Reviews by MathBrush

I enjoyed this Choice of Games story. You play as the child of a former god. Her followers deposed her and stole her power, and she had to flee to a cave where she has raised you for the last few decades.

Now you have the chance to go back and restore her to power. But when you arrive at the big city, you discover the world is larger than you knew. There are many factions in play, and who gets power is up to you.

This game felt about 50/50 between 'cool magic stuff' and 'underhanded politics'. In the first category, you have things like collecting magic shards, blasting people with lightning, seeking immortality, learning the magic of the city itself, and dealing with your incredibly powerful mother.

The second category has things like siding with the cops, rebels and criminals, or current city leaders; running for election; dealing with the press; courting the favour of elected officials; and so on.

To me it felt like a weighty, rich game, and I'd play a chapter or two and let it sit in my mind for a few days. It's pretty long (at least if you take the time to think your choices through like I did).

I've only played once, so I don't know for sure how viable different paths are, but I had the impression that there was tons of variability. I played as a vengeful zealot who was completely committed to my tyrant mother and wanted her to come and destroy everyone. I always had options, which was nice. I also played as aro-ace which I regretted later on as there was a great romantic interest I wanted to pursue.

Definitely recommended for anyone who likes either of the themes (gaining powerful magic or navigating complex politics).

This game was apparently the tutorial game in Aaron Reed's book on writing games in Inform 7, which is pretty neat.

It features a disaffected native American youth who is having school, family, and girl problems and ends up blacking out and driving fifteen miles off the road and into the desert. When you crash, you find that bad weather is coming, and you have to figure out how to either keep safe or get back.

The game has a lot of symbolic/bizarre scenes as well as a spooky abandoned place to explore.

It's completely believable that this is a tutorial game, as it shows off a wide variety of Inform tools (such as things that can be opened or closed or pushed or pulled, smelling, darkness, listening, hidden objects, conversation, etc.). Speaking of conversation, it uses 'suggested topics' which it seems was controversial when the first reviews came out but is now pretty common and generally accepted (such as in Counterfeit Monkey).

Others have pointed out that the polish is a little thing when it comes to custom responses or synonyms. I do generally dislike this in games but as a tutorial game it makes sense; you don't want to overwhelm a new author with the immense amount of custom declarations you need to make to make a game 100% polished.

I liked the storyline overall. I don't see too many Native American IF stories, and while the author doesn't seem to be (?? maybe I'm making assumptions here) firmly rooted in that culture, neither does our protagonist, who specifically struggles with being placed in between three or four different kinds of culture and tradition. I liked this, and I'm glad it was recommended for the Player's choice tournament.

This game was made specifically for Emily Short by Sam Kabo Ashwell, and contains a great deal of procedural generation.

The idea is that you're sorting through a large collection of scents that you created during your life. Each one has a collection of smells and a unique bottle that it finds itself in. Each one also brings to mind a specific memory from the past. You can then associate different parts of the smell with different parts of the memory.

In the end, you can conceive of a smell that includes all the elements and memories you chose, even if it could never exist in reality.

The writing is descriptive and evocative. The game uses vorple and has great-looking UI and transitions. I played it a couple of times to see how it worked and what variations there are. It has a definite kind of feeling to it, a kind of worldliness and world-weariness. When confronted with its procedural nature and open-endedness, I struggled to find any meaning in my choices, feeling like it was more like a brainstorming session or tarot reading (which may be a plus for some). Glad I played! Good writing.

This is a Bitsy game, which uses two-color-palette minimalist pixel art and arrow controls to create a world to navigate, and text pops up when you run into certain interactive parts.

The story is a poetic description of the impact whales have on marine life both while they live and after they die. Its fairly brief, and the whole thing hinges on the writing being good, which it really is.

The artwork pushes Bitsy to its limits, with majestic whales, beating hearts, deep sea life, dithered gradients, and more. The music fits the game quite well.

Not too long, but enjoyable.

This game was once intended for Infocom (one of its authors wrote Suspended, among a few other Infocom games). When that didn't pan out, it was later repurposed for Cascade Mountain Publishing, a commercial imprint that was started by members of r*if and also published Once and Future.

The game's premise is that you are assisting a physics professor in finding a particle. Instead of finding it directly, you enter a visualization machine that represents everything as a surreal space, and if you find the particle in that space, it will let you find it in real life.

Structure-wise, it has a hub-and-spoke format, with a central 'lab' room connected to eight smaller passages. Your main goals are to find the particle and (in order to do that) to acquire five keys.

The game is solid overall in puzzles, with not too high of a difficulty and an extensive in-game hint system. Do note that there is one puzzle (a kite race) that requires copy-protection access.

Occasionally there are small bugs. I got locked out of victory by such once and had to reset. There are several non-bug ways to lock yourself out of victory, some of which are non-obvious.

The plot is a bit thin. The theme is generally about having fun, and while meditation is another theme the game doesn't dig into it very deeply.

I recommend reading the documentation ahead of time. I had fun with this game overall.

In this game, you are diving to explore the ocean as an underwater photographer. As you do so, you run into a real, live mermaid!

Interspersed with mermaid dialog, you can explore a little bit, with the game having a small world model. I played once and wasn't able to see everything, so it seems like the game makes replays worth it.

The character dialog was convincing and the game made use of its format effectively with its cheerful drawings and appropriate music. Short but fun.

I'm going to structure this review in two parts.

-A brief description
-Something for authors (players don't need to read)
-Something for prospective players (not intended for authors)

First, a description. This is a game that uses Vorple to combine nine other games. It was built around a code scheme that autosaves information from Inform and shares it with other games. Clicking links in one game autosaves your info and opens the other seamlessly, with a color-based transition. Two of the games are special: one is completely choice-based and the other is a hybrid parser like Gruescript (I believe it's in the author's custom language though).

The idea is that you are exploring an abandoned resort just for fun. As you explore further you realize that there is a rich group of other explorers and former workers that have both left clues and still explore to this day.

Okay, first for the authors:
(Spoiler - click to show)Congratulations! You all did something remarkable. Each area seemed like it was made with love. The writing was all good, all contributing to a feeling of decay and exploration and wonder and feeling. Something I loved about each area:
-Shore: I love language puzzles so this was fantastic. Favorite part of the game.
-Fortune teller: really clever meta puzzle, and the change of pace was relaxing and fun. Really adds to the piece.
-Tunnels: creepy. I love your work in general and the one easter egg reminded me of the chumba wumba earworm in your Cragne Manor piece. Best atmosphere imo.
-Gardens: I was so shocked during the big change in this area, great effect, and love how the area is initially so surprising in its change in interface.
-Moonlight Meadow: I felt like I was really there. I could smell the rotting, sodden tent in the pool, feel the plywood on the slide, feel the damp concrete under my feet, hear the creaking of old equipment in the wind, see the color of the sky. Great writing.
-Shopping Center: This had the most variety and reminded me of my favorite old parser games, especially Not Just An Ordinary Ballerina.
-Lunarcade: This had the most interactive content (imo) and felt like a really substantial complete game on its own. Most well-rounded area I think.
-Sanctuary hotel: the emotional centerpiece of the game, great character work and lovely feeling. Gross tangle of sheets in that one room.
-Monorail system: Loved the mechanical feeling. Reminded me of Fitter Happier from radiohead. The extra dials were neat.


For prospective players:
(Spoiler - click to show)This game has a lot of great content but it's spread out and mixed with red herrings and unnecessary or empty parts. Think of it like the best drink you've ever had that fills a glass, poured into a pitcher and filled with water to reach the top.

The beginning is just a vast empty void where you do little besides find room after room where you can do nothing. Objects in one area are used far away in areas you might not even conceive of.

Room descriptions are vital. Important exits can lurk in the middle of dense paragraphs. Over and over again key items and objects are named in inconspicuous places. Sometimes you just have to hit every room over and over to see if new things you have are useful.

This game is best enjoyed by those who enjoy detailed maps and careful lists of inventory and unsolved puzzles. Running through recklessly is futile, especially with tons of non-intuitive map connections and diagonal or vertical directions.

Is it worth it in the end? The journey is the real goal, here; the ending is neat but not substantially more than the rest of the game, so I'd take your time and enjoy the roses.

This was a neat experiment in a game jam designed to use non-gamemaking tools to make games.

This is a forum thread where the idea is that you read through the edit history to see what happened. It seems to me like someone having a breakdown and then it being covered up. Who covered it up, though? The government? Another personality? Parents?

It's a fun concept. Its open nature allows you to think of many possibilities but also hampers the story due to not providing enough answers to really pull you in. But a fun and unique idea.

This was a pleasant, compact Adventuron game. It had a feature I’m not used to seeing, where right-clicking on yellow words brought up possible actions. I don’t think it was all possible actions, because in both cases I tried it it only brought up ‘Examine’, but I thought it was cool!

The idea is that you’ve accidentally released the ghosts of your ancestors and you have to capture them back into the box you got them from.

There are two main ghosts to catch, each with a couple of puzzles. These puzzles were well-thought out; it looks like this Petite Mort game went for polishing a smaller-scope game rather than pushing out a bigger untested game. I think that was a smart choice! This setup would easily allow expansion if the author ever desired to do so, and I would look forward to that. Still, it’s pretty good as-is.

This game is a great example of a game that uses minimalist techniques to make a satisfyingly long game.

You start the game with a mission that's backwards of most kid's movies I watched in the 90s: you have to save ghosts in a mansion that's going to be demolished to turn into a rainforest!

There's no real attempt at storytelling in a traditional sense; it's more like Scott Adams' Adventureland in that regard. There are several locations in a kind of 3-d grid, each with a couple of interesting objects. Commands are done with 1-2 words each (although occasional 3-word commands are allowed). Art is blocky and pixelated with low resolution, but is interactive and creative in the use of color.

I explored the world and had a good time, but got really stuck at only one ghost solved. I was dismayed and used hints for a bit, only to find that I had just not know the verb to use for 3 of the ghosts: PUT. The game has a VERBS command, so I recommend using that. Once I realized that, I decided to set aside the hints and proceed normally, and I found the last 3 or 4 ghosts on my own.

The endings are pretty good. Overall, a great game if you just want a wide variety of fun puzzles.

I will say that a lot of times objects and puzzles in one location will have an effect on something in the distance, so it can be useful to explore after doing something that didn't seem important at the time.