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I've gone through four more text adventures from the 11th Annual competition – "Beyond", "Phantom: caves of the killer", "Hello sword", and "Son of a...". I also tried "Mix Tape", but it crashed.
I'm not going to review "Phantom" or "Hello sword". I didn't even play them to the end. (Were I reviewing for the real contest, I would have, but for fun? Not worth it.) Word to the wise: if you want to submit anything involving words to a contest, and spelling and typo-fixing is difficult for you, then get a friend to proofread for you.*
Anyway, "Beyond" and "Son of a...".
Beyond is a supernatural story – the protagonist is the spirit of a child who died before being born, who is given the chance (by some metaphysical chichancery) to find out what sort of life she would have lived and how (and why) she died.
I guess it is well executed. The author chose to evade the problems of speech-interaction by setting up predefined questions and answers for the characters to say. There is a greater sense of being railroaded because of this, but it sure beats not knowing how to say the stuff that advances the plot. Another technical feature is the illustrations – as you visit certain locations, or interact with certain people, pictures relating to those locations and people appear either on the top or the side of the text adventure window. There are actually three minor flaws I observed with the picture system, though: sometimes the picture was scaled too small for intelligibility, sometimes the picture was too large for the window (though that was easily fixed), and whenever the picture appeared on the side, I would have to scroll down to see the latest text. That said, the illustrations were competently done, and contributed to the sense of the story.
I was not actually all that impressed by the story. Although I did not anticipate the plot changes, it didn't seem original in the way that, for example, "Chancellor" was. Nevertheless, it was well written and fairly reasonable.
The little 'framework' engine for the competition provides a rating system, which lets you score each game from 1 to 10. I gave this one a 9; it was definitely good, but it felt too tired to earn the full 10-out-of-10.
The title "Son of a..." is really stupid. Fortunately, the game isn't.
"Son of a..." is a humorous mini-adventure† in which your car (an '81 Furdler Weasel – the author makes up some really cool names for stuff) breaks down in the middle of nowhere, near an abandoned motel, and you have to figure a way out. The puzzles are of the standard kind and fairly clever, and I had few difficulties in the entire game.
Really, I can't say very much about this. It's not extraordinary, but it's well done, and good for some fun. I gave it a 10 because I liked it, really – I probably will need to revise my scoring scale if I actually volunteer as a judge in the '06 competition.
Anyway, that's the news. Next on my list are "Distress", "Internal Vigilance" and "Waldo's Pie" – I'll hope for the best (and keep a weather eye on the clock, this time)!
* I'm willing, by the way. I'm not a great proofreader, but I'm a pedant, which is almost as good.
† Not that most of the competition adventures aren't 'mini' – in the official rules, judges may only rate a game based on the first two hours of play. (I, of course, am ignoring that rule.)
I'm not going to review "Phantom" or "Hello sword". I didn't even play them to the end. (Were I reviewing for the real contest, I would have, but for fun? Not worth it.) Word to the wise: if you want to submit anything involving words to a contest, and spelling and typo-fixing is difficult for you, then get a friend to proofread for you.*
Anyway, "Beyond" and "Son of a...".
Beyond is a supernatural story – the protagonist is the spirit of a child who died before being born, who is given the chance (by some metaphysical chichancery) to find out what sort of life she would have lived and how (and why) she died.
I guess it is well executed. The author chose to evade the problems of speech-interaction by setting up predefined questions and answers for the characters to say. There is a greater sense of being railroaded because of this, but it sure beats not knowing how to say the stuff that advances the plot. Another technical feature is the illustrations – as you visit certain locations, or interact with certain people, pictures relating to those locations and people appear either on the top or the side of the text adventure window. There are actually three minor flaws I observed with the picture system, though: sometimes the picture was scaled too small for intelligibility, sometimes the picture was too large for the window (though that was easily fixed), and whenever the picture appeared on the side, I would have to scroll down to see the latest text. That said, the illustrations were competently done, and contributed to the sense of the story.
I was not actually all that impressed by the story. Although I did not anticipate the plot changes, it didn't seem original in the way that, for example, "Chancellor" was. Nevertheless, it was well written and fairly reasonable.
The little 'framework' engine for the competition provides a rating system, which lets you score each game from 1 to 10. I gave this one a 9; it was definitely good, but it felt too tired to earn the full 10-out-of-10.
The title "Son of a..." is really stupid. Fortunately, the game isn't.
"Son of a..." is a humorous mini-adventure† in which your car (an '81 Furdler Weasel – the author makes up some really cool names for stuff) breaks down in the middle of nowhere, near an abandoned motel, and you have to figure a way out. The puzzles are of the standard kind and fairly clever, and I had few difficulties in the entire game.
Really, I can't say very much about this. It's not extraordinary, but it's well done, and good for some fun. I gave it a 10 because I liked it, really – I probably will need to revise my scoring scale if I actually volunteer as a judge in the '06 competition.
Anyway, that's the news. Next on my list are "Distress", "Internal Vigilance" and "Waldo's Pie" – I'll hope for the best (and keep a weather eye on the clock, this time)!
* I'm willing, by the way. I'm not a great proofreader, but I'm a pedant, which is almost as good.
† Not that most of the competition adventures aren't 'mini' – in the official rules, judges may only rate a game based on the first two hours of play. (I, of course, am ignoring that rule.)
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