Why hel-LO there, procrastinatron 4000
Oct. 2nd, 2011 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infryqI've started playing IFComp 11 games. Tracking notes here. The cut is probably spoilery, but not interestingly so.
The Play - Limited, and the save/restore function isn't described very well. But, entertaining. Many ways to win. Replay value is impressive.
The Last Day of Summer - Doesn't print exits. That's annoying. And it doesn't support conversation, even though there's critical information that I can only assume NPCs are supposed to give you. Maybe the triggers are broken? I managed to trip one, but not the other. Winnable, but not particularly satisfying.
Ship of Whimsy - NPCs come off as passive-aggressive, since you can't actually talk to them. Aaaand it turns out to be a puzzleworld. Not up for that right now.
Vestiges - Doesn't print exits. Important items don't respond to the nouns used for them in the description. Object transformations (open, closed, unlocked) don't stick. No way to pick up that sparkly thing. Done with this now.
Cana - is so far totally compelling. The map is a little awkward, but it's well-described. What little bible school I attended as a kid skipped this story. If I were more clever I could probably even figure out the puzzles without hints. Haven't beat it yet, but I might.
Beet the Devil - SO. ADORABLE. Puzzles are soluble with a moment or two to think. Full of puns. Love the hint system. Puppy!
PataNoir - Lovely surreal pun- and metaphor- based puzzles in a noir style. Occasionally obtuse; I made liberal use of the walkthrough.
Calm - Obnoxious. Called it quits after only a few turns.
Playing Games - Interesting concept, but why would you do visual maze puzzles in a text game? And there's nothing else to the game. It's really Playing Game.
Taco Fiction - Amusing! Well-paced. I went to the walkthrough for a few things, but that's only because I skip things when I read too fast, and I read too fast when I get excited by what's happening.
It - I found the ask/tell model to be awkward for this particular story, and I couldn't quite get my head around the map. Being able to see people across the yard (and several rooms away) made it difficult to remember what room I was in based on what I could see. Plus little girls are awful to each other. Short and fairly pointless, but executed competently. Much like Playing Game.
The Play - Limited, and the save/restore function isn't described very well. But, entertaining. Many ways to win. Replay value is impressive.
The Last Day of Summer - Doesn't print exits. That's annoying. And it doesn't support conversation, even though there's critical information that I can only assume NPCs are supposed to give you. Maybe the triggers are broken? I managed to trip one, but not the other. Winnable, but not particularly satisfying.
Ship of Whimsy - NPCs come off as passive-aggressive, since you can't actually talk to them. Aaaand it turns out to be a puzzleworld. Not up for that right now.
Vestiges - Doesn't print exits. Important items don't respond to the nouns used for them in the description. Object transformations (open, closed, unlocked) don't stick. No way to pick up that sparkly thing. Done with this now.
Cana - is so far totally compelling. The map is a little awkward, but it's well-described. What little bible school I attended as a kid skipped this story. If I were more clever I could probably even figure out the puzzles without hints. Haven't beat it yet, but I might.
Beet the Devil - SO. ADORABLE. Puzzles are soluble with a moment or two to think. Full of puns. Love the hint system. Puppy!
PataNoir - Lovely surreal pun- and metaphor- based puzzles in a noir style. Occasionally obtuse; I made liberal use of the walkthrough.
Calm - Obnoxious. Called it quits after only a few turns.
Playing Games - Interesting concept, but why would you do visual maze puzzles in a text game? And there's nothing else to the game. It's really Playing Game.
Taco Fiction - Amusing! Well-paced. I went to the walkthrough for a few things, but that's only because I skip things when I read too fast, and I read too fast when I get excited by what's happening.
It - I found the ask/tell model to be awkward for this particular story, and I couldn't quite get my head around the map. Being able to see people across the yard (and several rooms away) made it difficult to remember what room I was in based on what I could see. Plus little girls are awful to each other. Short and fairly pointless, but executed competently. Much like Playing Game.
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Date: 2011-10-02 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 11:44 am (UTC)So the game is full of nonsense words strung together with English grammar and syntax. You can't actually translate most of them into anything meaningful -- just figure out how they relate to each other. For some reason this amuses me to no end.
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Date: 2012-08-14 01:04 am (UTC)About not printing exits at the beginning, I found it a little redundant to say "you can go along the river east and west" when that should just be implied by "...to the north, across the river" (i.e. the river runs east-west). I regarded it as a little bit of a puzzle, but I realize now it's a bad thing to start the game with a puzzle that doesn't look like a puzzle, since you end up not being able to trust that the game is not hiding more things from you.
Of course, I also don't print exits in the market, but there the idea is that you're a kid from the bogs and you don't really have any idea of where to go in town outside of the market. And in fact it doesn't matter which way you go, since you always get lost and then end up in the right place anyway. I kind of stole this from Cold Iron, but of course Zarf did it better...
Speaking of which, have you tried solving the meta-puzzle (http://gameshelf.jmac.org/2011/11/cold-iron-my-very-short-if-entry-in-the-comp/)?