EJ

Top 25 Reviewer
Member since November 21, 2010
Last visited December 26, 2025
Profile ID (TUID): jxjn9bqsk8khe5bw

My games: https://ejoyce.itch.io
My reviews: https://ejoyceif.wordpress.com/

I've been here since I was in college, so if anything I wrote 10+ years ago sounds dumb, that's why.

I give out 5-star ratings mostly to my favorite 2-3 games of the year, and the difference between a 4-star rating and a 5-star rating from me often isn't one of craft but of whether a game has the certain je ne sais quoi that makes me a little insane about it.

Interactive Fiction by EJ

Winter-Over, by Emery Joyce and N. Cormier (2024)
(31 ratings)
Pickering Station, Antarctica: A place of science, knowledge, and deep isolation. When the last plane leaves for the winter, you and your colleagues may as well be on Mars. At least this...

Lady Thalia and the Seraskier Sapphires, by Emery Joyce and N. Cormier (2021)
(29 ratings)
Navigate fraught social situations by day and pull off heists by night as Lady Thalia, the not-actually-aristocratic thief bent on making a mockery of British high society.

Lady Thalia and the Case of Clephan, by Emery Joyce and N. Cormier (2025)
(17 ratings)
Former gentlewoman thief Lady Thalia has given up her life of crime to join the detective agency of her greatest rival, Margaret “Melpomene” Williams. The life of a private detective turns out...

Lady Thalia and the Rose of Rocroi, by Emery Joyce and N. Cormier (2022)
(14 ratings)
Everyone who’s anyone summers in France - which means master thief Lady Thalia is there too, attending garden parties by day and stealing masterpieces by night. Unfortunately, this holiday is...

Lady Thalia and the Masterpiece of Moldavia, by Emery Joyce and N. Cormier (2023)
(15 ratings)
Lady Thalia is back in London and back to her old tricks, putting up with Britain’s social elite by day so she can steal from them by night. But that doesn’t mean things are easy, what with her...

See all 21 games by EJ

Recommended Lists by EJ

Odd spec-fic games that I love despite jankiness or other objective issues - 8 items   October 1, 2025
... from IFComp, specifically! Most years, I encounter one game out of the IFComp bunch that makes me go "This won't score well and...

Polls by EJ

Investigating your own death - 16 votes for 11 games; created October 18, 2024
Games that substantially revolve around a dead protagonist trying to find out (or even remember) something about how they died.

Reviews by EJ

a walk in the hallways, by augustgloom   December 22, 2025
"This is set up as a classic piece of “explore a weird and architecturally impossible house” horror, and the uncanniness does escalate..." - See the full review

Dual II: Cyclic, by DissoluteSolute   December 22, 2025
"This is unfortunately one of the less accessible pieces I’ve encountered in this year’s ECTOCOMP, and I don’t mean that in the way..." - See the full review

Beneath the Weeping Willow, by Lamp Post Projects   December 22, 2025
"The least important thing about this game is that every time I see the title I start humming the similarly-titled folk song, and I don't..." - See the full review

I Got You, by Kastel   December 22, 2025
"Sometimes the mechanisms we develop to protect ourselves or make ourselves feel better outlive their usefulness and become actually..." - See the full review

Detective en habitación cerrada, by Strollersoft   December 5, 2025
"Detective en habitación cerrada es un juego de Inform alucinante protagonizado por un detective que sólo puede investigarse a sí..." - See the full review

See all 99 reviews by EJ
See all ratings and reviews by EJ

EJ's Played Games List

Ghost Hunt, by solipsistgames
Rain Check-in, by Zeno Pillan
En la Oscuridad, by Edu Sánchez
What is this place (by Gooseberry), by One Boat Crew
Velatorio, by perezperez

See all 987 entries in the Played List