IFComp 2015

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Hipolito
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IFComp 2015

Post by Hipolito »

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Hipolito
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Re: IFComp 2015

Post by Hipolito »

And that, my friends, is what it takes to judge a 55-game competition.

Fifty-five games. I don't know how we're going to get through all of them in the next six weeks, but we will. Together.

Below is my randomized list of the games. I'll fill in the reviews as I go along.

:shhh: denotes a Hip Pick™.
  1. Map: A guilt-ridden empty-nester explores her house and revisits her life-changing decisions. It's a pretty good story, ultimately, and it may do well in the competition. But I found it a little too long. Rating: 6 out of 10.
  2. Grimm's Godfather: Ren'Py-made fairy tale visual novel with simple art. The three stories are brief and not very inspiring. 3/10.
  3. Pilgrimage: Travel all over plaguetime Europe and Asia in search of a holy relic, gifting strangers along the way. Too poorly programmed and briskly paced to feel as epic as its theme. 4/10
  4. The Problems Compound: A series of meaningless puzzles strewn with "British humor." I quit early. 2/10
  5. The Baker of Shireton: You're a baker in a medieval town under siege by raiders. There is more going on than first appears, kind of like Frog Fractions. But it's too noisy and involved for me, so I read the walkthrough, which was kind of enjoyable. 5/10
  6. Second Story: There's not much to this crime caper in which you have to steal a never-released Alfred Hitchcock movie. You don't even get to see the movie. The game has a sly reference to Taco Fiction, another crime caper that was 2011's winner, but doesn't have Taco Fiction's panache. 4/10
  7. The War of the Willows: ZOMBTREES! The first game about the stalking dead has a lot of poetic build-up that culminates in a not very good fighting simulator. 3/10
  8. Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box: It isn't as good as her potato chowder, but this is a cute and amusing game in which you interact with a puzzle box and see what happens. 6/10
  9. Final Exam: You're a candidate for Administrator in a high-tech dystopia who wakes up all alone in the dark. Is this an actual security crisis or just the [game name]? Interesting vision of the future, but the gameplay is too dry and tedious. 4/10
  10. Seeking Ataraxia: A game about dealing with OCD. It's not as good as Depression Quest. Plus there are too many inconsistencies. You clean your apartment and are still told it's a mess. You have a digital clock but the graphic shows an analog clock. What the hell? 4/10
  11. A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood: Listen, pal. If you read my fortune and predict that I'm about to die, fine. BUT YOU DON'T GET TO BE THE ONE THAT KILLS ME, OKAY? Sheesh, conflict of interest here. 2/10
  12. Brain Guzzlers from Beyond!: Spoof of 50s sci-fi that manages to sneak in a little social commentary and a lot of pop culture references. Funny and inventive, but loses momentum with all the silly things you have to do. 6/10
  13. Growbotics: Really odd toy in which you combine concepts to form other concepts. Obviously the author had a good time coming up with combinations. Had the interface been snappier, I might have enjoyed figuring them out. 3/10
  14. I Think The Waves Are Watching Me: Which of the island's inhabitants is going around killing everyone else? You have limited time to explore, trade MacGuffins with people, and gather clues. OK in concept, but the interface is from the Carter administration. 4/10
  15. :shhh: Forever Meow: Neat and suspenseful little tale told just a few sentences at a time. You're a cat who mysteriously finds itself alone. 7/10
  16. :shhh: Scarlet Sails: Epic pirate choose-your-own adventure with RPG stats and a magical ability of your choice. A well-written quest for treasure with a little romance and a lot of skullduggery. 7/10
  17. Emily is Away: withdrawn from competition
  18. Tombs of Reschette: A demented spoof of dungeon crawls. Silly gags, elaborate death scenes, and some interesting secrets to uncover. 6/10
  19. Summit: People and fish have a weird symbiosis as you go on "a dream-like journey through a drifting life." Artistic story enhanced by art and eerie music. Long, a bit trying. 6/10
  20. Cape: Something you steal turns you from a weak and sickly burglar to a powerful superhero in a crime-ridden city. Long, a bit dissatisfying. 6/10
  21. To Burn in Memory: You're exploring a structure ruined in war. I couldn't figure out how to do much, and the redonkulously obscure writing style didn't help any. 3/10
  22. Midnight. Swordfight.: Once you figure out how to map out the game with its nonstandard directions, it's not so confusing and becomes a playable, if surreal, adventure. You're a motlied fool trying to prevent his own midnight demise at a masquerade party. Boats 25 different endings; I've seen about 5. 5/10
  23. The Speaker: You're a typist for a disabled alien advice blogger. The story shows a lot of promise, but it ends before there's any sort of development. 4/10
  24. Questor's Quest: Standard and terse fantasy quest aimed at kids, though I think it'll be too hard for them. Even with the walkthrough, I got stuck. 3/10
  25. Switcheroo: A wheelchair-using boy living in a foster home wakes up to become a walking girl. A reasonably readable kids' story. 6/10
  26. 5 Minutes to Burn Something!: A psycho ex-girlfriend has to start a fire in her apartment before the firefighters arrive (because reasons). A decent puzzler with some parser issues. 5/10
  27. Darkiss - Chapter 1: the Awakening: A "slain" vampire awakens in his crypt and tries to regain enough power to escape. OK puzzles, indulgently evil writing. 6/10
  28. Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory: A young lady with synesthesia tried to make a career of it and I guess it didn't go well. Not sure what I can do to help her. I feel kind of ignored and Livejournalled at. 4/10
  29. Koustrea's Contentment: You're in a house, and there are people in it who don't tell you much, and you have to somehow and for some reason open a golden door. Just too vague for me. Maybe this would have worked better as a Twine game instead of a parser-based game. 4/10
  30. Unbeknown: Starts with a scary, well-written scene of violence and subjugation. Then it gets all existential-like. I couldn't relate. 4/10
  31. Pit of the Condemned: Run through city streets and buildings to evade a deadly beast. Clunky implementation and sparse writing are the more troubling obstacles. 3/10
  32. Cat Scratch: This is just an Android e-book of a kids' short story about flying cats. 3/10
  33. Onaar: This RPG wants to be an Elder Scrolls game. It's too time-consuming to type out all the inventory and dialogue commands, even with the shortcuts and automation. Still, not badly done. 6/10
  34. The Insect Massacre: You get to be the starship computer as you try to solve a murder while monitoring the conversations of the crew. Pretty neat concept, but it's very short and I feel I'm getting only half the story. 5/10
  35. Taghairm: A horror story in which you may choose to participate in the ritual torture of cats. Over and over again. With sound effects! Eeugh. This one may cross a line, but I have to admit it does so effectively. 7/10
  36. Gotomomi: A young lady on the run tries to switch trains in sleazy urban Japan. Too difficult and personally uninvolving for me. 5/10
  37. SPY INTRIGUE: Very long and elaborately presented Twine game. It alternates between a spy story (written in all caps) told with juvenile, trollish humor and serious, trauma-laden flashbacks (written in small caps) about childhood and drugs. Are these two sides of the same coin? I don't know, I didn't finish, but I did enjoy what I could tolerate. 7/10
  38. Duel: Bound to stakes, you and your rival battle Pokemon-style by summoning dark, destructive memories. Trying to figure out the single solution is a bit wearying, but the descriptions of the memories and the battles are fairly badass. 6/10
  39. Crossroads: You seek out a powerful witch to help you deal with your regretful memories. This multiply branched but brief story may be trying to convey a message about coping, but it expects the reader to care about a main character it reveals too little about. 4/10
  40. Kane County: A CYOA with inventory and a couple of RPG stats about surviving on one's own in the harsh Utah desert. Could have used more choices and another editing pass. 5/10
  41. :shhh: Sub Rosa: In a CYOA-dominated competition, this is the rare parser game of traditional difficulty and interactivity. You're a silent sneaky guy trying to bring down an important person by discovering all of his secrets. At 2 hours in, I'm not halfway done, but I'm enjoying the challenge, the rich lore, and the weird vocabulary of this technomagic world. 7/10
  42. In The Friend Zone: Depicts the dreaded Friend Zone as an actual, Purgatory-like place. I guess it's about the danger of putting someone you love on a pedestal, but it takes too long to make that point. 5/10
  43. Untold Riches: Easy but well-implemented parser game about looking for rescue (and treasure) on a deserted island. 6/10
  44. Birdland: You're a bored summer camp kid who dreams at night about bird people. Your dreams affect stats such as Tenacity and Guile, which determine your available choices during the day. The dialogue and stage play format annoyed me over the course of the game. 4/10
  45. Capsule II - The 11th Sandman: You are the sole awake person on a colony ship of cryosleeping passengers, and you're not quite mentally fit for the responsibility. Despite the fancy sci-fi presentation, the story is too dubious and the writing style too goofy. 4/10
  46. Much Love, BJP: A series of reflections by a couple of Middle East war correspondents, I think. I couldn't really follow. Inspired by the life of an actual, heroic correspondent named Marie Colvin; the game would have been much better and less confusing had it simply been about her. 3/10
  47. Paradise: withdrawn from competition
  48. :shhh: Nowhere Near Single: A struggling pop singer enters the world of polyamory. Long but engaging Twine story with diverse characters and meaningful choices. 7/10
  49. Recorded: Gah. 2/10
  50. Ether: Some kind of ancient flying cephalopod (perhaps a distant nephew of the Octopus Overlords) seeks to leave this world and enter the next. Pleasant and airy; have some ethereal music going in the background while you play this. 6/10
  51. Arcane Intern (Unpaid): A fan of Harry Potter-like books takes a job at a publishing house where magic might be real but the bosses are as jerky as anywhere else. Some interesting and flavorful moments, but it feels like well-trod ground. 6/10
  52. The King and the Crown: 1/10
  53. The Sueño: You volunteer for an experiment in lucid dreaming and get caught in some kind of conspiracy. Has the potential to be good after a lot of improvement to the writing and programming. 5/10
  54. Life On Mars?: You're the surviving astronaut on a Mars mission that went really poorly, and you're losing your mind. Or are you? The story is too space-chicken to decide. 4/10
  55. The Man Who Killed Time: Maybe this is about a detective in a future where the power of time is harnessed as energy. I skimmed the story since the writing is so awkwardly translated, plus this is my last IFComp game to review and I wanna get this thing done! 3/10
Last edited by Hipolito on Sat Nov 14, 2015 4:28 pm, edited 19 times in total.
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MonkeyFinger
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Re: IFComp 2015

Post by MonkeyFinger »

And here I thought you were trying to tell us it had jumped the shark. On a skateboard. With nunchucks. :|
-mf
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Hipolito
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Re: IFComp 2015

Post by Hipolito »

MonkeyFinger wrote:And here I thought you were trying to tell us it had jumped the shark. On a skateboard. With nunchucks. :|
It was my attempt at "viral marketing." Maybe I'll keep my day job.
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Hipolito
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Re: IFComp 2015

Post by Hipolito »

Whew, finally finished!

Image


That's what playing 53 IF games in 6 weeks will do to you. I literally became a dog.

Looking back and comparing my impressions with that of other reviewers, I'm probably underrating Map and Brain Guzzlers from Beyond (gave them each a 6). They are good games that I wasn't in the right mindset to enjoy. I may be overrating Forever Meow (7), but I really enjoyed that one from start to finish.

A few reviewers are saying this has been one of the best years in the competition, but I don't agree; I think it's been just another OK year overall.

If you had to try just one game from the competition, I'd recommend:
- For the IF superfan: Sub Rosa, the only game offering an Infocom level of challenge.
- For the sometime text adventurer: Brain Guzzlers From Beyond, which has some light puzzling and is pretty funny with some really good character art.
- For the dumbass noob who can't xyzzy his or her way out of a paper bag: Scarlet Sails, because it's an easy-to-play (but not easy-to-win) Choose-Your-Own-Adventure that's well written and has lovable pirates in it.

We should have final results in a couple of days. See ya then!
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Hipolito
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Re: IFComp 2015

Post by Hipolito »

The winner, as you can see from this nicely organized roster of results, is BRAIN GUZZLERS FROM BEYOND!

:D :( :| :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :pop: :tjg: :?: :tjg: :( :violin: :binky: :pop: :-x :-P :Ts: :Ts: :Th: :angelic-cyan: :angelic-cyan: :angelic-sunshine: :animals-bunny: :animals-chickencatch: :animals-chickencatch: :angry-steamingears: :angry-tappingfoot: :auto-crash: :auto-dirtbike: :auto-dirtbike: :auto-dirtbike: :auto-dirtbike: :auto-dirtbike: :banana-jumprope: :banana-jumprope:

This was a huge competition, likely to draw in some folks who've never tried interactive fiction before, so I'm glad BGFB won. It's really the perfect game to get started, being easy to play without being a pushover, humorous, sassy, satirical, with appealing art. A great representative of the medium. If I didn't enjoy it as much as others, that's my fault, not the game's.

This was also a tough competition. Some well-crafted games that had substantial numbers of admirers didn't crack the top 20.

And check out the standard deviation on Spy Intrigue. People's opinions were all over the place, much like the game itself.
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MonkeyFinger
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Re: IFComp 2015

Post by MonkeyFinger »

Thanks, as always, for doing this year after year. :clap:

Hope to find some time to relive my yoot and actually play some of these!
-mf
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Hipolito
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Re: IFComp 2015

Post by Hipolito »

You're welcome, MonkeyFinger. Relive yer yoot to find da troot!
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