Crystal and Stone, Beetle and Bone

I've played quite a few IF games. This one is outstanding. It's immersive, intuitive, beautiful, and quite frankly, fun. At first, I was a bit thrown off by it's long, descriptive narratives, but soon realized that they are the joy of the game. Unlike many other IF adventures, where it seems to almost be a competition with one's self as to how quickly you can blow through each area, mind mapping and solving puzzles, this game does a much better job of wrapping you in it's beautifully illustrated world and guiding you on a fun New journey. It's main character and it's NPCs give you a deeper connection than what is normally found, leaving you with a more satisfied feeling than talking to let's say, "a Chuckie Cheese animatronic for 10 minutes." I had a feeling there was something different about this game after playing it for a while, then I looked up and saw the Author has become blind. Now it makes total sense to me. The lands, the characters, the story come from a bright imagination that longs to and succeeds in creating a world of vivid imagery. It's fun to close our eyes and meet her there, and to realize that for the rest of us who may yet see... How much we take for granted and how much that blinds us to all of the poetry that surrounds and fills us... If we look closely. Jenny Brennan, thank you for a great game, and we look forward to Future works of yours. BTW, I love having the option of either an evil or good ending...

The intriguing title and premise of Crystal and Stone, Beetle and Bone seem to draw a fair amount of interest (with over 50 people having put it on their wishlists), but not many people seem to complete the game (only 10 people having marked it as played). The first and only work published by author Jenny Brennan, it does an admirable job of avoiding first-timer foibles and presents itself as a fairly lush setting complemented by above-average coding (especially considering that it is written in Inform 6).

In this work you play a deity -- a much-weakened monotheistic deity with fairly limited powers. In fact, the bulk of your influence on the world comes via your lone remaining follower, Lornedei, whom you granted certain abilities at birth which are now coming to fruition. You must guide Lornedei in her quest, which is oddly unspecified despite the fact that you are the one bestowing it. As the player, you are told only that the people of the world do not see a "coming darkness," so discovering and addressing this becomes the natural goal.

The world is presented in a rich, multi-sensory manner, and locations are lovingly described in terms of light, color, sounds and smells. There is lore to be found, and artifacts of the past, which together slowly tell the story of a catacylsmic change and a world left out of balance. There are many creatures with whom Lornedei will interact, helping or hindering her in her journey.

As play progresses, it turns out that you are not the only influence on the world... or on Lornedei. In her travels she can come under the sway of a malign entity, or simply become distracted with worldly matters. Interestingly, the work allows completion of the story under these altered states, with corresponding consequences for the fictional world. As the player, playing god, you will make the ultimate decisions.

CSBB is extremely player-friendly, with an in-world hint system (in the form of a summonable talking firefly) that provides strong nudges via ASK/TELL interaction. There is also a complete walkthrough available in-game, delivered in segments upon request, which describes how to reach the multiple endings. The limited lore divulged in the story hints at a deeper structure that is not made explicit. This grants a dreamlike quality to the work, which is enhanced by the intuition-based logic governing many puzzles. The author's voice is slightly inconsistent, occasionally breaking through with bits of detached and/or denigrating humor. An examination of decompiled code suggests that many alternate outcomes (Spoiler - click to show)(e.g. your death at Lornedei's hands, her willing self-immolation, or surrender to and cooperation with the forces of darkness) are possible for the player who does not wish to see a conventional happy ending.

Although this game was enjoyable and interesting in its "standard fantasy" mode, it does have some flaws. There are bugs to be found, even in version 4, as well as various typographical errors. None of them are very serious, though it is possible to crash the game via stack overflow when (Spoiler - click to show)messing around too much with pouring water on things, so save often. (This advice is especially important since, though I believe the game is not intended to be so, it is "cruel" on the Zarfian scale due to what may be programming and/or design errors. See the ClubFloyd transcript for an example of a "stuck" scenario.) Some objects seem to be red herrings. The largest flaw is that it seems slightly incomplete -- truncated in certain aspects, whether due to the author's weariness or wariness. It is compelling enough to recommend to those who aren't disappointed by loose ends, and it is worth study by would-be authors for its implementation style, which provides a smooth gameplay experience.