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IFComp 2015 release
Requires a Glulx interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

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Ether

by MathBrush profile

2015

Web Site

About the Story

"For the first time in centuries, something is different. Your tentacles tingle as you float to the east past icebergs and whirlwinds. You skirt a pocket of hot air, bounce through a field of ice, and finally come upon a massive stormcloud filling the sky to the east."

A game about a flying cephalopod and its airy world. This short adventure recreates the feel of exploring a world in a graphical game, and uses a 9x9x9 cubical grid. Navigate the world in 26 directions as you collect items and use the properties of your environment to unlock their power. An in-game walkthrough is included, as are instructions for those new to parser interactive fiction, where you type in commands.


Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

Emily Short's IFComp Review Collective
Lucian Smith on Ether
IF has two traditional axes on which it is judged: story and puzzles. Even Graham Nelson’s old description of IF as ‘a narrative at war with a crossword’ breaks down the genre this way. Ether’s story is simplistic, and its puzzles are trivial. And both are almost beside the point, because Ether concerns itself with neither axis, instead delighting in a third: exploration. Even here, it departs from most exploration-themed IF where the point is to explore a location: here, the point is more to explore movement within an environment, and to explore the abilities of the PC.
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Old Games Italia

In Ether ci ritroveremo ad impersonare un cefalopode volteggiante in un mondo d'aria alla ricerca di alcuni oggetti che ci permetteranno di viaggiare verso un nuovo mondo. Bene: la trama finisce qui. In questa avventura, infatti, non c'è praticamente nulla da fare se non raccogliere queste strane sostanze; il problema è che non è presente il benché minimo ostacolo o enigma, inoltre molto spesso per proseguire nella narrazione basta solo aspettare qualche turno per far accadere un evento. Via via che si raccolgono gli oggetti il mondo attorno a noi cambia secondo un ben preciso schema, ma, purtroppo, il modo in cui questo è giustificato è abbastanza fragile.
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Renga in Blue
The main novelty is the world is entirely open on a three-dimensional grid, where the edges invoke different opposites (windy/calm, for instance). Puzzles generally involve floating to particular objects and maneuvering them to a particular environment.

The chunk of red ice bobs upward. It now lies far to the north and far below you.

A lot of work was put into the directions and the fact objects float about, but in practice I found myself typing >GO TO OBJECT a bunch and eventually I was there. I imagine the author spent months getting to code to work correctly to get to the point where it could mostly be ignored by the players (which is both good and sad at the same time).


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Page Update History

v.15: 13-Jun-2016 08:41 - Zape (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed license type
v.14: 07-Sep-2020 15:32 - Zape
Changed language
v.13: 25-Nov-2019 20:40 - cas
Changed IFIDs
v.12: 15-Jul-2019 09:55 - MathBrush
Changed cover art
v.11: 06-Aug-2017 12:39 - MathBrush
Changed cover art
  v.10: 13-Jun-2016 08:41 - MathBrush
Changed download links
v.9: 27-Mar-2016 21:29 - blue/green
Changed download links
v.8: 18-Nov-2015 10:31 - MathBrush
Changed external review links
v.7: 18-Nov-2015 10:30 - MathBrush
Changed external review links
v.6: 18-Nov-2015 10:26 - MathBrush
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v.5: 18-Nov-2015 10:23 - MathBrush
Changed external review links
v.4: 15-Nov-2015 22:17 - classicaljunkie
Changed download links
v.3: 06-Oct-2015 00:58 - MathBrush
Changed Web site URL
v.2: 01-Oct-2015 17:36 - dutchmule
Changed cover art
v.1: 01-Oct-2015 14:21 - Brendan Patrick Hennessy
Created page