Reviews by MathBrush

This game actually has a pretty consistent approach of its puzzles. You are an adventurer in a temple in the Everglades, seeking the water of life.

Each room has some sort of death trap. If you wait around too long, you die, but you often get hints right before you die. I only needed a hint for the very last room.

The setting made me smile on numerous occasions, such as the perfectly normal room.

Highly recommended.

This game draws a lot of inspiration from planetfall. You wake up from cryogenic storage to save your ship with a wisecracking robot companion. By accessing computer systems and elevators, you try to figure out how disaster struck.

I played for about 10 minutes without the walkthrough, but a power countdown was stressful, leaving (it seemed) little room for error.

It wasn't bad, but I had some issues with guessing verbs and the aforementioned timer.

This game is a classic-style puzzle adventure strung together into a thin plot. Your keys are stolen in a cheesy Christmas area at a mall, and you have to get it back by operating a series of complicated machines.

This game hits up a lot of the classic puzzle types. Light source puzzle, complicated lock and key, disassembling and reassembling items, removing obstructing NPCs, trial and error puzzles, etc.

The puzzles are mildly difficult for a puzzlefest and the game is not too long. A compass rose aids navigation and the writing spruces up the whole affair.

Basically, if you like Not Just an Ordinary Ballerina, you'll like this, it's younger, smaller cousin.

In this game, you play a knight who has defeated a powerful evil. You are attending a boring party, hoping to see the love of your life there.

The world is one of magic and mystery and intrigue. Many have commented on the powerful draw of the story, and I felt it too. You have scars and a history.

The game primarily depends on ask/tell. I won mostly by asking people about other people's names, plus a few topics that came up in conversation.

The game lasted about 15-20 minutes.

This is a pretty long IfComp game about an author who is sucked into the world of a manuscript which he has attempted to destroy.

The puzzles aren't too bad; the worst is skippable. There are some color coded key puzzles, but you are told in the notes that they are a parody of other adventure games.

Overall, I enjoyed the first few chapters, but it stretched thin by the ending.

Mildly recommended

This game surprised me with its emotional effect, because it has a slow burn opening. You are a huge fan of theatre actress Mirada Lily, and have come on the opening night of her big show to give her a rose.

This game is relatively short and easy. I wasn't sure what to do with one item, but you just use everything.

Your main goal is to get into the theatre, as you are not dressed well enough to be allowed in.

Strongly recommended.

In this game, you have a manual, a computer, and a genie. The genie gives you a programming task in LISP, which you must then try to complete. The genie then tests your code, and gives you feedback.

I enjoyed the game, getting up to the SUM command before quitting.

A good game for those interested in learning a computer programming language.

In this game, every 'room' is a conversation with a new individual. Topics that you can discuss are highlighted in brackets or by other means depending on the interpreter.

Interestingly, every topic you learn in one location can be used in another. An important command here is 'GOODBYE', which I didn't learn for a while.

The story is intricate and interesting, told only in conversation. You have returned to a city dominated by a new god and his priest, Salyndo. You try to find a way to overthrow it.

Short, but breathtaking in the images it gives you glimpses of. I used 'help' about 5-6 times.

Strongly recommended.

I should say upfront that I probably missed some important subtext in this game, because it just seems like a straight-up resource management game in a porpentine world.

You try to obtain enough currency (in the form of Vespine shards) to keep a crying Eye Moon from flooding your villages. You can hire mercenaries to destroy tears, gamble to get more cash, fire a cannon, or build a boat. The boat is a reasonable way to beat the game.

There are several npcs, including one who tries to worm their way into your life.

Overall, it's an amusing diversion. It is polished and descriptive, but I did not find it emotionally compelling. I enjoyed the sim aspects, and I could see myself playing again.

This Andrew Schultz game builds and expands on one of my favorite Schultz games, Threediopolis. If you haven't played that game, you should try it out first, as this game contains spoilers for the basic concept of that game.

If you have played threediopolis, (Spoiler - click to show)this is the same sort of game, except some chess-like moves have been added, h,i,j,k. Each of these teleports you 2 spaces away in each direction. For instance, h teleports you n,e, and u, while i teleports you w,s, and u.

This makes the game more difficult. I found it helpful to read some of the documentation on the spring thing website, which will most likely be included on IFDB afterwards. It gives a helpful list of the results of 2- and 3- letter combinations, like hi.


My rating of this game is certainly subjective. The puzzles appeal to me as a mathematician because I love the interplay between freedom and constraint. Emotionally, it draws you into an exploratory/puzzly/celebratory mood. The game is definitely polished, and I plan on playing again (it's a long game, and I've only played through part of it. It's the kind of game I feel I could return to frequently to play around with). I though of taking off one point due to the lack of descriptive text, but I realized that more text would make the game difficult and tedious. The scarcity of text is a necessary part of the design.

Like I said, this game will only appeal to a certain group of people, so I can't recommend it to everyone. But fans of crosswords, cryptograms, and codewords will enjoy this game.