Reviews by MathBrush

This is a surprisingly complex one move game. It was written for the Apollo 18 Tribute album and named after the corresponding song.

You are stuck in a time loop as a reactor core explodes on a station over a black hole. You have to look at everything, learn a new number system, and figure out some alphanumeric codes.

As a mathematician, this was pretty fun. As an IF player, I appreciated how much work went into this. Great game.

This is an exceptionally polished release of a speed IF, with brief story about a star on the moon who is ready to leap to the earth.

The writing is descriptive, and the settings are creative. I had some trouble actually leaping due to not reading the description, but the help menu is quite clever and just as fun as the actual game.

In this short game, you play as three separate djinn, magical creatures who have various powers. Each one usually deals with characters with flaws (a separate flaw for each djinni) that prevents them from being happy. But the masters in this game is different.

The puzzles in this game are clever, but it is really unpolished. There is a mysterious counter in the status line that takes some time to figure out, you are given only a few hints on what commands to do or what is possible, and even movement and inventory behave differently).

Reading the beginning of the walkthrough is immensely helpful.

God for fans of setting and story who don't mind some fussy commands.

In this charming little gem from the IF art show, you play an amateur farmer trying to keep a rabbit out of his garden by catching it. As is usual for the art show, the focus is on the experience more than puzzles, so you have tons of items that are well-implemented (a ladder, a tractor, a chainsaw, a net, carrots, etc.) and can use them in creative ways.

The writing is cute, and much of the subtext is about your feelings about the rabbit.

It was based on a true story. I was impatient, so I looked up the ending, but winning isn't really the point; the point is your experience.

This game shows the power of Undum by allowing you to adapt a text from beginning to end.

You are a parent telling a story to a kid at night about a pumpkin slayee (or other kind of fun monster). But the kid keeps complaining, so you go back and edit the story.

The writing is charming, and you really feel part of the storytelling process. The effects are well-polished however, the story didn't completely grip me as much as the technical capabilities.

The Weapon is an excellent, polished puzzler. You are handcuffed and take in to understand a piece of technology left by an ancient space-faring race. You have your own agenda, though.

There is a well-loved NPC keeping an eye on you. This makes the puzzles that much harder. But they aren't impossible. You basically have to distract her while deciphering the code.

Overall, strongly recommended.

The City has some great descriptive writing, but suffers from a few problems.

You wake up with amnesia in a mostly empty area and follow a surreal plot with a What Happened? ending. This has been done in shows like The Island, in short stories, and many times in interactive fiction (although this is an early example). The City doesn't bring much new to the table plot wise.

The game is short enough that the author felt justified in disabling save, restart, undo. This had an interesting effect on the atmosphere.

The puzzles were highly unclued with some guess the verb problems.

This may sound like a negative review, but the descriptive writing was a joy.

I found this game to be haunting, especially on the second playthrough months later. You are a young woman who experiences strange jumps, or transilience. You travel between world's when you sleep, and it leaves you disoriented and frightened.

Both worlds deal with unwanted sexual advances or effects, although there is no graphic content. In one world, you are sleeping beauty, and in the other, you are mysteriously pregnant.


Short and well crafted, and recommended.

Like many Porpentine games, this game is one big metaphor for the experiences of a trans individual, in this case also (Spoiler - click to show) abused by their parents.

You play a corporate executive, trying to make a million dollars. Porpentine enjoys the liberal use of irony, such as expounding on the beauty and wonderful taste of trash.

The game is quite complex, with some difficult action scenes and with one part that took me a week to figure out.

The game has a strong emotional effect. It also has a lot of sexual references and some strong language.

I put off this review for months because I hoped to find the solution to the game. But, I cant, so here goes. You play a Scottish man who is trying to stop the wedding of his love.

It has two interesting mechanics. First, you change Tartans to change how others perceive you. Second, you modify actions with adverbs.

In practice, this is very difficult. The number of possible adverbs is staggering, and there is no IF tradition to rely on. Even though the game is short, it's hard to find the solution.

Overall, an intriguing experiment.