The Baker of Shireton (review)

"The Baker of Shireton" is a parser type game in glulx, written by Hannon Ondricek for the 2015 annual interactive fiction competition.  I chose to play this one next for two reasons:

1)  Hanon Ondricek wrote "Final Girl", which I loved, and judged to be the best non-parser game I've seen in the last several years of this competition (which is all the time that non-parser games have held a place of importance in this competition).  Final Girl also won "The Golden Banana if Discord" in 2013, which means that about half the judges that year agree with me, and half thought exactly the opposite.  I want to see what Hanon can do with a parser system.
2) Jenni Polodna is blogging about this Game.  Jenni is the funniest writer in the IF blogosphere.  Her writing is laced with profanity, but ultimately good-spirited and kind to the authors.   But I can't let myself read what she's written until I've played for myself.

My review follows the break

Untold Riches (review)

"Untold Riches" by Jason Ermer is a traditional parser style game written in Glulxe, for the 2015 interactive fiction competition.  I chose this game because it is the last game to appear alphabetically, and because I was eager to play on a traditional parser.  Glulxe provides a platform which can support integrated text, graphics, sound and mapping tools.  But of course a lot of those details are up to the author.  More after the break.

blogging the blurbs

Everybody's doing it!  A review of the blurbs, that is.  For the 2015 interactive fiction competition, that is.  I was too excited to just start playing to read and write about the blurbs.  But I guess I'm going to have to read through that entire list of 55 games at some point...so here are my impressions.

5 Minutes to Burn Something!   By Alex Butterfield.
It has become quite popular to insert exclamation points at the end of the game titles.  I'm not sure that is a good idea.  The urgency indicated by that punctuation raises my expectations to a level that the game may not be prepared to fulfill.  To be fair, I began playing on-line last night (only for half  minute, not long enough to judge) and I am sort of looking forward to this.

A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood.  My Michael Thomet.
Cover art is series of Tarot cards.  Blurb suggests a ghost story set in fictional Europe.  I don't know the author.  Hard to know what to expect.

Arcane Intern (Unpaid) by Astrid Dalmady
These stories about underemployed college graduates are often written by underemployed college graduates with a fair bit of time on their hands and an MFA in creative writing on the resume.  It could be good.

Birdland by Brendan Patrick Hennessy.
This I've already played and reviewed

Brain Guzzlers from Beyond by Steph Cherrywell.
The author's name is familiar, as someone experienced in her craft.  And yet I've just finished playing another game in which I roleplayed a teenager, and I'd rather not go through that experience again right away.

Cape, an interactive origin.  Bruno Dias
"Cape is a superhero origin story for the cyberpunk dystopia we're all living in."
That blurb just depresses me, and I don't like the superhero genre.  And its a Web Game.

Capsule II- The 11th Sandman.  By PaperBlurt.
If this story spawns two more sequels, will the final episode be called "Capsule II-The 11th Sandman-The third"?
PaperBlurt is another author whose name sounds familiar, but without the comforting positive associations I felt for Steph Cherrywell.  I wrote somewhere else recently that I didn't like stories set on space ships, or those where the first command is "get out of bed".  Should I regard a cryotube the same as a bed?

Cat Scratch.  Multiple authors.  No cover art.
The blurb reads like a journal abstract.  This is no way to sell a story.

Crossroads by Cat Manning
Dark cover art, dark blurb, possible depressive tragedy.  I wonder how this will compare with this year's "A figure met in a shaded woods"?

Darkiss- Chapter 1: the Awakening.  Marco Vallarino
This sounds like a modernist take on the Vampire legend, about the un-undead.  Z-code suggests a full parser.  I'll reserve my judgement until I play.

Duel by piato.
In 2009, there were two separate games that had "Duel" in the title.  Duels have become their own subgenre of interactive fiction.

Emily is Away.  Sign in Again.
A game about social networking, that wants me to download untested software in order to play.  I'll see what McAfee has to say about that.

Ether by Mathbrush
A little bit artsy... a little bit puzzly... a little bit pushing the envelope of Glulx.  I'll be interested to try this.

Final Exam by jack Whitham
Games starting out from a dream state, and those set in university, are already cliche.  I want to know what sets this one apart.

That's fourteen games.  Only a third of the total.  I'll have to come back and blog the rest later.  Maybe after playing a few more in the meantime.

Birdland (a review)

"Birdland" is a web based interactive fiction by Brendan Patrick Hennessy, entered in the 2015 interactive fiction competition.  

The cover art is a distant flock of birds and block letter title against a red sunset.  The blurb is short:  

“Fourteen-year-old Bridget's summer camp experience takes a turn for the bizarre when her otherworldly bird dreams start bleeding into reality.”

I chose to play this game out of my own nostalgia for summer camp.  More about this after the break

Past IF comp reviews

In the past, I've recorded my reviews in a lot of different forums and under several different aliases.  Looking forward, I plan to make this my home.  "Doug Egan" isn't my real name either, but I've been using it long enough to write about IF or publish my own that I regard this as my legal pseudonym for fiction and hobby writing.

Here are links to my past IF comp reviews:

2015 reviews:  right here
2014 reviews:  I didn't write many.  You can find a few notes in a message I wrote on Emily Short's blog.
2013 reviews:  right here
2012 reviews:  I may not have written any reviews that year
2010 reviews: That year I published some fairly lengthy reviews under the alias "Cup of Joe".  I really like that blog title.  I should have kept it.
2009 reviews: I published a few reviews under the alias George Penrose.
2008 reviews: I was an author in 2008, and recorded my fairly comprehensive reviews on the author's discussion page.  That page has since been removed.  Never fear, the internet wayback machine remembers everything. (on the other hand, maybe the internet wayback machine is something we should fear).
2007 reviews: I posted reviews on a google groups forum

I started playing the ifcomp in 2003.  Blogging was not as common back then, and prior to 2007 there was still a "no discussion" rule in place during the competition.  If I wrote anything about the games between 2003-2006, it would have been only a few brief notes on one of the listservs.  I would not know where to find those comments now.

Looking back at those old games, I should mention, "Primrose Path", 2nd place winner of the 2006 competition, ranked as one of my favorite games of that decade.

TOMBs of Reschette (Review)

"TOMBs of Reschette" is a web based hyper-link style game by Richard Goodness entered in the 2015 Interactive Fiction Competition.

(Following, from the blurb)

Hello, young adventurer! If you're looking for the finest treasure, monster, and exploration experience around, why not come on down to the TOMBs of Reschette!

--Earn XP, Dubloons, and Gems, like any good adventurer!

--Solve the mysteries in the Crypt of Mysteries!

--Learn the tragic story of Vanity's Dowager!

--Slay various monsters...and eat them!

--Kick back in the library with a good book!

Be careful, young adventurer! The TOMBs are a dangerous place and you have no idea what kind of horrible deaths could lie in store for you!

The blurb and cheesy cover art suggests an 80's style cave crawl.  This might not have been my first choice based on first impressions, but it was the first game that was served to me in random order.  Review after the break

IF Comp 2015 predictions

The IF comp 2015 entries were posted earlier today, so anyone is free to doubt that I wrote these predictions before the posting.  But I did.  I will be posting reviews this year, as I play them, but lets start with the predictions.

There will be 45 games this year.  Fewer than 20 of them will be traditional parser type games.

I anticipate a wider range in the quality of Twine games this year, both better and worse.

The lowest scoring entry will be a Twine game, something that looks like it was written in under two minutes.

The highest scoring entry will be a parser game, with a light comic subject matter, written by a seasoned author who has already scored in the top five of this competition with one of their earlier games.

But there will also be at lest one CYOA game in the top five this year, a game which really pushes the limits of the medium.  I'm looking for a CYOA game that offers the player as much choice and agency as a well written parser game, without the headache of having to interact with a parser.  I'm looking for a CYOA game which remembers what the player has done in the past, what they've picked up, who they've spoken to and who they've pissed off.  I'm looking for a CYOA game which could not have been presented in book form.

There will be at least six entries this year that deal with gender non-conformity.  The best of these will be by Porpentine.

There will be at least two games in each of the following themes:  amnesia, cave crawl, drug use, empty apartment, space opera, school, zombie planet.   At least one game will incorporate three or more of these themes within the same game.