Reviews by MathBrush

This is a Petite Morte Ectocomp 2021 game, written in 4 hours or less and featuring the custom parser system used in the author's game The Libonotus Cup.

Visually, the game looks good in terms of font and color.

The story and gameplay are that you are going to the bathroom when suddenly you appear as a ghost in front of a tower. There are 8 locations around the tower, arranged in a circle. Unfortunately, you don't have hands that can pick up anything.

So you have to visit different locations and gain different powers. One location had a riddle which was based on a pun, which could be hard for non-native English speakers.

The setting is interesting, and the descriptions are well-developed for a 4-hour game, but the whole thing is somewhat disjointed and nonsensical. It's just a fun, short puzzly game, and there's nothing wrong with that.

This game is an overflow for ideas that didn't fit into the author's previous Pig Latin-themed game, Under They Thunder.

Like the majority of Andrew Schultz games, this is a world with names based on some linguistic trick (here, Pig Latin) that is surreal and focuses a lot on overcoming bullies using self-confidence.

It's a speed-IF with a small map, and due to the constraints almost all objects are undescribd.

The main gameplay element is that you walk around, but the map is blocked, but occasionally you get an item when you're walking that helps you pass them.

There's a little more to it than that, but I confess that I couldn't grasp the main puzzle at the end without glancing at the walkthrough.

This is a wordplay game centered around the idea of repeated sequences of letters (like how the title, 'psyops, yo' consists of 'psyo' repeated twice).

This is smaller than most Andrew Schultz games, which makes sense for an ectocomp entry. It has 4 puzzles you need to solve.

I found two of them with a little thinking and felt good about it. The other two stumped me; I used an online word solver to figure it out, and both surprised me as I felt they could be hinted a little more.

Overall, a fun concept.

This game is fabulous plot-wise: you encounter a mysterious deer beast in the forest and track it back to a farm. There you discover a strange series of events in the past through the use of journal entries.

Getting that story, though, can be a real pain. Many commands go unrecognized. Here is an example from early on in the game:

(Spoiler - click to show)> x door
A solid front door made of heavy wood. The green paint has all but peeled away. You see a tarnished door knocker in the shape of a Fleur de Lis.

> knock
I don't understand your command.

> knock door
I better use the knocker to do that.

> knock knocker
You can't knock it.

> x knocker
A tarnished door knocker in the shape of a Fleur de Lis.

> use knocker
You use the door knocker and knock loudly... Nothing happens. Looks like no one is home.
(You unlocked an Achievement.)

A lot of the wording is confusing or misspelled (like 'Knock arrow' instead of 'nock arrow'). Overall, the game could've used less time in making its huge map and more time in polishing a smaller segment of the gameplay.

I really like the story, though, which is why I'm giving it a rating of 3 (for descriptiveness, emotional impact and the fact that I'd play again).

This is an entry in Ectocomp 2021, in the Grand Guignol section.

You play as a young person who is able to see ghosts, or at least a specific ghost named Jack. Jack urges you to solve his murder and stop another which is about to occur.

The map is pretty large, extending over three different main locations, each with 8-20 rooms.

Interaction consists of classic parser gameplay (one puzzle (Spoiler - click to show)is familiar for fans of older games, although with an unusual twist) as well as topic based conversation.

The game has an interesting premise and excels most at setting and scenery.

The implementation could be more thorough. Many synonyms are not implemented (for instance, in the final scene, (Spoiler - click to show)the service box only works if you UNLOCK BOX WITH KEY, and not if you TURN ON BOX, RAISE LIFT, go UP, etc.) Many key items are not implemented, and some verbs that are directly suggested in the text do not work. An important PC's name isn't capitalized in responses.

I think this game could benefit from being ported to Adventuron. Adding some nice pixel art would improve the overall appeal, and the (large) Adventuron audience is generally less concerned about small details of implementation and appreciates the classic gameplay and interesting maps of games like this.

This game, entered in Ectocomp 2021, is a brief Twine game in which you recreate the Chaucer story The Pardoner's Tale as one of the main characters.

For most of the game you have two choices: follow the story, or go off the rails. Going off the rails generally results in your death. There is no undo, so you'll have to replay, which can be mildly slow due to some timed text but not too bad.

There are three main endings: death, the traditional Chaucer ending, and, the game insinuates, a victorious ending, which I eventually found.

I think the Chaucer original is neat. The gauntlet story structure here was a bit rough, since you saw the same text over and over again and the extra deaths didn't really add much value. It was essentially a 'do you want to continue the story or start over from the beginning?' button.

The layout was a bit hard to read, with some paragraphs being centered and the lower paragraphs being left-justified. Also, the author used a serifed font on a pure-black background, both of which made it harder to read.

There were many stats displayed but they were a bit confusing. At one point I think I had -3 money.

Overall, the strongest points here are the interesting story and the characters.

I was interested to see a game described as 'Mormon horror' on the IFDB feed. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's rare to see interactive fiction that's connected to my church.

This game is a take on Bluebeard, a topic I enjoy (one of my favorite opera's is Duke Bluebeard's Castle, which has a lot in common with this game).

However, it differs from traditional Bluebeard narratives by putting a religious spin on things. The religion in this game isn't the same as my church; instead, it's an amalgamation of the culture in Utah, especially Provo, some esoteric doctrinal references, and some new innovations I've never really seen before.

The Utah culture shows up in things like 'dirty coke' (which is soda with mix-ins like coconut or flavored syrups) and 'Sunstone' (the name of a magazine that does academic/critical studies of the religion), or people using 'Brigham Young was my ancestor'. The main NPC is an area authority, which I think is an in-joke as they are in real life distant, benign administrators that are rarely seen (most real-life church figures that people take issue with are local like bishops or global like apostles). The new innovations are things like having an estate with a chapel on it (?) that is also an official temple for marriage purposes (?) or talking about early settlers being called skillet-lickers.

The main horror components are centered around common concerns that women (especially in Utah) experience in marriage: feeling pressured into early pregnancy, feeling socially inadequate due to infertility, feeling a loss of ownership over the body, and feeling pressured and grossed out due to a new husbands request for (metaphorical) frequent sexual relations, or being worried that you'll be forced into a polygamous marriage in heaven against your will. These are things I saw a lot in my town growing up and which I've seen almost not at all in every other state I've lived in. Utah can be pretty weird some times.

You have a health meter which results in your death when depleted, as well as faithfulness (which (Spoiler - click to show)takes you to a depressing heaven) and unfaithfulness (which (Spoiler - click to show)gets you kicked out but safe).

The game was polished in general, with custom styling but a couple of issues with paragraph breaks. I found the writing to be evocative. The various stats made for good interactivity in a fairly brief game. And the horror was true to real emotions and experiences I've seen before (in particular, part of it reminded me of a (Spoiler - click to show)traumatic miscarriage my former spouse had which I helped/supported during).

I felt like the game had very little to do with the Church of Jesus Christ itself; the vast majority of messaging in the actual church is 'God loves you' and 'if you've messed up Christ will help you if you let him'. But I do think it represents the experience of many women, especially in BYU/Provo/Utah, and that many people could see themselves in this game.

One trend in IFComp is that an unfinished game will place near the bottom of the comp, regardless of any other positive features it might have. There are some exceptions, but they are rare.

This game cuts off right after a big investigation. The idea is that humanity has moved on from reproduction, and everyone is now immortal, there are dozens of different pronoun options (the most meaningful choices in the game are centered around terms of address and pronouns), and everyone is smart and cool. The first biologically born person in millenia has been found murdered.

There are multiple typos (although literally as I was playing the game for 20 minutes near midnight on a Saturday, the author updated the game, which was a fun coincidence), such as 'TALKED WITH' instead of 'TALK WITH'. I also found the jumping between perspectives a little confusing as well.

Due to the confusing language and the errors and the unfinished aspect, I didn't find the game polished, descriptive, emotionally engaging, or something I'd like to revisit for now.

I do think the general idea is a good one. A game like this would probably do better in Introcomp, which was definitely underpopulated this year.

This game is a six-by-six grid of locations, each described in two words or less. Each location has something that needs resolving: a missing item, or a problem in a different square. You are the resolver, who will resolve the problems (including the word limit).

It's choice-based, but with mild quadratic complexity. You can choose between LOOKing and INTERACTing with each object in a room, and you gather an inventory of items.

I loved this game, with the only drawback for me being the 'lawnmowering' that felt natural for the mid-game, trying out different items in different rooms. This problem is both alleviated and exacerbated by the helpful text which tells you if you're in the right room. It makes lawnmowering both faster (less painful) but also more appealing.

Overall, I find this a very successful puzzle piece. It reminds me of Weird City Interloper, a bit.

I can also highly recommend Domestic Elementalism, another game by this author from the 2017 IFComp.

This game is one of two entered by Bez in this competition, the other being 'Weird Grief', and the two tie into each other.

In this one, presented in customized Twine, you are a moderator for an online community, and have been asked to begin closing accounts of dead customers.

Gameplay is divided into two components: reading through old messages, and entering a group chat with everyone involved.

The game has illustrated avatars for each important character, as well as a few other pieces of art.

The second section of the game is all on a timer. It's not too long, but I tend to multitask while playing IF (the format lends itself well to pick-up-and-put-down play), and I tabbed away to work on other things while waiting for the text to complete, only to come back and see it had wiped the screen and started new messages. I also had to leave in the middle of some text to use the restroom, and missed a couple of other parts because of that. So for future players, I'd recommend dedicating a set amount of time to read through the second portion.

The text includes frequent strong and mild profanities and depicts traumatizing events as well as reference to sexual activities.

Overall, I found the game polished and descriptive, with an emotional impact. The nonlinear interactivity in the first half worked for me, but the second half was a little rougher, so I'd give this a 3.5, which I'll round up to a 4 for IFDB.