External Links


waterbrd.gam
Requires a TADS interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
waterbrd.gam
original competition entry
Requires a TADS interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Waterbird.wlk
solution

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The Water Bird

by Athan Skelley

1999

About the Story

"A text adventure based on the folklore of the Miwok Indians of the Yosemite area." [--blurb from Competition '99]


Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

From the update on the comp web site, I already knew that The Water Bird had a game-killing bug in it, so I wasn't surprised when I found it. What I was surprised by (though maybe I shouldn't have been) was the number of other, extremely basic, bugs I found in it. This is unusual for me -- usually once I see or hear of one bug in a competition game I expect them to come in droves, but the opening text to The Water Bird is so good that I allowed myself the belief that the critical bug was just a really bad-luck oversight, one of those things that makes you just about swallow your own tongue as an author the second a player finds it and it's TOO LATE to change a thing. But no, actually, there are bugs throughout the game. In fact, in only the game's second location, attempts to walk in an unavailable direction are met with "[TADS-1023: invalid type for built-in function]". This extremely fundamental omission is emblematic of the unfinished feel that the entire game has.
See the full review

Page Update History

  v.4: 06-May-2022 15:08 - Paul O'Brian (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed external review links
v.3: 06-May-2008 12:38 - Paul O'Brian
Changed external review links
v.2: 27-Feb-2008 21:22 - David Welbourn
Changed description
v.1: 16-Oct-2007 01:49 - IFDB
Created page