Reviews by J'onn Roger
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From the Author
This is my first attempt at a game, so the code is pretty much a big mess. If/when I come back and finish it, I'll probably start from the beginning and write the code in a more organized fashion.
Selves is intended to be more of a story than a game, and as such there are multiple endings, none of which are "right" or "wrong". Further on in the game there would of course be more endings, and also a little bit of NPC interaction. There aren't really any puzzles, and though sometimes there isn't much around the PC, I attempted to allow the player to experience what is there as throughly as possible; therefore experimentation is encouraged, such as trying to take the moon, for example. This is most thorough in the first room, because later on in the game I had more to worry about such as objects that the player can take, fix, etc. Again, when I finish the game I will throughly implement the later rooms.
Even in it's unfinished state, there are multiple endings, some of which differ greatly from each other.
Feedback is greatly appreciated, so if you have played the game, please send me your thoughts at j.onnroger(at)gmail(dot)com.
Excellent, August 24, 2009Opening Night starts out seeming like your average puzzle game (albeit with excellent prose). Your goal is to give a rose to Miranda Lily, star of the stage - your problem is getting past that obnoxious doorman. A couple simple puzzles take you past this problem, and then the game really begins to shine.
There are more puzzles, but the focus of the game really is on the story, as the author says in the "about" section.
I found the interweaving of memory and present startling and surreal, and the pacing is excellent. I gradually began to put the pieces together, painting a haunting picture, and the final revalation brings everything together in a sad and satisfying way.
There are no in-game hints, but they aren't really necessary. While I often look at hints at least once during a game, I never needed to during Opening Night.
The game is rather linear, but this never presented a problem, and perhaps actually enhanced the story to a degree (think Photopia). Overall an excellent, very satisfying, very polished work.
I had high hopes for Cacophony, based on the intriguing and well written prologue. Unfortunately, these hopes were soon dashed. Interaction with the game is frustrating, not because of "bugs" persay, but because you can only interact with people and things in a very limited fashion. In many cases I tried doing things to objects or conversing/interacting with people, getting more and more frustrated as each attempt was refused, until I found the correct solution either by randomness or by consulting the walkthrough. I found the NPCs especially frustrating; if you had been able to converse with them, they could have nudged you in the proper direction - but instead when I tried "ask Mr Green about [insert subject here]", for example, I always got the response "He seems to look at you for a moment." Also very frustrating was that (Spoiler - click to show)the poster says "You can talk to me", yet when I try talking to it, I am told that it's only an inanimate object. Perhaps an attempt on the author's part to show the PC sliding into insanity, but it ends up a frustrating red herring.
In regards to the setting, it seems as if the author is attempting to present a surreal world that may or may not be partly the PC's imagination, but it never quite worked for me. The talking objects and such always seemed more out of place than actually surreal.
I also would have liked more backstory on why I am in this surreal state and why the PC (Spoiler - click to show)feels suicidal but none is given. Perhaps one of the other endings would have provided this; according to the walkthroughs, the ending I achieved was the quickest/easiest one.
On the positive side, there were occasional bits of compelling writing, and the notepad puzzle is very clever (though really could have been clued a bit better).
The premise of The Angel Curse is an intriguing one, and the first half of the game is well done, if a little buggy. The writing flows naturally and sets a dark and slightly depressing tone, and pulled me in very effectively.
Unfortunately, the second bit of the game has several problems; the tone of the writing changes from dark to somewhat silly, the ending feels very rushed (I'm at a point where I feel I'm about to make an important discovery, but instead of showing me something new and spooky, the game suddenly ends), and the ending puzzle is not clued at all - you'll probably end up either finding a walkthrough or just trying out random actions for the heck of it.
I realize SpeedIF is bound to have problems, but I don't think it would have taken that much work to fix this game up into an excellent little piece. As it is, it is worth a try for the striking beginning.
Tookie's Song is a lighthearted and enjoyable piece of work. It is mainly a puzzle piece; there isn't much at all in the way of story development except the beginning premise (you must rescue your dog that was kidnapped by cat-like aliens) and the endgame. While I normally don't like games like this, the funny writing, amusing characterization of the NPCs and interesting world kept me with this one.
The puzzles are of varying difficulty, some quite easy and others rather difficult IMO (but then again, puzzles are not my strong suite). If you do have trouble, there is a well-done set of hints for each puzzle that progresses from gentle nudges to explicit solutions.
One of my favorite things about the game was the quirky modifications of Inform's standard messages. Several had me laughing out loud. However, a couple of these responses were a mixed bag; while they were funny, they also lessened the feeling of immersion in the game world (for example, (Spoiler - click to show) asking one of the aliens about the game responds with something like "Yup, this world was created just for you.").
I was slightly disappointed with the ending. (Spoiler - click to show)After spending so much time trying to rescue my pet and worrying about his safety, I am essentially double-crossed by said pet.
On the whole, Tookie's Song is excellent if you're looking for an amusing diversion and interesting puzzles, but probably not what you want if you're looking for an intensive story or "literary" work.
Just like in the author's previous work (The Moonlit Tower), the writing and imagery in Swanglass is unique and absolutely beautiful.
Unfortunately, the game suffers from a lack of purpose. There really isn't much to do other than examine, explore things with your senses, etc. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if there was more to explore, more memories, etc., but as it is it ends up feeling incomplete. More to experience would have provided a sense of progress and closure, even without an actual "goal".
Swanglass is definitely worth playing, especially considering how short it is. While it isn't perfect, it is a memorable experience.
Surreal, haunting, a must-play, July 6, 2009Worlds Apart immediately pulled me in with it's surreal and somewhat haunting atmosphere. The writing is extremely good, and I love how the game is paced; it plays with your perception of time and memory in a way that really adds to the surreal feeling.
The hint system was very nicely done; I appreciated the fact that it gives you a series of hints on each subject, with each hint revealing progressively more about what needed to be done. This gave me the ability to get only as much info as I actually needed from the hints, rather than just a little hint that didn't help, or a big hint that spoiled something.
I do have one minor complaint; I was a bit lost during the "midnight" section, because (Spoiler - click to show)I kept thinking that I had to get something done inside the crystal imager, after Saal had cleared the rubble and the axe smashed the viewscreen. All that actually needed to be done at this point was "sleep". However, this was most likely my fault for not paying close enough attention, or experimenting enough.
Worlds Apart is definitely one of my favorite games, and one of the few I'd list as a "must play".
Llama adventure was the first text adventure/interactive fiction I played all the way through, and was the game that really got me interested in IF. I found it easy to work with, the puzzles were interesting but not extremely hard, and the humour was quite good.
When I came back to Llama Adventure after playing more text games and getting acquainted with the standard commands and such, I actually found Llama Adventure harder to work with, because it wouldn't accept commands such as "examine" (you have to use "look at" instead), and there were some cases where you have to try to figure out a specific wording such as (Spoiler - click to show) "use badkey with lock" because other wordings such as "unlock door with badkey" doesn't work.
So if you're new to IF, this is a great introduction! I showed it to a friend recently and she loved it (started playing other games by the author in order to get the extra codes for Llama Adventure). If you're more experienced with IF, it can get a bit frustrating.
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