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Fourdiopolis

by Andrew Schultz profile

2016
Wordplay, Science fiction
Inform 7

(based on 6 ratings)
2 reviews10 members have played this game. It's on 13 wishlists.

About the Story

A sequel to Threediopolis. It has teleporters!

Awards

Entrant, Back Garden - Spring Thing 2016

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(1)
4 star:
(4)
3 star:
(1)
2 star:
(0)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 6 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 2
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
An intricate, chess/crossword-puzzle like game about hidden codes, April 9, 2016

This Andrew Schultz game builds and expands on one of my favorite Schultz games, Threediopolis. If you haven't played that game, you should try it out first, as this game contains spoilers for the basic concept of that game.

If you have played threediopolis, (Spoiler - click to show)this is the same sort of game, except some chess-like moves have been added, h,i,j,k. Each of these teleports you 2 spaces away in each direction. For instance, h teleports you n,e, and u, while i teleports you w,s, and u.

This makes the game more difficult. I found it helpful to read some of the documentation on the spring thing website, which will most likely be included on IFDB afterwards. It gives a helpful list of the results of 2- and 3- letter combinations, like hi.


My rating of this game is certainly subjective. The puzzles appeal to me as a mathematician because I love the interplay between freedom and constraint. Emotionally, it draws you into an exploratory/puzzly/celebratory mood. The game is definitely polished, and I plan on playing again (it's a long game, and I've only played through part of it. It's the kind of game I feel I could return to frequently to play around with). I though of taking off one point due to the lack of descriptive text, but I realized that more text would make the game difficult and tedious. The scarcity of text is a necessary part of the design.

Like I said, this game will only appeal to a certain group of people, so I can't recommend it to everyone. But fans of crosswords, cryptograms, and codewords will enjoy this game.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A worthy sequel, January 21, 2023
by Lance Cirone (Backwater, Vermont)

I loved Threediopolis. It's inventive, I got a kick out of seeing all the interesting places I could go, and the difficulty was challenging yet fair. When I heard there was a sequel, I couldn't wait to jump in and see what kind of new mechanics were added.

Figuring out Fourdiopolis for the first time gave me much the same experience as Three. I tested my moves, tracked what they did, then found the letters I needed to use to get somewhere close. I (Spoiler - click to show)met Ike first, and after that, everything clicked.

I think I had a harder time finishing Three; not only because that game had more tasks before the first "ending" point, but the number jumping felt a bit more severe. Also, in Four, your completed tasks are listed in alphabetical order. This was a big help, since for every destination I chose, I had a good idea of which letters it could start with.

I love the different vibe of Four. Three had you traveling around a city to complete tasks for your employer. Meanwhile, this game's atmosphere is futuristic and throws you into a controlling society where you're witnessing rebellions and captures. Everything feels more oppressive and hostile. It's a big change of tone, but it sets the games apart pretty well.

I was kind of relieved Four ended when it did; while I was open to (Spoiler - click to show)completing 15 more tasks, I didn't want to do it immediately afterwards, having just solved similar puzzles for an hour straight. I might pick this one up again in the future to see if I can make it further, but now I really feel like replaying Three. If you liked the predecessor, check this one out. Otherwise, you should probably play Three first.

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News

Fourdiopolis release 2August 14, 2016
The Spring Thing version was a bit rushed, but I'm glad I took time to iron out bugs and add new features for release 2. I hope you are too! The puzzles are unchanged, except for the final ones, but it should be quicker and more user friendly, and with more silly random jokes.

You can grab the ZIP file with the binary and supplemental materials at https://github.com/andrewschultz/fourdiopolis/releases/tag/v2. Thanks to Zarf for the python regression testing scripts that helped me test a lot of things that'd have been nagging otherwise. I think/hope it was good enough I won't strictly need a release 3, although there's always room for tweaks.

The details are at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andrewschultz/fourdiopolis/master/fourdiopolis_release_2_notes.txt.
Reported by Andrew Schultz | History | Edit | Delete
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Game Details

Language: English (en)
First Publication Date: April 6, 2016
Current Version: Unknown
License: Freeware
Development System: Inform 7
IFID: 92F9CB12-41F0-402D-B42D-36F2FDD4EBF5
TUID: i4ozk7jjbz0kvss2

Sequel to Threediopolis, by Andrew Schultz

Fourdiopolis on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Fourdiopolis appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Favorite wordplay/puzzle/code games by MathBrush
Games whose main 'genre' is wordplay. This list does not include games like the Edifice or Suveh Nux which have significant wordplay elements, but which are not the focus of the story.

Polls

The following polls include votes for Fourdiopolis:

Great game sequels by Teaspoon
Whilst writing a review of "All Alone", Joey Jones's sequel to his game "If I Wasn't Shy", I became curious - how many examples of sequels are there in IF? Preferably good ones.

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This is version 7 of this page, edited by Zape on 30 September 2024 at 10:29pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page