External Links


Bronze.zblorb
expanded version
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
SpeedIF​_Gruff.zip
Contains bronze.z5
Contains the original Speed-IF release
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links. (Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.)
Original Website
Original inform-fiction.​org game website, preserved by the Wayback Machine.
Updated Website
Updated inform7.​com game website, preserved by the Wayback Machine.
Inform 7 Examples Website
Source text updated to compile with Inform 7 build 6M62.

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Bronze

by Emily Short profile

Part of fractured fairy tales
Fantasy
2006

Web Site

(based on 285 ratings)
26 reviews

About the Story

When the seventh day comes and it is time for you to return to the castle in the forest, your sisters cling to your sleeves.


Game Details


Awards

Nominee, Best Use of Medium - 2006 XYZZY Awards

Editorial Reviews

IF-Review
Alloys and Allies
Bronze is no masterpiece, but it is a well-crafted, fun, and satisfying game. I recommend it not only to people wishing to learn Inform 7 but to all fans of quality puzzle-laden text adventures.
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Ferretbrain
Bronze avoided pretty much every single problem I have ever had with interactive fiction. Designed to be accessible to new players, it's very good at letting you know what you're supposed to be doing, how you're supposed to be doing it, and giving you a sense of your progress.
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Member Reviews

5 star:
(130)
4 star:
(124)
3 star:
(28)
2 star:
(2)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 26
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Most Helpful Member Reviews


25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
My Introduction to the Pleasures of Interactive Fiction, October 19, 2007
by Ron Newcomb (Seattle)

This is the first I-F I have ever played to completion, and the one to make me take notice of the form. In Bronze, you are Beauty, of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, and after a week-long "vacation" to visit your old family, you return to the castle to find something amiss.

This game is intended for those of us new to interactive fiction. Puzzles have multiple solutions, multiple puzzles are open to the player at once, no time limits, hints are built-in, even the most basic I-F commands can be listed for those completely new to I-F, the writing is solid, the difficulty is on the easier side, and exploration produces a strong sense of place while maintaining the fairy tale's soft lucidness. And, commands new to the form, such as GO TO, remove a lot of the tedium of the old-school games.

I strongly recommend Bronze to those friends and family who may enjoy a textual video game, but whom would have little patience with the intentionally frustrating and pedantic I-Fs of old.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting take on a well-known fairytale, November 9, 2007
by Kake (London, England)
Related reviews: Emily Short, ****

Bronze is a very user-friendly and fairly entertaining take on Beauty and the Beast. I was never once frustrated by syntax or by tedious tasks, and I really enjoyed the way that the backstory was revealed as my wanderings through the castle triggered memories and reflections of the time my character had spent there before the events of the game.

You may find that you need to draw a map, though the layout's not incredibly complicated. (You can't really get lost, thanks to the very useful "go to" syntax, which will take you back to any room you've already visited, but I found that the map helped me keep track of where I had and hadn't explored.)

The only thing I didn't like was that with at least one of the multiple endings, I felt that I'd been "cut off" from continuing, simply because of the order that I solved the final puzzles in.

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Not just A Fairy Tale, April 13, 2010
by tggdan3 (Michigan)

I'll be honest- when I first saw this game, I wasn't too excited about it. It seemed like it would be some kind of Beauty and the Beast knockoff about love and conversation with NPCs more than the cave crawl I've come to love.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

Emily Short has taken many IF tropes and made them wonderful again. The dark maze is here, with a twist (Spoiler - click to show) you can listen to find your way around , you have the abandonitus of being in this huge castle alone, and there are puzzles to solve, keys to find, areas to unlock. It may not have been in the Zork universe, but I had all the excitement I had when I first played Zork I some 20 years ago.

What's more, she makes things so EASY for you, at least as far as annoying actions. Doors are automatically unlocked if you have the key, and opened. None of those annoying "that door is closed" messages. You can "go to" a specific room, or "find" a specific item, going back to where it was. When lost in the maze, you can be reminded what direction you came FROM, and when using the GO TO command, it tells you what directions and rooms you passed getting to your location. These little things really make the game more fun, as it avoids the tedium of moving back from room to room. If only Zork I had that...

Anyway, if, like me, you were wary of the game because of the title and premise- don't be. It's a fun puzzle game with plenty of flashbacks to provide a deep and well written story.

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See All 26 Member Reviews

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Recommended Lists

Bronze appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Played but did not finish by exomarch

My favourite games by Reeah
These are some games that I have really enjoyed playing. If you are new to interactive fiction and don’t know where to begin, these are some games I have really liked and I think you will too. The games are in no particular order.

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Polls

The following polls include votes for Bronze:

Games with unique hint systems by delano
I'm looking for games that offer hints in any way, except for printing them in sequence on the screen. For example: characters that offer hints; objects that, when examined or used in a certain way, suggest actions to the player; etc.

Games with exploration (or even just games w/ secret passages and such) by Cygnus
There seems to be a LOT of games where you just.. explore hidden secrets in mansions, or similar. some of them have a plot, some of 'em don't, but i'm lookin' for stuff like D'Arkun, the Manor at Whitby.. Or any games with just...

games with female protagonists by X.W

See all polls with votes for this game




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