In the absence of any scoring in the game, that helps give you a sense of progress. Because you know the total number of clues available to find from early on.

Many of the game’s interactions involve conversing with NPCs and showing them objects you have found. This works well, and the game has some neat in built techniques to keep it smoother, for example suggesting topics you might talk about.

I did occasionally have some fight the parser moments, which was a shame. But in such a large game these were few and far between. And it otherwise felt very smooth.

I also struggled a little with unfamiliar words in places. I sometimes have transatlantic challenges with IF. But I was not expecting to be puzzled by (Spoiler - click to show)gibus or (Spoiler - click to show)toper. Admittedly very much of their time. But I did need to google for those.

The absolute ending was great, but I found the toing and froing re reveals before that overly complex. Partly this is me, struggling to keep up with (Spoiler - click to show)who was who and what was going on. I wonder if a slightly simpler resolution might have been better. At least for this concentration challenged player!

However overall I loved it. I only needed to look at the walkthrough occasionally, though I used the built in hints a little more often. But I had a marvellous time playing, and felt totally immersed in the world.

Best of all I really want to learn more about Edgar Allan Poe’s life story. So that’s something to follow up. I have enjoyed many of his stories, in print or movie version. Now I think it’s time for me to learn more about him. Thanks to the author for some post-game leads to follow up on this topic.

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 23 Sep 2024.

This is a short choice piece written in Ink, where you go on a camping trip.

I was surprised how long it took to get to the camping. The game opens with a work situation, and a sense of jeopardy, but this was rather left hanging and unresolved.

A major part of the game is trying to decide what to shop for before your camping trip. Very much a resource management thing. I wasn’t sure if I should keep money back for the trip. Or quite how much food I needed!

Unfortunately I ran into a nasty bug here, where in one of the shops (in the (Spoiler - click to show)camping store) the clickable prompt to leave the store vanished from the screen, so I couldn’t leave and move the game on. I restarted a few times, and it happened again. Eventually I managed to play through this bit. Though minimising my time in that shop! By this point I was also repeatedly saving, in case it crashed on me again.

When you get to camping there’s cooking to be done, and various activities you can do that night and next morning. It’s quite atmospheric, but hindered sadly by an awful lot of typos. Which with a text game really do jump out and distract the reader from enjoying the story. This game would very much have benefited from more proofreading by other people in advance. Either get family or friends to proofread, or perhaps even better ask for volunteers on this very forum to help before the competition. We are very happy to help! Because the typos were a major issue here.

I did enjoy the activities I chose to do during the camping trip. I felt as though I was packing quite a lot in to the time, and was getting some good vibes about the experience. But the immersion would too often be interrupted by typos.

At the end the camping trip is over, and you head back home. And it then just ends really suddenly. I’d like to have returned to the work plot, maybe the player has a new perspective after camping. Or something.

So a nice idea, but I hit a nasty bug, and there were way too many typos. Playtesting and proofreading are really worth doing, even for choice pieces. But I liked the concept. Still not sure how much I’d want to go camping though!

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 23 Sep 2024.

This is a very large parser game, sort of X-Files meets Slow Horses meets a weird 80s film with lizard people wandering around! Oh and add a touch of Douglas Adams for bonus. I also liked the repeated references to another fictional work!

I liked a lot about it. It’s very bizarre, but in a good imaginative way. And it has a good variety of puzzles, using a clever map layout to work within. Slightly sprawling - especially in one area - but manageable.

The game’s noted as merciful on the Zarfian Forgiveness rating. I don’t think you can get it into an unwinnable state. Though you may get very stuck.

There are hints in game, but they weren’t complete enough for me. They’re very generous early on in the game, but in the large mid section I sometimes looked for help in the hints, and there wasn’t anything relevant. I think this needed beefing up.

I also had a bit of fighting the parser to contend with. There were lots of things I would never have managed without the walkthrough or hints. And there were some unimplemented things. Though equally other stuff I especially loved.

As I say I liked an awful lot about it. I just think it needed smoothing. And the hints needed some hefty extension into other areas people might get stuck.

But well worth playing!