Koustrea's Contentment

Koustrea's Contentment is an evocative, funny, and challenging work that is impressive on a number of levels, and it is obvious that great effort went into making it so special. I judged it during the 2015 IF Comp, which limited play forming the basis of judging to two hours, and finished it more quickly than I would have otherwise, after a while making heavy use of an abbreviated walkthrough that the author provided. As a result, I would like to give the work more time in order to look for more connections that would help me understand its story and challenging puzzles more thoroughly. None of this, however, prevented me from appreciating the ending.

Other writers have discussed possible improvements that could be made, and I have seen the author take positive and negative feedback seriously and with appreciation. However, I am emphasizing the work's many strengths out of a desire that more people might find the kind of joy and satisfaction from the work that I did.

The work has excellent technical implementation and a house full of oddly and wonderfully named characters that resonated with me. In particular, the things that one character said amid the sounds that surrounded him I found particularly spot on, in a way that both made me laugh and disturbed me. That feeling reflects the work as a whole: haunting and humorous, fun to play and thought-provoking. Its original and otherworldly setting hints at insights about our own world. By the way, how intriguing, at its beginning, to find a majestic stone hall containing images of such things as an owl, a jukebox, and a pinball machine!

This game was the longest game entered in IFComp 2015, and I enjoyed it. It is complex and long, and well-detailed.

The game is centered around the tedium of immortality. You find yourself a brand new immortal, in a sort of retirement home or country club for immortals. Each has immersed themselves into some sort of activity, whether artistic endeavors, sports, art, or insanity.

The game has a very ancient and purposely static feeling. It implements a 'zz' command that lets you wait for a very long time. It has a few puzzles requiring long patience, and repetitive actions.

This all meshes very well with the story, and when things finally start changing, it makes it more exciting.

Overall, the feeling of this game was similar to the Myst series, but with more people. I recommend it.