Switcheroo (review)

"Switcheroo" is a web based story by the Marino family, entered in the 2015 interactive fiction competition.

Switcheroo is a story about a boy's magical transformation. This can be read and enjoyed at two different levels.  If you're a shallow thinking sod like me, you can read it as a goof-ball children's story, and enjoy it quite a lot.  But at another level, it gives the adult reader or older child some deeper symbolism to consider and discuss.

As a goofball children's story, this was a lot of fun.  There are funny bits, an embedded card game, a silly (mostly irrelevant) scoring system and references to other children's stories.  I loved the simulated card game, which parodies both "American Girl Dolls" and collectible card games like "Magic".

At another level, this game is about identity and the difficulty that all children (but especially foster children) have understanding and asserting their own identity.  I say this even though I had initial concerns that this would be JAHPAGI (just another hypertext parable about gender identity).  After playing the game to the end, I concluded that it went much deeper than that.  Sure, it is consistent with the modernist view that gender is a social construct:  one can wear girls clothing or not, play with the other boys or not, act aggressively or not, and none of those choices has any dependency on the others.  But this isn't JUST about gender identity.  Identity is complex, and the story recognizes that complexity.

Lucian Smith has reviewed this game and analyzes its meaning as it relates to foster children in greater depth than I feel qualified to do.  I recommend reading his review, but not until after you've played the game.

IF comp (almost) 50% done

I just finished writing my 25th review for the 2015 interactive fiction competition, which is more reviews than I've written any other year (almost double what I've written any other year.)  Yet I'm still not even quite half through with this year's competition entries!!!

This really has been a great competition year, both for the number of entries and the quality.

My favorites so far have been
Brain Guzzlers from Beyond
11th Sandman
Life on Mars?

Some others that have improved their standing, upon reflection, because they stuck in my mind are
Baker of Shireton
Forever Meow
Spy Intrigue

I know I won't be able to play all of the games before the end of the competition season.  Indeed, I need to take a break from this, as I have some other obligations piling up.

I have been been inspired this year to start learning Twine and Java script.  I have in mind a slice-of-life story that focuses on character development.  Characters are boys in their late teens, closing shop in the last week of their summer job.

Some of my other goals include:

Realistic modelling of both PC and NPC changes over time.
Realistic modelling of the passage of time in location descriptions.
Use of integrated puzzles to control pacing. (by integrated puzzles, I mean not arbitrary puzzles, but obstacles that contribute to the story arc)
Point and click map navigation

Contact me if you are interested in beta testing later on, though it will be at least six months before I have a testable game.  Contact me if you already write Twine and javascript and are looking for a beta tester yourself.

In the Friend Zone (review)

"in the friend zone" (lower case) is a Twine game by Brendan Vance entered in the 2015 Interactive Fiction competition.

The writing, dream sequences and game design all have a strikingly surreal quality to them.  For me, this worked reasonably well as a surreal horror story.  I was less satisfied, however, by the depth of insights this tried to provide regarding obsessive love and failed relationships.

More after the spoiler.

Crossroads (review)

"Crossroads" is a multiply branching story by Cat Manning, written in Twine for the 2015 interactive fiction competition.

In the past two days I have set about learning Twine and javascript for myself.  This new knowledge changes rather fundamentally the way I look at Twine games, sometimes becoming more distracted away from the story, while I imagine the structure of the code.

The story is about a planned encounter with a witch at the edge of the woods.  The text suggests that this witch may not be entirely good-natured.  The writing here starts out strong, which is good, because the beginning is the only part of the story that every player will necessarily see.  The narrative then branches off rather quickly, depending on what reason the player has chosen for seeing the witch, and what herbs they've brought along to help her with her spells.  I played several times, to check that the alternate story pathways lead to fundamentally different conclusions.  They do,.but with this many different endings, I didn't think the ones I played were written to the same high quality as the opening passages.

In past IFcomp years, against weaker competition, this story might have been in the top third.  But this year will be especially challenging, and this story (thematically) didn't light my fire.  I would recommend this game to players who like this particular game design. (hypertext interface, multiply branching CYOA).  I would not expect it to finish in the top thirtieth percentile.

A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood (review)

"A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood" is a web based interactive fiction by Michael Thomet entered in the 2015 Interactive Fiction Competition.

The PC is a vagabond, asked to make a series of choices during his journey through the woods, prior to an encounter with the figure described in the title and blurb.  I played three times, and then began to develop some new understanding of the meaning of the blurb.

The writing was good enough to hold my interest through what was only about a fifteen minute game (depending on how many times you replay, your times may differ).  The vagabond character is described in what I thought were self-consciously gender neutral pronouns.  I guess that's the trend in writing now, but I thought the prose would have read more smoothly with "he" or "she" rather than repeatedly "they".  There appeared to be some minor bugs in tracking the players choices.  But the players choices are tracked, which makes this a more sophisticated programming effort than many of the Twine games I've played.

Major Spoilers after the break.

Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box (a review)

"Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box" is an interactive fiction by Arthur DiBianca, entered in the 2015 Interactive Fiction competition.  Weirdly enjoyable, in the way that listening to any well-told shaggy dog story can be.  Demonstrates how many clever puzzles can be introduced with only a limited selection of verbs.

The King and the Crown (a review)

"The King and the Crown" is an interactive fiction written in z-code by Wes Lesley for the 2015 interactive fiction competition.  In a lot of ways this felt like a programming exercise: short, simple and under-developed.  It felt like the author put more effort into customizing standard error messages, than building a world model which is robust enough prevent the player from experiencing parser errors.

I reached two quite different endings before turning to the external hints file.  Turns out there are lots of hidden Easter eggs, but many of them so obscure that nobody is ever likely to find them without the walk through.  Better game design requires that an author focuses their energy on writing responses to likely actions (examining details on the stained glass, for example) not on commands the player would never think to type without the walk through.