Reviews by MathBrush

Starting up this parser game, it didn't have the usual banner text, so I wondered if it was Inform or something else. Typing VERSION didn't bring anything up, but I figured that might have been overriden by a too-strict limited parser, so I opened up the Inspect Element feature and checked, and the javascript was different than anything I had seen. So I looked at the author's itch page, which went to their personal webpage, where it describes a new framework for javascript parser games.

This game uses a limited set of verbs which can be found by typing HELP. The verbs that are here work generally well; I saw a couple of typos here and there and some objects weren't implemented (you can't X TREE, for instance) but that's normal for parser speed-IF, and doing speed-IF in a custom language is especially impressive. So this looks like a tech demo for the new system. If I could put in any requests, I'd like to be able to change the VERBOSEness like Inform does. Currently, moving to a new location doesn't give the room description, you have to separately LOOK; it would be nice to be able to set that property. Another thing I missed was the ability to manually RESTART.

The story is about wandering through a pumpkin patch alone, finding a variety of items while also dealing with oppressive fog. I enjoyed the ambient room descriptions and the messages when trying to go 'off map'. There are also two endings, which is neat considering the game was written so swiftly.

This game is by a Slovakian student as part of the One Boat Crew team.

It's a branching Twine game, with very different paths depending on your choices. All of them deal with a kind of strange reality you find yourself in. I took what I thought was the 'weird' path first, but when I did the 'main' path later, it was a lot shorter.

There are semi-comforting/eery endings and horrifying endings, which is a nice mix, and I would be proud of my high school students if they created something like this.

I remember Ghost Hunt I, it was a fun, compact Adventuron game tracking down a ghost (unless I'm remembering it wrong).

This game is one single puzzle with a lot of options. You have a large amount of clothing divided into type of clothing (socks, shirts, scarves, etc.) and colors, and you find three gravestones that gives you hints on the type of clothing and the color of the clothing. Putting the three correct items into the washing machine wins the game!

I was able to guess the items pretty quickly, so I spent less time on the game than almost any other game in the competition. But I thought the grave messages were cute and everything worked smoothly, and I felt a sense of accomplishment at beating it.

This sounds like it was almost a La Petite Mort game, as it was finished in 5 hours, but I’m glad the author took time to finish it, because it feels like a complete product.

This is a cyclic series of poems presented on a yellow background with black text. Due to the weird way Itch frames work, I had to download the game to be able to see it properly (if the author sees this, I suggest using the ‘enable scrollbars’ and ‘click to open in a new window’ options).

This is a poetical work of horror, with the poems blending explicitly horrifying things (monsters, death, etc.) with relatable foibles of humanity like family squabbles or employment woes.

I liked the way each poem flows into the others, and I like the variation in interaction. Some poems play out with slow-displayed text (all of which were thankfully faster than my reading speed). My favorite poem in the cycle, Monstrous beauty of curses, uses a kind of accretive poetry where the lines and words expand as they’re clicked on.

Overall, the writing here is very descriptive and the game felt interactive and polished. I found some of the topics relatable, but I’m more intrigued by the mechanics and the inter-connections.

This game boldly takes timed text and makes it the focus of the piece, using a relatively brief poem as the text with the interaction being waiting for the timed lines and occasionally clicking to bring forth the next part of the poem. Parts are fast, parts are slow; at one point I was waiting for a line and glanced at my phone and got distracted for ten minutes then came back to the computer and realised I hadn't finished (this shows I have a < 10 second attention span).

The poem itself is about a dungeon and escape. There were multiple lines where I thought, "Wow, I like this writing." The twist at the end was amusing as well.

I think this is a great format for Ectocomp. Instead of going for broad scope, you narrowly focus on a piece of writing and work it to become as polished as possible. Nice.

This is an Andrew Schultz game written in Adventuron. The adventuron aspect allows the use of pixel art here, which I think greatly enhances the experience. There were several pages where I said 'wow!' out loud when I saw them, including one featuring animals. Great work here; since these wordplay games can become very abstract, the art helps ground the game, and the colors are cheerful.

This is a wordplay game about taking two-word pairs and typing other two-word pairs that sound like them when spoken out loud. There are 12 such pairs. I got stuck twice: once, not realizing I pronounced something differently than the author (curse my Utah accent!), and another where I didn't realize I was doing wordplay on the wrong thing in a room.

Overall, great scope and polish for a 4 hr game. I would definitely look forward to more games in this vein (e.g. level of difficulty, size, graphics).

I was delighted by this game. It's in the author nilsf's custom javascript parser system (I believe), which has always been on par with the big 3 of Inform, TADS and Dialog.

It's a short two-room game. At first, I was entirely stymied on what to do. There were several cryptic messages and a way to die but that's all. I was about to post a hint request, but carefully replaying the game to describe the setup gave me the hint I needed to succeed.

The second room had a lot going on. I felt like there just wasn't enough info to proceed, but when I finally figured out what the vials were for, I was really impressed with the solution. Finally, figuring out the skulls was a real unusual thing that was not something I've seen very often at all in parser games.

So, this was great. There were a few typos (I think a wall was called 'souther') and I had trouble referring to one vial, but otherwise this worked great, and I'm impressed it was put together in such short time.

This game is by a recent new IFComp entrant, and has an impressive amount of objects for a speed-IF, and even includes two endings (one of which I decompiled to find).

You are naked and alone in your garage, and you need to figure out what exactly happened between you and your family the night before. First step: finding clothes!

The house you explore has a lot of items implemented, like alcohol and glasses, a rotary telephone, a couple of keys. There is also a series of mysterious background messages prompting you forward.

I think this was a good topic choice for a Speed IF and that it was executed well.

Interesting that I’d play two games within a few days of each other about inhuman creatures who gain action verbs from their surroundings in order to move around and interact with each others. Also interesting that, outside of that similarity, these games are so different (the other game is Stage Fright).

I played the English version of this game, as while I enjoy playing French games, I tend to understand much better in my native language.

This game has a cool retro vibe (it uses the Decker engine) and has an eyeball that looks wherever your cursor is.

You yourself are some kind of monstrous being with unusual powers. The game is short and the powers are the most fun part so I won’t spoil anything here. I found two endings, both of which felt appropriate for my character. Short and fun.

This is a military mermaid exploration horror game, a genre I didn’t know existed until now.

This is also a choicescript game of around 25K words (according to the author), which can be played in less than an hour.

In it, you are a captive mermaid used by the government to carry out dangerous missions. Several divers have died in a certain area, and it’s your job to figure out what can go wrong. Your greatest tool is your voice, which can injure or soothe others.

You have to explore a mysterious shipwreck and deal with a number of frightening phenomena.

I liked the storyline and the various creatures a lot here. And there was plenty to do, like choosing what to explore first, deciding how risky to be when encountering new dangers, etc.

I sometimes found my attention wandering, including one scene mentioning a splinter that I reread two or three times. Other times I was very locked in, usually with the things unique to being a mermaid (like using the voice or dealing with the collar around your neck).

I like Jacic’s games in general but I think this one is especially good; the aquatic setting is the perfect setting for the author’s strange creatures and creepy atmosphere.