Reviews by MathBrush

This is the second Schultz game I played this Ectocomp, and I like it quite a bit!

There are four rooms, and you have to do something special in each one. The language is constrained, in a way reminiscent of Ad Verbum.

This was implemented impressively well for an Ectocomp game. There were a few verbs I thought should work, like (Spoiler - click to show)attack, amass, and insist, but this could be fixed later. A nice little snack.

I generally like Andrew Schultz's wordplay games, but this one seems ill-conceived.

It has a concept that is very restrictive, and everything in the game is built up according to this scheme.

You are asked to find a friend and set a clock to a certain time. The issue is, there is no hinting as to the correct solution, yet the game only admits one solution. I thought of other solutions, afterwards; why not allow (Spoiler - click to show)5:04 as LIV? or 10:49 as MIL? I know there are time constraints, but the cluing is off here. On the other hand, Schultz's IFComp 2017 game is one of his most accessible, so I encourage you to try that one out.

This was a short Ectocomp game written in 3 hours or less.

In that time, the author provided nice background music and good text styling.

The game is fairly linear; all of your choices affect only the next paragraph, until the end, when your choices open up a few different ending options.

I wish I knew more about my choices so I could feel better immersed as the character. The storytelling was good; I could definitely see myself enjoying a longer game from this author, and I enjoyed this one.

This game was, in its way, the creepiest of the Grand Guignol games.

The actual horror elements are played down; you have 12 hours to work on your animation project. At each hour, you can work, explore (until you use up the storylets) or relax.

Creepy stuff can happen, but soon daylight comes, and all the supernatural elements seem not frightening at all. But as you go to your final exam, you begin to realize how horrifying real life can be (at least I felt that way).

This game is ingenious, as creative as Lime Ergot was, with a touch reminiscent of Midnight. Swordfight.

You play as a washed-up seaman who has escaped a wreck and ended up on a plantation.

The navigation system is deeply unusual.

I had one big of trouble, with the game's only locked door. I had tried the correct action in different rooms, and discovered it didn't work, so I didn't try it in the right room. I ended up decompiling to find the answer (as the game has some speed-IF bits, like no hint system, so I didn't trust it completely), but I could have figured it out with more experimentation. I felt like it drew me out of the story, though. Otherwise, this is a wonderful game.

This game was entered for Ectocomp 2017.

Like the author's other entry, this game is written using big blocks of text. Unlike the other entry, this one had more typos and grammatical errors, and seems to have been checked a little less.

The story revolves around fellow soldiers Abe and Shep, a psychiatrist, and Mary Shepard, a young woman who seems to have passed away. I had trouble following the timeline and who the narrative character was.

The highlight of the game was the scattered bits of poetry, which I think worked out well.

This game is actually quite extensive for an ectocomp game.

Written with Ink (I think), it has you travelling up a river that is completely infested with monsters of various kinds, mostly zombie-like creatures and ghosts. You are in a sort of alternate Victorian era, with enormous factories and electrical equipment and such.

The game heavily advertises its stats-based nature, with money, fuel, tea, and health being tracked. It took me around 30 minutes, and I played to a non-satisfactory ending. Recommended if you're looking for a more stats-based approach to Ectocomp.

Grozny has some of the best writing in this ectocomp so far, with 'dripping with the waters of SHEOL' standing as a good description of the text itself.

This is an intrinsically transgender story; every detail of the game is about being transgender, living with a transgender partner, and reassuring each other about being transgender.

It's also a strong tale about disability, both mental and physical. Your character has left their alt-history 1800's house in shambles, with clothes and dishes all over, most likely due to depression. You have to take numerous pills, you have intrusive thoughts, your joints ache (I somehow imagine a combination of arthritis and fibromyalgia), and you are walking a narrow tightrope with regards to your faith.

The entire game (which does have a ghost story, but only in service to the overall themes) feels like a house of cards which has been delicately set up but is constantly on the verge of collapse.

This is a shortish Ectocomp game with nice styling and some interesting text-hover effects.

You play as a schoolgirl who makes a bizarre discovery with her friends. The game branches quite a bit, with each branch fairly short.

I'd go into more detail, but the interest of the game lies entirely in the oddness of it all.

I found one small issue; the 'cockroach' link led to a page which was just a blank line; this was my first playthrough, and I had to restart. I ended up playing through 3 times.

I actually had a rather frustrating experience with this game. In this year's IFComp, there were three games submitted that were download-only, had the text slowly spool out without an option to advance, and had white text on a light background photo. They were heavily criticized for these three things.

That's why it's surprising to see an experience IF author (with access to this information) make a download-only game with slowly-spooled out white text on a light background photo/animation. I had to increase the font size significantly to see the game. I also had to look away for something on the last screen, and the text faded away before I was sure what it said.

Despite that, I enjoyed the game. It has strong parallels to one of my favorite short stories, The Judge's House, as well as System Shock (which I've only experience filtered through Cyberqueen).

The game manages to develop a great deal of backstory without slowing down the game too much. The ending is strongly foreshadowed, but this only helps to build tension.

The non-linear presentation combined with image changes gave the game some more interactivity as it requires you to puzzle out how it all fits together.