|
Have you played this game?You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in. |
Playlists and Wishlists |
RSS Feeds New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page
|
|
Game Details
Language: English (en)
Current Version: 1.2 License: Freeware Development System: TADS 2 Baf's Guide ID: 8
|
Awards
Nominee, Best Writing - 1996 XYZZY Awards
10th Place - 2nd Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (1996)
Editorial Reviews
Baf's Guide
An interesting experiment in the presentation of darkness. To save your kingdom, you must find the legendary Stone of Aayela (a crystal that imprisons a powerful spirit of light) by exploring the dark cave where it lies by sense of touch and sound. A small game that exposes some of the untapped potential of the medium.
-- Carl Muckenhoupt
SPAG
[...] The atmosphere created by spending most of the adventure in the dark is moderately effective, but the use of other senses is too limited to do the situation justice. [...] (John Wood)
[...] I liked "Aayela," don't get me wrong. I simply didn't find it as clever as Magnus' previous work, particularly when compared with so many other outstanding entries this year. (C.E. Forman)
See the full review
>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction
My main memory of Aayela was that crawling in dark is an interesting device which could make for an intense episode in a longer game (and, in fact, already has in the case of So Far.) As the bulk of this game, it made for an interesting experiment.
See the full review
Tags
Member Reviews
| Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 2 Write a review |
Song of light and darkness -- or rather, three notes, September 11, 2010In Aayela, you play a young and expendable knight off to find the magical stone that will cure the queen's illness. This story is mostly an excuse to get you into a cave, where the game's main gimmick quickly becomes apparent: your lamp goes out, and most of the game is spent in darkness.
Exploring a cave in the dark could be very interesting, but Aayela fails to do its premise justice: not only is the cave exceedingly small, but there is in fact little difference between this game and a game where you explore a cave with light. You do not have to guess the identity of objects from their form, smell, taste or sound -- feeling something will always identify it for you. From the point of view of the player, typing "examine" and typing "feel" is not much of a difference. You do have to discover some things by feeling around, but these quasi-puzzles are familiar from other games where you have to feel under or in things.
What remains is an enjoyable little tale with different endings depending on a choice the character can make at the end. Olsson writes good, if perhaps somewhat overblown, prose, and the final scene is much more memorable than the cave itself. So, as a snack sized diversion, Aayela is certainly worth playing; but much more could have been done with it.
An enjoyable short romp in the darhkness. Beautiful writing, February 3, 2016This is a shortish game with the almost unique trick of placing a lot of gameplay in darkness in a cave. The only similar game I can think of is Hunter in Darkness or parts of So Far.
You are searching for a magical crystal in an underground cavern. The rest of the story is mainly atmosphere, and it works well. This game was nominated for an XYZZY for best writing, and deserves it.
Overall, a short, simple game, with at least 3 endings depending on your final actions.
Recommended for its fun-to-length ratio.
If you enjoyed Aayela...
Related Games
Other members recommend these games for people who like Aayela, or gave both high ratings:Hunter, in Darkness, by Andrew Plotkin
Average member rating: (120 ratings)
| Untold Riches, by Jason Ermer Average member rating: (20 ratings)You were reluctant to undertake another adventure with Professor d'Squarius (especially after the last near-catastrophe, in the Tomb of the Screaming Mummies), and from the moment you agreed to join the expedition, things have gone... |
| Heart of the House, by Nissa Campbell Average member rating: (14 ratings)Destroy the evil at the heart of a haunted manor! As an orphan, you discovered your ability to commune with the spirit world and ghosts. When your uncle Kent mysteriously disappears, you'll embark on a journey find out what really... |
Recommended Lists
Aayela appears in the following Recommended Lists:Great "lunchtime length" games by MathBrush
These are games that can generally be completed in 30 minutes or less. Some can be completed much faster. Included in this list are games that have multiple endings that can individually be reached quickly. It also includes several Twiny...
Best fantasy games by MathBrush
These are my favorite games that include some sort of magical or fantastical element. Games with mostly horror or sci-fi elements are on other lists, as are surreal games, fairy tale/nursery games, and religious/mythological games. I've...
Noteworthy Games Which Can't Be Played on the Web by Walter Sandsquish
Because TADS 2 is still missing a TADS Web UI or Glk server or a JavaScript 'terp.
Polls
The following polls include votes for Aayela:Games with Impossible-to-film moments by aaronius
I'm looking for games that demonstrate the power of text-based games. Games with sentences that would make developers of 3D games weep, like "The army of ten million robots marched over the liquid landscape," or "She concealed her anger...
Solved without Hints by joncgoodwin
I'm very interested in hearing truthful accounts of at least somewhat difficult games (or games that don't solve themselves at least) solved completely without recourse to hints, walkthroughs, etc.
This is version 9 of this page, edited by Paul O'Brian on 5 May 2022 at 1:22am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page