Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

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View this member's reviews by tag: 15-30 minutes 2-10 hours about 1 hour about 2 hours IF Comp 2015 Infocom less than 15 minutes more than 10 hours Spring Thing 2016
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Pegasus, by Michael Kielstra
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A short and emotional tale about partners in a futuristic organization, February 13, 2019
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is a fairly stripped-down parser game, mostly involving linear conversations and simple tasks where you follow orders. The emotions are on-the-nose, and the descriptions are small.

But I liked the game. For my personal, somewhat cheesy style, this game was a great fit. I've played it a couple of times, and I enjoy the relationship it develops.

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Dungeon Detective, by Wonaglot
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A fun high fantasy mystery romp, February 12, 2019*
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

This game has a lot going for it. Fun images, a strong character voice, and nice, descriptive writing.

The setting is similar to D&D, with gnolls and dragons. The main character gnoll has caveman-like speech despite his intense intelligence, kind of like the narrator in Lost Pig and exactly opposite of the birds in Birdland.

It's a mystery game, and relies on the 'notice clues then pick the correct answer at then end' method of mystery writing. This isn't my favorite method, but the game's writing suits this style really well, as the clues are all based on worldbuilding.

The greatest flaw for me was how short it is. I wish that this game had been significantly longer.

* This review was last edited on February 13, 2019
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A Woman's Choice, by Katie Benson
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A shortish, well-polished series of vignettes related to women's choices, February 3, 2019
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

I found this game touching. A short game (5 chapters or so, each with 5-10 choices), it moves you through different phases of life and talks about women's reproductive choices, the expectations of society, and the consequences of these actions.

The styling is well-done and understated, a good backdrop to the ongoing storyline. As a man, it gave me a lot to think about.

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I.A.G. Alpha, by Serhii Mozhaiskyi
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A brilliant choice game with a meta narrative and text input, February 3, 2019
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This is a well-done IFComp 2018 game.

It runs in ITCH and is primarily choice-based. The conceit is that the author wanted to develop a big, fun sci-fi fi puzzle game, but didn't succeed.

Instead, he leaves the frame of his unfinished game alone, and adds author commentary. As the game progresses, the protagonist has more and more power to affect the game itself.

The styling is excellent, with several beautiful images and switches between different interfaces. The music is lovely and appropriate.

This is a game made with love, and it shows.

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Tower, by Ryan Tan
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A meditative twine game with some puzzles, February 3, 2019
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

I beta tested this game.

This is a visually well-polished Twine game, with images, colors, and fonts used to enhance the presentation.

The game itself consists in a vertical tower. The player spends some time in each of the rooms, which are described in rich prose. Some rooms have puzzles, others are more poetic.

There is also an overall puzzle that ties everything together.

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Let's Explore Geography! Canadian Commodities Trader Simulation Exercise, by Carter Sande
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A parody of educational/trucking sim games set in Canada, February 3, 2019
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This game uses the Desmos online educational software to make a game about leaving your humdrum job to take on a trucking gig in Canada. Each city has things you can buy and things you can sell.

There are several endings you can reach, including giving up and one really interesting one that takes you all over, which I never quite completed. A guide is included on the IFDB page.

I say it's a parody because the author called it that, but the parody element isn't too strong. It mostly seems like a serviceable trucking game.

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Dynamite Powers vs. the Ray of Night!, by Mike Carletta
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A difficult and polished short superhero game, February 3, 2019
Related reviews: about 2 hours

I beta tested this game. In this game, you play as a superhero who has been captured, and must escape to stop the evil villain from shooting a giant ray at Earth.

The game is arranged linearly, with 4 big set-piece puzzles. Each puzzle requires multiple steps to complete, and can be quite complicated.

I found the game very polished, although occasionally harsh (requiring death to learn what to do, for instance). Highly recommended for people into difficult puzzles in parser games.

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Stone of Wisdom, by Kenneth Pedersen
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
An old-school (in a good way) compact ADRIFT game, February 1, 2019*
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

I beta-tested this game. This is the best ADRIFT game I've seen in a while. It feels like a nice little slice taken from a Zork-like universe, with lamps and stone dungeons and a troll and little people and so on. There's conversation, treasure, and a satisfying map.

A lot of time Adrift games seem to be trying to get you to do something specific but won't let you actually do it without struggling for the right command. Thankfully, that didn't happen here!

It's like a nice-sized slice of old-fashioned game, not too hard, not too easy. Worth downloading ADRIFT for.

* This review was last edited on February 2, 2019
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Instruction Set, by Jared Jackson
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
An innovative game using the Scratch programming language and classic puzzles, February 1, 2019*
Related reviews: about 1 hour

Unfortunately, this game seems to no longer work in the current version of Scratch.

Scratch is a programming language originally designed to help children make simple games. Jared Jackson and his daughter used (or abused) the system to make a parser game with animations and puzzles.

This game is based off of conceptual, educational-style puzzles: manipulating amounts of water, moving around mazes, etc.

The overall storyline is brief but illustrated. It has a different feel than almost all other IF games out there, and I hope that one day it can be recreated in Scratch 3 or a stable language.

* This review was last edited on February 2, 2019
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Dilemma, by Leonora
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A few dozen trolley dilemmas all put together, February 1, 2019
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This game is a custom web parser built from UnityGl. It seems to work based on searching for one or more keywords in your text, ignoring extra words.

It's built around the trolley dilemma, which is an ethics puzzle: if you know someone is about to die (due to, say, a trolley crash) and you could stop it by having other people die, what would you do?

In this game, your choice on one trolley puzzle may lead to another and another and another. You have 51 possible outcomes to search for.

It was interesting, but hard to interact with.

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