Ratings and Reviews by dutchmule

"Voltage Café" is about a grad student trying to get some writing done at a café. Oddly, it seems to be a self-contained game, which is not what IntroComp is about... The game itself is pretty short, and somewhat repetitive: you need to type >write, except that sometimes your character is hungry or thirsty and you need to order something and eat it in order to keep going; this is a pretty simplistic mechanism, and not very interesting in IF, since you use 3 verbs and there's no time constraint or skill involved.

The way the game describes the central goal of the game, the thesis, is very odd. First of all nothing is described in any detail: we don't even know what subject is the thesis on, and the few details that are given are contradictory ("an alternate proof", "a new design space" and "Oulipo" - math or art history or literature??). There's also not enough messages cycling through when you >write: if you expect your player to type this 20 times to win the game, you have to have 20 responses, not 5. Finally, my biggest gripe about it is that it really doesn't reflect what writing a thesis is: the game's messages say "you discover new insights in your field", "you outline new designs" and "new ideas come pouring in your brain". This is completely the opposite of what a thesis is: writing a thesis is AFTER all this, after years of research in which you discover new stuff and feel excited (until you discover a flaw or you get stuck) and sketch new things. Writing a thesis is getting all your notes and ideas together, and trying to write them as clearly, cleanly, precisely and concisely as possible, maintaining a coherent flow and structure, explaining why your work is important, reviewing literature, etc.; it's not as exciting, but it needs to be done instead of thinking about more novel ideas and research, which is exactly why people procrastinate on it!!

The game is sparsely implemented, with not a lot in terms of scenery, a protagonist you know nothing of, and an NPC that's not very interactive; and the writing is not very good, with everything being very generic and short descriptions that don't say much. The implementation is not very good either, with messages crashing into each other, lone periods and typos.

I wouldn't recommend this game, and don't want to see more, if there is more. I would advise the author to do their research (heh) so that they know more about the topic they are writing about, which will allow them to be more specific and truer; and attempt to tell a story in the game if the mechanics are meant to be simple. For what it's worth, the introductory sentence "you heard this café is supposed to be particularly good for students who want to finally write their thesis" made me wonder 'why? what is it about this café that makes it that great? is there a magic spell? an old sage that can help any graduate student in any topic? that could be exciting' -- those kind of ideas would put a fresh spin on the well-worn scenario, which is exactly what is needed.

"Pirates des Charaïbes" est un jeu qui se déroule sur l'île du Dugong, où vous suivez les aventures de Gash et Flocon, deux amoureux pirates. L'ambiance de pirate est réussie (bal du Gouverneur, rhum, etc.), et le ton résolument parodique ; le jeu ne se prend pas au sérieux, et l'humour part dans tous les sens, avec plein de références pop culture (anachroniques) qui partent elles aussi dans tous les sens (heavy metal, Moby Dick, Pokémon, Man Ray...). J'aurais pu dire que ça rappelle Monkey Island, mais c'est bien plus foutraque, et parfois plus osé.

Le jeu arrive quand même à poser une ambiance intéressante entre les blagues ; j'ai beaucoup aimé le rhum-gros-piment, par exemple, qui est rigolo mais crédible, et j'espère qu'il y aura des duels de rhum-gros-piment dans le jeu final. Les situations dans lesquelles le jeu nous plonge sont chouettes, plutôt variées et fertiles. Les personnages secondaires sont relativement bien posés, même si on n'évite pas les clichés plutôt limites (4 personnages obèses, 3 méchants et 1 ridicule, sur 6 NPCs dans la première scène ; le stéréotype asiatique façon péril jaune dans la deuxième partie, et pourquoi pas celui du (Spoiler - click to show)pirate informatique). C'est sans doute ça le plus gros écueil que le jeu doit éviter : arriver à maintenir un rythme soutenu et enlevé sans forcément essayer de faire rire à tout prix et à n'importe quel prix tout le temps ; sinon, ça risque d'être épuisant pour le joueur, et sans doute aussi pour les auteurs. Les personnages sont intéressants, l'idée d'un couple de pirate (et de jouer à Roméo et Juliette chez les pirates) est très chouette, et le monde peut être assez développé pour donner une histoire et des aventures palpitantes sans se prendre au sérieux - c'est ça qui porte le jeu sur la durée, je pense.

L'interface est assez intéressante, et il me semble inédite : vous contrôlez à tour de rôle, pendant 5 tours, chacun des personnages, et les auteurs recommandent de jouer à ce jeu à deux (l'un sur les genoux de l'autre de préférence). Au final, c'est assez intéressant et ça se joue bien, et ça pourrait sans doute donner une variété de situations et de mécanismes qui jouent avec cette contrainte !

Techniquement, j'ai trouvé le jeu quasi-irréprochable, et même mieux : le jeu ose faire des trucs différents et qui marchent super bien, et j'ai été agréablement surpris et impressionné par la qualité du jeu ! C'est correctement débogué, la barre de statut customisée donne des informations intéressantes (et elle est en bas, et ça passe bien !!), il y a des phases de combat qui sont bien faites ; et surtout, les objets importants sont colorés en bleu (et les sorties en vert), et taper le nom d'un objet (sans verbe) correspond à l'examiner (comme dans Blue Lacuna, il me semble). Je crois que c'est un peu inédit pour un jeu en français, et nul doute que ça aide les joueurs novices. Et il y a des 'haut faits' (achievements), plutôt drôles de surcroît, à la fin du jeu ! Tout ceci fait que le jeu est très travaillé niveau interface et est un plaisir à jouer.

En résumé, "Pirates des Charaïbes" est un jeu drôle et très bien fait, qui prend moins d'une heure à jouer et qui est relativement facile. L'atmosphère du jeu est prenante et promet de belles aventures avec un couple de personnages intéressant, l'aspect technique est impressionnant, et les blagues sont drôles, même si un jeu plus long avec une histoire plus développée devrait sans doute réduire la densité de blagues et se recentrer un peu plus sur le monde et l'aventure. J'espère de tout coeur qu'une suite à cette introduction verra le jour !!

'The Play' is set during a dress rehearsal of a play, the last one before the first performance; as the director, it is your responsibility to manage everyone and make sure that last rehearsal goes... somewhat well. This in itself is a very interesting setting and situation, where you have a linear path that is more or less followed with each playthrough, but with lots of variations, as resolving some situations might create different problems, and the emotional state of each character (tracked helpfully on the top right corner of the screen) changes.

The fact that you need to manage the emotions of four different characters, and that some decisions may make some happy but others will feel worse, create somewhat of an optimization problem, with multiple strategies possible: I kept going back and playing around different things, like "ok, this time let's try to keep that guy somewhat happy" or "i'm going to try to make this person so enraged they quit", when my first playthrough was less game-y and more "i'll stick to what i think is right". The game itself is very rich, and the state in which the characters are is genuinely important: depending on their mood, they might interject with new lines, or not say anything (and thus some choices are never offered), etc. This gives the impression of a lot of content to explore; furthermore, since everything is justified so nicely, it always feels coherent and polished, which is extremely enjoyable. I also loved that the final bit is a review of your play, with lots of variations and summing up and reflecting very well the choices you made and how everyone feels.

The game deals somewhat prominently with themes of female empowerment and sexual harassment, but not too heavy-handedly, as it is always focused on the present actions (the play, the relationship between actors). The pressure of having to finish the play further complicates the matter, as dealing with such issues also implies making some people happy and some unhappy, which is a practical consideration you will want to take into account as well; it makes the judgement calls having real consequences, which is more interesting than just applying absolute considerations or your own values. But I also liked that there were other situations influencing the state of things: tensions between director and actor, between old actors and young actors, between good and less experienced actors, etc. The only thing I felt was missing was in the character of the stage manager, who doesn't really get emotionally involved (at least, she didn't in my playthroughs), when there could have been more drama from the opposition with the actors (and the director) here too.

One of the things I didn't really like was that you could make choices as the director, but you didn't have control over the tone or content of your own line; as a result, I felt that sometimes Ainsley's lines were a bit too sharp or passive-aggressive given what I was expecting to achieve with this line, e.g. trying to move forward but ending up making a mean comment. But then again, if my own experience in theatre taught me anything, it's that the director is always tempted to lose their cool and fire back with a sharp tongue when actors are not being 100% cooperative (or even when they are); after all, the director is stressed too, and sometimes an artistic ego that clashes with the actor's. I don't know if the game would have been improved or needlessly complexified by the addition of a state of mind for the director as well (maybe it would lock you more in choices or in downward spirals, thus making it more frustrating for the player), but that could be interesting.

To sum up, 'The Play' is a very good 15-minute game, with lots to see and to play with; the setting feels fresh, yet coherent and realistic, and attempting to fulfill all the goals is fun, while giving food for thought about the complexity of relationships and group dynamics (and putting on plays!).

"Second Date" is a thriller with some scenes of gore, in which you go on a date with Jessica, who's hiding a secret, which of course you'll discover in due time. It kind of feels like one of those TV shows like CSI or Dexter, with scenes of gore (although more graphic than those, though not quite reaching Saw levels) and an investigation of hidden secrets.

The writing is mostly good: it is conveyed in quick, sharp passages which keep the energy and tension up, and make the characters, which are a bit stereotypical, nonetheless feel alive. I also liked the way the internal dialogue of the protagonist was written like a real dialogue between people. Unfortunately, I found that the game tried to maintain the high energy all the time, instead of modulating it, which made it feel sometimes like it was trying too hard. On a similar note, I felt like the characters were sometimes starting "big, important tirades" for no reason; it didn't really work to build character, if that's the effect that was intended, and it was pretty transparent and thus didn't work. (One particular tirade, on campus, left me very confused: I still don't know if that was character-building of a minor character, or the author trying to insert his personal beliefs in the game.)

I was pleaseantly surprised at the amount of branches and endings; some of them are rather big and deep, and clearly the author put quite a bit of work into them; I replayed the game three times to explore more and found different endings. Conveniently, the game offers the possibility at the end to rewind to a few crucial points, which was very welcome. Total play time was a bit more than half an hour, and I feel you can fully explore it in an hour, maybe more.

Overall, Second Date is an enjoyable horror-thriller game with good replayability and a nice atmosphere, although the writing could be more controlled and the characters feel a bit like stereotypes.