Ratings and Reviews by Simon Deimel

A storyless collection of puzzles, intended as a tutorial for people who are new to IF. Principally a tutorial is not a bad idea, but anything with educational intention should show the basic concepts of an idea.

This game succeeds in teaching some basic commands, but it fails to get a new player accquainted with general conventions in IF, such as the use of containers (in this game the backpack has to be taken to make the possession of certain items possible; but they just coexist in the inventory, because the backpack is not programmed as a container), or the difference of inanimate and animate objects (the kids are programmed as inanimate things, not as persons). I did not care much, but it may be confusing for beginners. The puzzles are not too difficult to solve, but some of them may be a bit too underclued for beginners.

For me it was a short puzzler, nothing more. I found the ending a bit annoying, because the game lets you lose for a reason without any logic(Spoiler - click to show) -- the win requires dropping a certain object before exiting the last room (or not having taken it before), and I don't think any player will reconsider having the thing in the inventory (as picking it up does not suggest any lethal danger) before exiting. In the end this game cannot be recommended as a tutorial.

For a speed IF this game is neatly done. The player directs a gummi bear trying to avoid being eaten alive. The actions are quite obvious and can hardly be called puzzles. The implementations are sparse and sometimes a verb that I considered to be the right one was not what the program was waiting for; but regarding the short time in which the game was written, perfection can not be expected.

All in all a cute story. This short amusement is recommendable for people who have some minutes of free time.

The game FISH BOWL is about a beach comber who awakes one day to find a peculiar fish bowl in his shack near the beach, unable to remember where it has come from and why it is there; this makes the fish bowl a central object and the player is likely to get the idea that there is something to be done about it.

The game is segmented into two parts, the first of which mainly deals with the fish bowl, the second concerning the search for the truth about the situation. Amnesia is a subject of the first part and resolved in the second, which justifies the use of this trope. The change between illusion and reality is nicely arranged and conveys a surreal feeling. The storyline is sinister and dismal; I felt absorbed into it.

It is a quite short game and positively worth playing; the necessary actions can easily be found and there are hints given. I am not good with puzzles, but found out what to do without resorting to a description of the solution. I may recommend this interactive fiction to people with the same preference; also to beginners who want to check out a tight sci-fi narration without running the risk of a headache.

A very short game with a silly premise: So you are a chef and have to prepare a meal. There is a list of ingrediences that you have to use, and then a number of objects fall from the sky and you have to put the ones mentioned on the list into the pot (Spoiler - click to show)(or you take everything and then "put all into the pot" -- it also works, the game will automatically choose the right ones). Some things cannot be taken without previously getting hold of corresponding objects (luckily the game explicitly states the possession of which other item is required, as in some cases there is hardly any logic -- maybe it is knowledge based on community conventions which I am not familiar with). So there are no puzzles and the game progress takes place almost by itself. It just takes a short time to reach the ending.

Recommendable to people who feel like being silly for some minutes and cast the deadly seriousness aside.