Violet

For those who haven't played, "Violet" is a game about your character, who has an upcoming deadline--but is too distract to get the writing done. Your job is to remove the distractions and get to writing.
This game was a lot of fun for me, someone relatively new to IF. The puzzles require that you think, but they aren't so difficult that getting to the end is impossible. Not to mention, Violet is an adorable voice to have in your head, and I highly recommend reading all of her asides. They don't really progress the story, but they are cute little stories that give you a better feel of your relationship with her. Anyway, I would definitely recommend this one.

CAVEAT: IF gamer here who prefers narrative over puzzles.

As someone who writes for a living, I found myself throwing up my hands halfway through the game and saying, "I play these games for fun, not to remind myself about work!" I then succumbed to another giggle fit as the puzzles became sillier and sillier.

The puzzles are gentle. I know some have said they found the puzzles to get nonsensical towards the end, but there was actually only a couple in the middle that I found baffling. This is one of the few IF games I've played of late where I can pretend that I'm an adept puzzle solver, not a woman who howls in despair after eleven turns and runs through the fields of the internet to find a walkthrough after the hints were of no help.

I loved the feeling of pity you develop for your character as you make him/her go to excruciating, then humiliating lengths to get this blasted paper written. The author did a great job of making me care about the character and care about his/her relationship.

I found the system very user friendly, especially with its wonderfully large and diverse vocabulary. Surprising range of unique responses to silly actions, too.

Violet was an awesome find - it manages to combine romance, slice of life, somewhat darkish comedy and one room puzzle action in a pretty impressive way. The prose and the tone of the "dialogue" and the descriptions is witty and a delight to read. The puzzles are pretty out there, but solvable, especially with the well implemented hint system. Both the puzzles and the story lead up to a pretty delightful and nutty ending.

The game starts of with the simple premise of needing to write a thousand words but your procrastination gets the better of you. I have a final on Monday and two others in the coming week, to describe what I'm doing playing this game as procrastinating would be generous.

I'm relatively new to IF (having previously only played Hitchhikers and a couple smaller IFs), so this game took me about an hour to complete. Most everything in the room has a specific interaction but the plot as a whole is linear and expects the puzzles to all be solved using increasingly absurd solutions but they are Monkey Island absurd.

I liked the characters. I can see how some of the other reviewers found fake Violet but it didn't turn me off from it. The ending alone is worth the jaunt, it just so happens the going through it is fun too.