Saturday, October 19, 2013

IFcomp 2013 Reviews-- "Our Boys in Uniform"

IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction. "Our Boys in Uniform" is a story with a hypertext-like interface written by Megan Stevens. This is one of two games in this years competition which appears (from the blurb) to explore an anti-war theme. I am interested to read what Megan Stevens has to say on this theme.

IFComp 2013 Reviews-- "Robin and Orchid"

IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction. "Robin and Orchid" is a parser-based story written by Ryan Veeder & Emily Boegheim. I recognized both of the author's names from past works, so I expected something good from this.  Would it meet my high expectations?

Monday, October 14, 2013

IFComp 2013 Reviews-- Final Girl

IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction. "Final Girl" is a work by Hanon Ondricek written for the Storynexus engine. I have lots of good things to say about this work, all of it after the page break.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

IFComp 2013 Reviews--Imposter Syndrome

IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction. "Imposter Syndrome" was published by Georgiana Bourbonnais, which is the pseudonym of an author who says they will reveal themselves at the end of the competition.  This is one of two games this year which mentions a tech conference in the blurb. It interests me to see which themes appear multiple times in the competition entries, something which happens every year without intentional planning.

IFComp 2013 Reviews-- Moquette


IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction. "Moquette" is a story by Alex Warren. The blurb says "Tuesday morning. London Underground.Hangover. Journey begins." Blurb gives just enough hint of location and character to intrigue the reader. Will it be a spy story, a mystery, a self-discovery...or something else.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

IFComp 2013 Reviews- Dad vs Unicorn

IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction.  "Dad vs. Unicorn" is published by "PaperBlurt."

Every sale begins with a pitch.  The pitch for this game read "A day like many others. Dad at the BBQ - his son walking in an empty house. Remembering what's happened. Disappointment fills the void between the two. And then, a UNICORN attacks! what now..?"

I'm intrigued.  The pitch is just creative enough that this might be interesting.

IFComp 2013 reviews--100,000 years


IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction.  "100,000 years, the longest short story ever" is published by Pierre Chevalier.
James Michner writes stories covering 100,000 years, but they aren’t short.  I’m not drawn in by this description.

IFComp 2013 Reviews-- Captain Verdeterre's Plunder

IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction.  "Captain Verdeterre's Plunder" is published by Ryan Veeder.

 Every sale begins with a pitch.  The pitch for this game read "You should carry the bag. I'm more of a delegator."  That isn't much to go on, but I like the graphic, and I'm familiar with some of the past works of Ryan Veeder.  He cited one of my games as an inspiration in the credits of "Taco Fiction",  which would have made me proud in any case.  Then "Taco Fiction" went on to win first place.  I'm still smiling over that.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

IFComp 2013 Reviews--9 Lives


 IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction.  "9 Lives" was published under the name InformStorm and provides the following blurb:  "This IF was created as an assignment for ENG 437: Project Management, taught by Prof. Stuart Moulthrop at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.  The authors were Bill Balistreri, Hal Hinderliter, Sean Klabough, Luke Michalski and Morgan Sokol."
My reaction to this blurb: "OK, so now I know this game was a team effort for a class project.  But would I be rewarded for clicking play?"

IF Comp 2013 Reviews-- The Challenge

IFComp is an annual competition for short works of interactive fiction.  "The Challenge" isn't the first game I've played in this year's competition, or even the first game I've written about, but it was the game that incited me to start a new blog and begin publishing my reviews.  "The Challenge" was published in this year's competition (2013) by "ViRALiTY".

Every sale begins with a pitch.  The pitch for this game read "A short web-based CYOA,MCA game with 3D graphics illustrations, written and designed in less than 24 hours."  My first question, on reading that was "does 24 hours include the beta testing period?"  No, never mind, even if it has been beta tested, no good game has ever been written in less than 24 hours.  IFComp is competition of quality, not speed.  24 hours is nothing to brag about.

Would the game live up to my (low) expectations?