Reviews by MathBrush

This game is a sort of shaggy dog story that tells the origin of a certain Halloween tradition.

It's presented in a tragic way rather than a comedic way. You are a juggler in a medieval court where laughter is forbidden, and whose father was banished or killed because of that rule. It's worth trying out.

This game can't do anything past the first move. It was written for Ectocomp, but it seems not to have been tested at all.

In general, it seems like it would be a creepy game where you play a stalker, possibly having a humorous turn later.

This game uses some of the more cinematic qualities of Adrift.

It's a speed-IF, so it was written in just 3 hours. But it has really fun animations and text effects. The death shack becomes a recurring character that destroys all in its path. I especially laughed at the hotel scene.

This game was entered in Ectocomp 2011.

It is a speed-IF, so it has many of speed-IF's usual problems. in this case, I was unable to finish the game due to not knowing where to place an object. I also had difficulty finding things and guessing verbs.

This game is pretty fun. You have a body on a table, with several items you can attach to them. Every single combination of attachments yields a different monster, which causes a different amount of mayhem. The game officially ends after several monsters you create do a certain amount of mayhem.

This is a speed-IF game from Ectocomp. Written in 3 hours, it has a nicely built up world with its own ecology.

The game is short, and learning about it is the main attraction, so I won't say more about the plot. I had some trouble with some of the interactions, though, but I enjoyed the writing.

This game is similar to both Murder on the Orient Express and Dracula.

You awake from your coffin on a train to discover that a passenger has had their blood drained--and not by you.

This game has many of the usual speed-IF problems (undercluing and underimplementation), but it is in the top 10% of all speed-IF, and quite enjoyable.

This is a short speed-IF game designed to show off a simulationist library involving the code of both Metamorphoses and peacock.z5 (known as Not With Hands). Emily Short said that her purpose in writing it was to use (quoting):

-- the same materials classes as Metamorphoses, plus some extras;
-- multiple kinds of blades to be used for cutting, efficacious on
different materials;
-- examples of diminution of size, division into pieces, and the
opening of containers based on said cutting;
-- routines for burning objects, taking into account their material
and contents;
-- smoke and carbon smearing (removable);(end quote)

This game is so different from Panks's other games. Panks's IFComp games were short and trivial, or mocking.

This game is really, really big, and reasonably well polished.

You can play a lot of mini games, visit tons of locations, order NPCs, etc.

The problem is that it was developed for a long time by one person with only a little input from others, meaning that several of the mechanics are just spotty.

This game surprised me by its quality. I can't vouch for the writing quality; as Spanish is not my native language, anything written in it sounds nice to me. But the concepts were really beautiful.

You play as a young person on a bus home, when things take an unexpected turn. The situation you find yourself in is at once relatable and deeply uncomfortable.

The game made good use of text effects, switching colors of the background and text, using different font sizes, etc.

There was some overarching Thing which I didn't get because of my poor Spanish, something about (Spoiler - click to show)graduation and getting covered in floor and eggs?

It seemed fairly linear to me, but a second replay had about 40% new text, so I was impressed. I would have rated this game somewhere in the 7-9 range in IFComp. Well done. My only wish is that there was some more consistency in how mid-game links were handled, as it was hard to know what clicking on different texts would do. On the other hand, given the general feel of confusion the game evokes, it may have been an intentional design choice.