Third game of the competition where I'm apparently trapped.... in a cave. I want to get these games out of the way first.
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Is there a prize this year, I don't know about, for the author who receives the fewest total number of votes? If so, I can think of few better ways of earning it than to write an interactive fiction in German, using a homebrew parser on a Windows platform. Well, perhaps a game written in Klingon specifically for the Apple Macintosh, or one which comes with a disclaimer (like one of the games entered last year) "This game may be infected by a virus."
There have only been a few homebrew parser games I have enjoyed in the history of this competition. "Aunts and Butlers" in 2006, and "Jealousy Duel X" in 2007 (which wasn't actually a parser based game). Most homebrew parsers produce games which have more in common with "Ninja 2", an English language game written by Dunric.
I do actually read a tiny amount of German, and I would look forward to playing an elementary German language game written in TADS or Inform. But not one written for Windows.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Spelunkers Quest
OK. Another game where I'm trapped in a cave, with a default self-description. But this one has credits, so I'm hopeful. Spoilers ahead.
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It seems very odd that every year there is some theme which repeats itself in multiple entries in the IF comp. Last year it was vampires. This year, trapped in a cave adventures with swords and brass lanterns. Spelunker's Crawl is kind of fun, even though conceptually it isn't very original. Another amnesiatic cave crawl. The game includes a number of IF in jokes (a reference to Will Crowther, and a response to the XYZZY command). The game is easy enough that I was able to finish with only one peek at the hints. The hints menus are very well designed, telling you first where to search more carefully, then giving more explicit advice. It's amusing, and well coded. I just wish it weren't so cliched. I'll give it a "3".
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It seems very odd that every year there is some theme which repeats itself in multiple entries in the IF comp. Last year it was vampires. This year, trapped in a cave adventures with swords and brass lanterns. Spelunker's Crawl is kind of fun, even though conceptually it isn't very original. Another amnesiatic cave crawl. The game includes a number of IF in jokes (a reference to Will Crowther, and a response to the XYZZY command). The game is easy enough that I was able to finish with only one peek at the hints. The hints menus are very well designed, telling you first where to search more carefully, then giving more explicit advice. It's amusing, and well coded. I just wish it weren't so cliched. I'll give it a "3".
Zork buried chaos
How many lines do I need to write to avoid spoiling this game for casual readers?
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spoilers
This game is one of several which, according to the blurbs, involves being trapped in a cave. Plato wrote about being trapped in a cave. Everything written since then has been derivative. This game is highly derivative of the Infocom "Zork" series, right down to the title, and the sword. But whereas "Zork" implemented a description of that sword (an Elvish sword of great antiquity) this story does not. This game also fails several of my other longstanding tests of interactive fiction.
The "examine me" test. This game gives a default response.
The "missing credits" test. This game appears to have none.
The "find a misspelled word in the first two rooms" test. I'm not a stickler for spelling and punctuation. I don't care if a period comes inside the quotation mark or outside. But goodness, shouldn't the direction label "south" be spelled correctly?
Time passes.
OK. I've visited five or six rooms. I've found a wire, a sword, a lamp, a crate and a map (which I can't use). I've found a slide blocked by an obstruction (which I'm not able to examine). I've found a locked chest, and a door and a dial. I've found sparse room descriptions which make me feel like my computer is still limited to 64K of memory. The blue room has a glass wall, which hasn't been implemented. The game has a maze, without any room descriptions.
OK. I quit. The walk-thru makes it look like I may have missed some things. I give it a "2".
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spoilers
This game is one of several which, according to the blurbs, involves being trapped in a cave. Plato wrote about being trapped in a cave. Everything written since then has been derivative. This game is highly derivative of the Infocom "Zork" series, right down to the title, and the sword. But whereas "Zork" implemented a description of that sword (an Elvish sword of great antiquity) this story does not. This game also fails several of my other longstanding tests of interactive fiction.
The "examine me" test. This game gives a default response.
The "missing credits" test. This game appears to have none.
The "find a misspelled word in the first two rooms" test. I'm not a stickler for spelling and punctuation. I don't care if a period comes inside the quotation mark or outside. But goodness, shouldn't the direction label "south" be spelled correctly?
Time passes.
OK. I've visited five or six rooms. I've found a wire, a sword, a lamp, a crate and a map (which I can't use). I've found a slide blocked by an obstruction (which I'm not able to examine). I've found a locked chest, and a door and a dial. I've found sparse room descriptions which make me feel like my computer is still limited to 64K of memory. The blue room has a glass wall, which hasn't been implemented. The game has a maze, without any room descriptions.
OK. I quit. The walk-thru makes it look like I may have missed some things. I give it a "2".
2009 IF comp
After coming back from my vacation, yesterday, I downloaded the 2009 interactive fiction competition entries. http://www.ifcomp.org/. There are fewer entries this year than there have been for the last several years. The only author I recognize immediately is Eric Eve. Reading the blurbs, there seems to be an unusual number of games about being trapped in caves, and perhaps also a return to the old school convention of IF as treasure hunt. But that's just my initial impression, and it may turn out incorrect.
I won't be revealing my actual scores in these reviews, but will rank the games on a 1-5 scale. A score of "5" is a truly amazing game, likely to be one of the top four games in this year's competition. "4" is a good game, well worth playing. "3" is an adequate game, not broken. Maybe the author was a beginner, but they did their best. "2" is a seriously flawed game. "1" is a game which should not have been entered in the competition at all.
Let the games begin.
I won't be revealing my actual scores in these reviews, but will rank the games on a 1-5 scale. A score of "5" is a truly amazing game, likely to be one of the top four games in this year's competition. "4" is a good game, well worth playing. "3" is an adequate game, not broken. Maybe the author was a beginner, but they did their best. "2" is a seriously flawed game. "1" is a game which should not have been entered in the competition at all.
Let the games begin.
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