Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

This game is just an inform implementation of a nethack-type game called robot find kitten.
You navigate a white # sign on a black field with color coded letters, bumping into them in an attempt to find the kitten.

It was I presented very well but this isn't really my thing. If you want to play nethack clones on inform, this is your game.

This game is well-described, but is essentially a coding exercise. There are three collections of identical objects that you can manipulate including tennis balls and acorns.

Generally, there's not much of a puzzle here, or a stoey. However, it is fun to play with all the materials, and it is polished.

LASH is a long, well-polished game by Paul O Brian. This game predates the Earth and Sky games by a year.

This game has a major twist, so some of this review will be in spoilers.

The first half of the game is a scavenger hunt similar to adventure or Zork but in a near future world. You command a partially organic robot. You collect items for money.

(Spoiler - click to show)This half is a shame. None of the puzzles matter at all besides entering the large steel door. When you do, in the atric you find a realistic simulation of the slavery era, where you take the identity of a young girl. It seems open and difficult, but this part of the game is completely linear with very mild puzzles. Once you complete it, you return to the real world where you and the partially organic robot deal with its future.

This is a psychologically intense game, with some strong profanity, racial slurs, torture and rape, presented in a non-gratuitous way.

This game has some great content, which makes it a real shame that it is covered with an impenetrable shell of obnoxious obstructions.

The first puzzle is a huge issue. Solution: (Spoiler - click to show)There is a quarter shining machine that is completely useless, and a weird box behind the tent where you have to turn off one switch, so that the announcer's criteria for a shiny quarter turns to just shiny or quarter..

Once you get past that hurdles the central conceit of the game is genius. There are 5 mini games that you can get sent to, each with a different concept. They all have one thing in common: (Spoiler - click to show)the word that the wheel landed on is vital to the mini game..

The mini games are varied, with a couple of fantasy games, a few sci fi, and a real life game.

This game is about a young person born in space who wished more than anything else to go to the earth home they've never experienced.

It is keyword based, and in the inform version I played, it had some nice styling. The undum/vorple version has gorgeous UI and sound effects, but it did not display properly for me.

Overall, though, the game was very short with what felt like some missed opportunities for alternative routes. It was a well crafted but small bite.

This isn't really something to try and beat as much as it is a tool to come up with characters. It chooses things like name, sex and appearance, but also personality types, astrological signs, concerns about body image, etc.

There is a message of sorts in what options are generated, but it seemed mostly just like a fun tool rather than a means to a greater end.

Edit:

I've just replayed this, and discovered the black text is links to mini-stories, many of which are really good. I recommend this game now. Some strong profanity. I've increased the rating from 3 stars to 5.

This game was entered in the cover stories competition, where cover art was provided first, and games were developed based on them.

You play as a tiny ninja that lives under a bed. You're job is to go around the room, cheering up your comrades one at a time in a classic linear type puzzle system.

The writing is compact and cute, and the game is short. I recommend it for a light snack. I did get stuck at the very end.

Ryan Veeder is known for tongue-in-cheek, polished games. This game is well polished and paced, but this time it's a creepy ghost story. Like a campfire tile, it is spooky, and dark, but has a vague hint of a smile at times (which may just be my interpretation).

I found the game to be effectively creepy, banking on anticipation, slow changes in writing, and gradual, creepy, realizations.

I strongly recommend this game, especially for fans of campfire tales.

The author of this game has specifically said that they did not intend this work to be a popular game, but that it was intended to provoke thought and discussion, and to be seen by many people.

This work is mostly lielnear, with a sequence of side comment links and a single story progress link at the bottom.l, until the end when you get some binary choices.

The piece is about imposter syndrome, the feeling that you are not competent at what you do, especially in the context of women, trans individuals, and other minorities.

As a description of imposter syndrome, it excels. As a mindless diversion, it is only mildly successful, but that was never it's goal.

This game was a fun take on the surfeit of surreal dream/coma games. The game map is shaped like a nautilus, hence the name.

In this game, you explore symbolic areas, with the symbolism spelled out, you take symbolic keys and put them in symbolic locks, and face your fears, hopes, and your truths.

I liked it, but it didn't draw me in; the game was intended as a quick, fun romp, but it eventually turned into a monotonic hunt, which, while true to the genre, could have been avoided.

Recommended for fans of short, funny games and surreal games.