Tableaux Vivants

Tableaux Vivants

I enjoyed this game. I first encounter Lamp Post Projects through their watercolor-illustrated fantasy games about what I saw as 1600s-1700s fancy European society in a fantasy world. These were long choice-based games that focused on kind and gentle friendships/romances and explorations of magic, music, and horticulture.

The author later made the parser game The Gnomish Treasury, which also focused on a combination of fantasy and culture, in this case museum artifact preservation.

This game features magic and culture again. We are an amnesiac character writing a letter to ourself in what we discover to be a magical cottage filled with transformed items and references to cultural touchstones such as famous wallpapers, books, objets d'art, etc. (okay, I don't think there are any actual objets d'art in the game on looking up what that actually means but it seems like the kind of thing that would be in the game).

This game had gentle puzzles, though I did struggle on the first and one of the last puzzles. This isn't a bad thing; a completely trivial set of puzzles can be as unenjoyable as an overly hard set of puzzles. I didn't know how to achieve my first goal/leave the room, but eventually something 'clicked' and I got it. Solving the horse problem, though, stumped me; the book research mechanic was so open ended that I never considered researching that, even with the hints. I used the walkthrough. It made sense as a solution afterwards.

I liked the writing, enjoyed the reminder of Christina Rossetti, liked the generally self-indulgent nature of the game. It reminded me of two other authors. I first thought that Lamp Post Projects and Amanda Walker are like two facets of the same gem, or like Mario and Wario, with similar settings and themes but with one focusing on the beautiful in life and the other focusing on the ugly (not in a bad way). If they ever collaborated on a game, it would be pretty funny to see the results, maybe like how Gojo's Red and Blue collided as opposites to produce Hollow Purple (sorry for intruding a lowly anime reference into this refined company).

The other author I was reminded of was Andrew Plotkin; this game shares a similar structure with Dreamhold, which was about a magician recovering scraps of themself and learning exactly what kind of person they were, for good or for bad.

Good game, felt unique (despite my connections to other games), would recommend to others.

I quite liked this game. The writing was strong, and the puzzles flowed right. I particularly appreciated the highlighted words, making examinable objects jump right off the page.

But there was one puzzle that didn't sit right with me: the Napoleon puzzle.

I've said elsewhere that I think that puzzle solutions should be surprising, but inevitable in hindsight. I don't think the Napolean puzzle reached that bar, even/especially with its THINK ABOUT hint. The hint itself felt surprising, but not at all inevitable, and the puzzle solution felt like a surprising leap from there.

Here, I'll include a small nudge, the one I wish the game would have provided if you'd typed THINK ABOUT NAPOLEON a second time.

Now, here's my criticism of the puzzle.

I'm looking forward to trying more games by this author!