Buggy

For the spirit of Halloween, I have to review at least one EctoComp game.

Buggy is about a relatively featureless PC riding on a rickety buggy with a brother named Everett (nicknamed “Ever”) as they try to escape from some unspecified pursuers.

In this game, if there are no bugs, you are doing something wrong. In fact, the PC’s brother will call you out on it. The gameplay begins on the buggy and ends when you crash.

If you make an error, such as, "lookj" (a command typo I make when typing quickly) we see that everything destabilizes, to Everett’s horror. The buggy goes out of control. Errors also consist of verbs that are not implemented, although more often than not Everett will interject a reference about said verb.

"Oh my heavens it's another error," whispers Everett. There's a large crack. The buggy jolts. Everett starts swearing but then switches to praying when he sees you watching.

Endings provide suggestions on other verbs to try, and through this you will learn how to win the game. Super short, excellent length if you want to play a game standing up.

The only story content that I could see was how the protagonist is grieving for someone named Lenore and killed a demon. I am not sure if the two are related. The description of the sky was a potent indicator of their feelings. I was not expecting to be able to (Spoiler - click to show) take the clouds or moon. I did the all-encompassing "take all" only to get "moon: The sinister clouds are in the way." That made me laugh. Still, I feel for them.

It is an amusing experience if you are familiar with simple parser commands, and, arguably, flat-out hilarious if you are not. Either way, approach this game with a grain of salt and you will have a fun time.

This tiny Inform game is built around plays on the engine's standard responses, and the nature of Inform games in general. It will be nonsensical to players who aren't familiar with those, but for players who are, it's very cleverly done. I had a lot of fun poking at it to find all the jokes, and laughed regularly along the way.

This is a work that I’m not quite sure how to describe. It’s a very short parser game written in Inform 7, and it’s quick to play—usually over in just a couple of turns. You’re riding in a buggy (as in the type of cart), in pursuit of a mysterious foe.

I recommend playing it, because it’s hard to say much more than that without spoiling its central conceit. So go do that first. Or, if you don’t care about spoilers:

(Spoiler - click to show)The core of this game is puns. The game is buggy, in the sense that it’s got (intentional) typos and also in the sense that that’s what you’re riding. You’re as good-looking as Ever (your brother Everett), and you can jump on the spot fruitfully (catching a branch of crab-apples). You think there’s a Suchthing around, but you can’t quite see it. The fourth wall is thin here, and every message the parser produces is also happening in the world itself.

This is another short game, where getting an ending takes only a couple turns but there are plenty of different endings to find, and I think that’s the right structure for it—its brand of surrealness would get old if it were drawn out much further. Though I do wish I could eventually find out what we’re pursuing.