Go to the game's main page
Review
This is an EctoComp game from 2011 when EctoComp only had the 3-hour category, thus making it speed-if. Having played a few games by this author, it seems he likes to let the player be creative. In this game you can name your own monsters and then give them various powers by combining several objects before they are unleashed onto the world in absurd, humorous (in most cases) ways.
This game is not revolutionary but still original enough to be entertaining. However, you seem to be able to go on forever, so it seems the game has no ending. EDIT: According to Mathbrush's review, the game can end. (Spoiler - click to show)And you can choose to be either cruel or life giving [sorry, a small hint there].
I only noticed one bug: Please do NOT get all, but instead get one object at a time, otherwise the game is not aware what you are holding. Another minor critique: This game is humorous and absurd and in most cases fun. However, one type of death seemed a bit too realistic to be fun, but I won't hold that against it as that is always a risk when creating comedy horror.
Comments on this review
Previous | << 1 >> | Next
Hi, Denk! Thanks so much for your review. I'm glad you enjoyed playing my game. I know that I had a lot of fun making it. My inspiration was the previous year's ECTOCOMP entry (2010) from DCBSupafly, "Pete's Punkin Junkinator." If you enjoyed this one, I recommend checking that out too.
I did a lot of planning to make sure I could fit "Doc Lobster" (I got a kick out of long titles for a while, as you can probably see) in the three hour time limit, filling out pages and pages with handwritten notes and marking off entries in the big table of all possible combinations as I wrote them so that when the time came to write it out in ADRIFT more-or-less all I had to do is type it up in a frenzy over three hours. What could possibly go wrong?
This was a special year for ECTOCOMP both for me personally since J.J. Guest let me host it that year and after discussing with him, it was also the first year that ECTOCOMP was opened up to platforms other than ADRIFT. So I did my best to try to make a good impression with this entry. I think we were a little wary of a repeat of 2009, where we only had three games entered. By the moon, the stars, and the spirit of Halloween we knew ECTOCOMP could be bigger and better. And it's still going today with more entries than ever! How about that?
Thanks for pointing out the issue with "get all" for any potential future players. I thought I'd blocked "get/take/pick up all" in this one, but who knows? I also vividly recall (I mean Tiberius vividly recalls, so I've heard...) blocking "melt" with a custom response for all but two items in "Yon Astounding Castle! of some sort," but that didn't stop reviewers from finding errors in it anyway. My guess is these were sorted incorrectly in the task list, but it's all too long ago for me to remember those kind of details. I suppose errors are expected given a three hour development time.
Would you be comfortable revealing (with spoiler tags) the death that you thought was too realistic? My guess is that I was trying to be a little subversive at the time, even if that just means subverting themes in my own stuff.
And sorry if it took me a while to comment on your review. I haven't caught up with the IF scene in a while. It was a pleasant surprise to peek at IFDB and find one of my games being reviewed again. Thanks again!
Hi Duncan,
I just recently put up the review so you are not late at all :)
I have been thinking about playing "Pete's Punkin Junkinator" So it might be the next game I try - thank you for the recommandation. I guess many deaths are in theory possible in real life but the one I did not feel so comfortable about was the one about flesh eating bacteria. I've heard some pretty nasty things about such bacteria, also here in Denmark where I live but many players may not care or regard them as realistic.
You and JJ Guest have certainly had success with EctoComp still going strong - yay!
