Wrenlaw

Somehow this miniature by Ryan Veeder, none other than the author of the wonderful 2011 if comp winner "Taco Fiction", has so far been more or less overlooked (granted, it's only about six weeks old at the time of the writing of this review). I'm pretty enchanted by the piece. A little game about the power of memory, synaesthesia, loss. Without much of an introduction, the player starts wandering around a park scenery near the highway looking for -yeah, what exactly?, deciphering pieces of a romantic backstory. Beautifully written, as was to be expected from Veeder, and not without its genuinely funny moments despite the emotional topic. Highly recommended!

I enjoyed this short game.

Wandering around a small recreational park, the character remembers things, as he searches for a geocached blue box.

Short, sweet, and rewarding, the prose here was really lovely, and I had a strong sense of the park. There are some other elements tucked away here as well--all in all, a very pleasant 30 minutes or so of exploration.

Like all exploration games by Ryan Veeder, I only wish it were longer.

The atmosphere of Wrenlaw immediately drew me in. It felt uncannily autobiographical; I've been there, this very place, done these very things. Wandering, seeking purpose, imbuing what I find with a meaning drawn from memory.

Wrenlaw opens more questions than it answers. There are no traditional puzzles, just wandering through your environment and your memories. But what are you searching for? Did you find it? Can that which we are seeking ever be really objectified?

This is my final review for the Official Ryan Vedder Weekend Review Contest with guaranteed prize, giving me a score of 8 (due to having reviewed the other games earlier). Due to lack of publicity, the contest has been extended until Monday night at midnight Moscow time. Just post your Veeder reviews on ifdb (the Veedercomp games also count). 2nd and 3rd place winners get something too.

This game confused me at first; I didn't Get the mechanic that advances the game until my second playthrough.

You are in a park, looking for a geocache. There is a satisfying trash minigame.

I found it touching; if it is a parody, they say that parodies of extremism are indistinguishable from extremism, so the extreme schmalziness is something I enjoyed.

I love this game, but it was too hard to figure out how to progress (it's probably my fault for not reading the text after a major hint in my first playthrough, but oh well).

With Nautilisia, Ryan Veeder sent up the surreal dreamworlds of so much bad IF. With Wrenlaw, he takes up another disgraced subgenre: the epiphany quest, where you wander through a usually real-world environment, solving mechanical puzzles for emotional rewards. Geocaching's a fitting conceit, so you're given coordinates and set down in a secluded park. What you're not given is the stage-managing narrator of Veeder's other games, someone to arrange pratfalls for your hapless protagonist. Here the spills have occurred already, off-stage, and it's up to you to move forward -- by triggering flashbacks.