Reviews by MathBrush

Short game with a few branching options but only one ending.

Seems like a fun little game a parent and child put together as a family project. No puzzles, inventory, or exploration.

Much better than anything I did as a seven year old. If you are reading this, I laughed, I liked the pictures, I cared about the dog, and only I wish it had lasted longer...

This game treats a really important aspect of interactive fiction: the save feature. Most games, despite any sense of urgency they may try to instill, become slow, measured-out puzzle games with the heavy use of save and restore.

It is almost impossible to overcome the habit of save and restore, probably because most games intend the reader to use it.

This game was designed as a full-throttle, jump-out-of-the-airplane experience. You should absolutely not undo, save or restore this game; in the Club Floyd transcript, one of the users hit undo out of habit, when it seemed that all was lost; but they then undid the undo, and promised to finish the game together, and it was worth it.

This is a short game, and a fun game. I would give it 5 stars in its genre, but 3 stars as a generic interactive fiction game. As it is, I'm leaving it with 4 stars.

This is a Twine-based game that consists of a set-up phase where you personalize your character, followed by a standard Twine game where you choose from a variety of sequences to achieve one of numerous endings.

It is a medium-sized, puzzle less game that is meant to be a sort of academic essay. It was submitted as a dissertation, I believe, and parts of it read like one, but it is not completely dry, and manages to have some fun.

The authors seem unaware of the field of interactive fiction. They describe this as a proof-of-concept of "ergodic fiction", which is defined by the 1996 book Cybertext as fiction that requires human participation and choices to shape the experience. It is clear from the book's definition that almost all of interactive fiction is ergodic fiction, and in fact most interactive fiction is "cybertext", which is ergodic literature requiring calculation.

This is a Seltani game. Seltani is a hyperlink-based multiplayer format. While I was not able to try the multiplayer options (due to lack of multiple players), the single player mode was enjoyable to explore.

There are three sources of information: a dynamic room description with hyperlinks, in-game pop-up windows with information and choices, and a sort of running commentary on the bottom.

The game allows the choice of three different steampunk characters with customizable motivations. Each character sees and understands the world differently. As far as I played, the world was a 3x3x3 grid navigated by an airship. Every item was well-implemented.

Characters are in the service of an unusual queen, and are tasked with "taking care of" ancient ruins. I enjoyed the ability to interact with a large number of animals.

Worth checking out, especially if you are interested in multiplayer IF.

This is a very well implemented game with an engaging plotline and not-to-hard puzzles. The genre is humor/horror.

This game takes only an hour to play, but every location is well-implemented, and the puzzles mostly make sense (although one, I thought, was vaguely unfair, but it was probably just me not reading descriptions well).

The only drawback is the short game length. Pretty much a perfect game otherwise.

This is a very large Twine game that starts out mostly linear, branches a little, and then branches a lot. It includes a large area with a variety of rooms, including a clever means of transportation (Spoiler - click to show)the curious door/button combo. The genre is subtle horror/mystery, and the writing is evocative and sticks with you.

The lack of a save feature is annoying; as a casual gamer, I can't finish the game in one sitting, and it's difficult to juggle tabs to keep the game open throughout the day. This is one game I would like to finish.

Edit: The above is my original review, and I gave it 4 stars at first.

I think at the time that I played this in 2014, I assumed that there were many such Twine games, and found it a curiosity.

However, since then I haven't really found anything like it. Its writing is truly beautiful to me, and I count it among my favorite games (around the 11th or 12th favorite). It has a way of blending the deeply unfamiliar and frightening with the too-familiar and painful and the hidden and suffering. Wonderful imagery.

This is a Twine game in which you play as the character of young Arthur from the Shakespearean play King John. The game is very short, but provides an interesting take on the character. It is helpful to read the play before or after the game for complete understanding, but not necessary.

This Twine game takes place in a forest as you try to scrounge up enough change to catch a bus. The game takes about 30 minutes to play.

Unlike many Twine games, there are a few actual puzzles here, but each one is not that hard (one was just hard enough to be fun). The writing is choppy at times, but it fits into the game's "hey, let's be goofy and have fun" atmosphere.

This is my first Quest game; as such, it includes a map that you fill out as you explore, and lists all important objects in a room as well as your inventory at all times.

Besides the usual inventory, the game has a great additional mechanic that gives you an additional way to solve puzzles. This was fantastic, and I wanted to keep playing just to explore the mechanic.

The story was fun, but not especially motivating. The parser was terrible; so many obvious synonyms were not implemented that the game became a frustrating guess-the-verb game too frequently. However, the new mechanic was so fun that I kept playing anyway.

This is a game of mini-games. As the author says, each of the three short games are unrelated except by concept. Each game strives to make a philosophical point by putting constraints on the user.

The games vary in enjoy ability. One of the games was actually quite enjoyable, with dynamic constraints. The other two were not very exciting.

The writing is melodramatic; it really reminded me of what you might expect if you told a university English class to "write something deep". It's hard to tell, though, if the author is doing this purposely or not, which is a point in the game's favor.

There is unnecessary profanity in the first game, a strange departure from the tone of the rest of the game.

For those who have played through all three games and read all of the author's additional notes and material:

(Spoiler - click to show)There is a fourth "endgame" which, I believe, is what the author refers to when he says part of the game is inspired by House of Leaves. At first, I really enjoyed this game, but then I began to realize that the game seems to place the new staircase only when a large percentage of the map has been explored, and then places it in the unexplored spot closest to the entryway. Because of the House of Leaves reference, I do not believe this puzzle is intended to be solved.