Reviews by MathBrush

This IfComp 2015 game is mid-length, and is full of reversed compound nouns (so, for instance, you are Alec Smart, seeking out the Complex Messiah).

The big inspiration here is the Phantom Tollbooth. As in that book, the clever jokes are the focus, with story being out to the sidelines. Also like the book, you wander about the world, undertaking different quests and talking to interesting characters.

Much of the game is social commentary, specifically on 'smart people'; those who are socially awkward, those who are pretentious, those who are idolized, etc.

I beta tested this game, and it was interesting to see how much work the author put into revisions; many things in the game are vastly different from before, fortunately, the author allows you to tour sections of the game that were removed, which is a very nice bonus.


Recommended for fans of the Phantom Tollbooth, or those interested in games that comment on real-life issues.

This IFComp 2015 game is written using inklewriter. It contains a fairly large amount of text for an interactive fiction game, but it stops at the most interesting point of the story. To me, it felt like the first two chapters of a long novel.

The story is about time travel, and is complicated and intricate. It is clear that the author is excellent at worldbuilding; I read through this game twice, about two weeks apart, and the second time I appreciated the story much more. I was excited to read more, and I hope the author continues the story.

There are a couple of typos, but I think the author may be fixing them, as I remember there being more the first time I read it.

So this story is more of non-interactive fiction, but it is not bad for a sci-fi short story.

Border zone is stressful for me. Unlike most IF, you have to type very fast, as the clock keeps running and running. I had to type super fast on the iPad and I kept dying from typos, even using slow time and the walkthrough.

The story and puzzles are actually really fun. I enjoyed the game a lot, especially the first act (where you have to smuggle information out of a train) and the third act (where you are a double agent, and have to stop an assassination without people knowing you did it). The three acts can be started at any time, and each follows a different person.

Stressful, but rewarding.

I played this long (but purposely repetetive) IFComp 2015 Twine game twice, about two weeks apart.

Let's just say what it's about now; this is a game whose experience does not depend on spoilers.

You are enacting an ancient scottish ritual where you are trying to summon a demon by roasting cats alive over several days.

In the game, you repeatedly click on the same thing over and over again, with some procedural text generation changing some minor details.

The game changes over time, but it takes a long, long time to do so. In the mean time, you can, as I did the first time, just start letting cats go and give up on the whole ritual. In fact, it may be cathartic for some (including myself) to play again and just let all the cats ago.

You have to roast somewhere between (Spoiler - click to show)40-100 cats to reach the ending.

I did not listen with audio, as I never do, but many say it contributes to the experience, for good or for ill.

This was an IFComp 2015 entry. This is a mid-length Twine game with an interesting format: each page is written somewhat like a play, listing the location and people present, each in their own color. Then dialogue appears a line at a time, each in the color belonging to the person.

The game is set on a space station. You are a computer, and there has been a murder on the station.

I enjoyed the story, especially the 2nd and 3rd times I played it. Most of the interactivity is found in selecting the order of presentation. I am beginning to become a fan of dialogue-only games, like this and Birdland.

I've heard many people talk about Lime Ergot, but I had no idea what it was about. It was an EctoComp 2014 game, so it had to be written in 3 hours, although it has since been updated.

The main thrust of the game is that you are standing with a general near a city, trying to make a Green Skull drink. Everything is vague and surreal. You 'move' by examining things, then examining more and examining more.

I had trouble getting started, but once I got started, it got easier and easier.

Strongly recommended for its fun-to-time ratio.

I'll be upfront and say that, by modern standards, I wasn't impressed with the original Ditch Day Drifter. This sequel, however blows my mind.

The introduction is especially good. Reminding me of the hidden temple sequence in Lydia's Heart, you have to race another tech firm to pitch a product to a southeast asian company. You have to deal with both fidgety technology and a decaying factory.

The game then makes a huge transition to Caltech, scene of the original Ditch Day Drifter. As then, you must explore the campus, solving stacks, reading memos, going in the tunnels, going to the store and kitchen.

But boy, the world has changed! Crowds of independent NPCs, immersive room descriptions, real conversations, etc.

The game has a fairly unique premise: your character must learn (or relearn) about physics and engineering to crack the code on a high-tech box. Puzzles are drawn from real-life techniques, and you learn a lot; however, the game is adapted for those with no real-life experience. You convert IP addresses to hex form and back; you learn about quantum coherence and decoherence; you learn how to use network analyzers and even cherry pickers.

I enjoyed the beginning more than the rest of the game, but that's because open nonlinear games often intimidate me.

I recommend this game for everyone. Even if you're not great at IT, like me, the game treats it like any other 'magic system', telling you how to use things. It's fun.

What an enjoyable game! My heart was racing in chapter 12. This is a quite long game set in a world dominated by clockwork; the religion, the city, the people's mindset, everything is based on clockwork (a funny moment was seeing that pagans worshipped non-mechanical timekeeping devices like water clocks or sundials).

You play an assistant clock keeper who must investigate a future robbery. The game is a very long example of what I call the linear thriller type of game. You encounter a more or less linear sequence of challenges where you are given a good amount of hints on what to do, there is always a sense of urgency, and everything you do is the right thing in just the nick of time.

This game is what I wish the illustrated book Hugo had been from its cover; you jump and leap and fall all through a giant clock early on, you use an early calculating machine like a computer, etc.

The writing is as good as Anchorhead, in my mind, and the implementation is smooth. The story wasn't as compelling to me at first, but the last few chapters really got me into it.

The game has probably not received very much attention because it was a commercial game for a while. But everyone should try it now.

This IFComp 2015 game starts off as a time-management baking game that I at first found very difficult to keep track of, and several non-standard inventory items.

Eventually things start to happen. The game gets much more interesting. However, micromanagment still abounds. Things can get frequently lost; things have to be replaced. A dozen or more NPC's of various types come and go, doing what they please, and it is difficult to keep track of everything.

I played through this game twice, a couple of weeks apart, and it was still hard to juggle everything the second time, knowing exactly what I needed to do. However, I understood the game much better the second time, and I appreciated it more. Some of the meta techniques are incredibly clever.

Suspended is a very unusual Infocom game. You take control of six robots, each with their strengths and issues (only one can see, but it's broken; another can feel things, but it talks in riddles; one is mainly useful if you're closer to dying, etc.)

The idea is that each one can see its environment in different ways. The first few playthroughs might just consist of exploring each room in the (provided) map, and understanding what needs to happen. Then later playthroughs would consist of trying over and over again to survive, and then trying to do it quickly.

I just played around for 15 minutes, and then used the walkthrough. I'd like to revisit this in the future. The robots have clever commentary.

It's mentioned in Planetfall that multipurpose robots like Floyd eliminated the need for these specialized robots.