External Links


THE ISLAND
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Walkthrough and maps
by David Welbourn

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

Our Island

by Patrick Williams

Fantasy
2013

Web Site

(based on 3 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

You're on an Island. Explore!


Game Details

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(0)
4 star:
(0)
3 star:
(0)
2 star:
(3)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 2
Write a review


7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Good groundwork, but needs way more work., March 6, 2013
by Wade Clarke (Sydney, Australia)
Related reviews: Inform

Our Island appears at first, and mostly, to be a lyrical holiday game set in an idyllic seaside community. You can wander along Wharf Street, buy an ice cream from the pretty ice cream girl, look for flotsam and jetsam, observe local wildlife and feel sparkly about life as you note the presence of the local community centre. Admittedly the majority of these things are only implemented at a very rudimentary level, and some only exist in the location description text, but there's still no denying the game's coherent and romantic sense of place. The map is big and demands real mapping with pen and paper, at least if the player isn't to miss anything. This is also assuming the player makes it past the painful intro, which is basically a My Apartment game set in a holiday house where you have to fight with an inventory limit.

The trick with Our Island is that there's a whole other level of play in it, one involving puzzles and unexpected zaniness, but it's so obscurely integrated into an outwardly goal-less holiday game that it's a huge ask of players to (a) even identify that it's there and (b) negotiate it and solve it – especially with Our Island being in as rough a state as it is. Presenting a rich environment and then slowly allowing the player to become aware of some upheaval within it can make for a great dramatic design, but it demands strong execution to be successful. The biggest problem for Our Island is its erratic implementation. If the player starts to sense that more than half the interesting-looking content in the game is just painted on, they're going to stop checking the content. And in the cases where the content is relevant to the puzzles, the game doesn't signal it. There's also just tons of plain old bugs, typos, failures to describe exits, scenes that play at the wrong times, and even the odd location with no description. So for now, the game's island-sized ambitions considerably outstrip its quality of delivery. The groundwork for something great is here, and I already enjoyed exploring the environment, but the whole thing needs lots more work.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

Needs work, March 6, 2013
by Cder

This game is... terrible. I'm sorry, but it was extremely hard to follow and it had quite a few spelling errors. Also, you have to tell the person playing in what direction everything is in order for them to be able to navigate correctly, not having to press every direction trying to find a way out. The story line was not explained in any way shape or form, and there was no way of telling where you had to go, or what you had to do. There are a few ways to make this into a good story, however. First, you need to add a better story, explain it more, add a couple notes here and there, telling the person where to go. Secondly, try adding more directional signs, describing the scene is not enough, tell them where they can exit and give some clue as to what they're suppose to do. Last thing I'm going to say, please fix the errors in the coding, some of the context makes absolutely no sense in terms to the items being picked up, 'You open the backpack, revealing tin box, TaB, snack, a towel, vase and wallet.' is not the correct way to phrase that command. You have the potential to become a great IF author, just try to fix a few things, like going into detail what the item is what what it does.

Note: this rating is not included in the game's average.
Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

Our Island on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Our Island appears in the following Recommended Lists:

My new walkthroughs for February 2021 by David Welbourn
On Friday February 26, 2021, I published new walkthroughs for the games and stories listed below! Some of these were paid for by my wonderful patrons at Patreon. Please consider supporting me to make even more new walkthroughs for works...




This is version 3 of this page, edited by David Welbourn on 26 February 2021 at 9:11pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page