Harold Night (2003)

This game is about improv, from a perspective that is of the insider; hence, I don't know if people who don't know a thing about improv (and more specifically Chicago-style improv) will find that game fun, or even understand what it's about.

The game is basically a treasure hunt where you're supposed to find items and bring them to the improv teachers you meet (they're each interested in a specific object) to get improv knowledge - you have kind of a "double inventory" thing going on, one with items and one with improv lessons (represented by verbs that are well-known to improvisers - heighten, justify, etc.). To get the perfect score, you have to learn all the lessons, then use them (in the correct order, I think? not sure) on stage during a sketch with your teammates. The number of locations is decent, about 40 rooms, and they all communicate pretty well, but I got lost for a while. Expect around 30 to 45 minutes of gameplay per session.

The implementation is solid, with nice touches for beginners, and lots of daemons who do lots of things and make the whole place feel alive. However the descriptions could have been more detailed; I feel like the map is an accurate depiction of the real-life UCB theatre, and it must really mean something when you know the place, but it's kind of sparsely described. Actually, that's kind of how I felt about the whole game: there were a lot of references that must be really neat and funny when you actually know the people involved at the UCB, but if you're not on the joke, you're not getting really anything out of it. For me, I knew most of the improv lingo and general references (SCTV, Del Close, etc.) that were made, but still felt an outsider to the world depicted in the game (am I supposed to know that this guy smokes pot and that guy likes action figures?). Which actually wasn't a bad experience at all, since the world that is depicted is done so rather lovingly: fun stuff happens, there's a lot of AMUSING stuff implemented, and even if stuff goes over your head, you still kinda get the passion and the fun that transpires from it. I simply feel that I, and most IFers, am not the target audience at all, and that this is about UCB people and for UCB people -- still a pleasurable experience, though!