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Monthly Archives: October 2018
IF Comp 2018: mini-reviews, part 2
Brief notes on Adventures with Fido, Dynamite Powers vs. the Ray of Night, A Final Grind, The Forgotten Tavern, Intel Mission, Junior Arithmancer, Murder at the Manor, Shackles of Control, and smooch.click.
Posted in cyoa, interactive fiction, parser-based, review
Tagged if comp, IF Comp 2018
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IF Comp 2018: Grimnoir
Grimnoir is a choice-based supernatural-detective story with an unprepossessing title. It’s not all that grim, or at least not any more grim than you’d expect out of ‘supernatural detective.’ I’m not convinced that it’s all that noir, either, although that’s harder … Continue reading
Posted in cyoa, interactive fiction, review
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IF Comp 2018: Six Silver Bullets
Six Silver Bullets is a parser-based spy game. It’s weird and uncomfortable. It’s an odd duck, difficult to assess. I expect to get at least one game a year completely wrong, and this seems a strong candidate for that. You … Continue reading
IF Comp 2018: mini-reviews pt. 1
I am not going to have time to write up detailed thoughts about every game I play in the Comp; with a lot of games I don’t feel as though I have a huge amount to say about them, for … Continue reading
IF Comp 2018: Canadian Commodities Trader Simulation Exercise
Let’s Explore Geography! Canadian Commodities Trader Simulation Exercise is a game where you have a big truck and a million dollars and you drive around Canada buying and selling stuff. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be an edutainment … Continue reading
IF Comp 2018: LET’S ROB A BANK
LET’S ROB A BANK, by Bethany Nolan, is a choice-based game in which you pick a team of criminals – distraction, getaway driver, muscle – and, well, rob a bank. It does not go well. There’s the germ of a … Continue reading
IF Comp 2018: Animalia
Animalia is a game in which you play four forest creatures who are trying to cover up the ritual sacrifice of a small child by piloting a replica of that small child. You get to choose which animals control the … Continue reading
IF Comp 2018 Blurbage
2018’s ballot is really big once again, so it’s been quite a lot of work just to go through all the blurbs and artwork, assess them, and unpack those assessments; hence this coming out rather later than I’d prefer. Hence … Continue reading
IF Comp 2018: The Master of the Land
Next up in the Comp: The Master of the Land, a choice-based thing by Pseudavid. This is an intrigue-at-the-fancy-party game, set in a fictional Mediterranean nation early in the C19th. It’s Burburum Day, a kind of Carnival or Saturnalia, a … Continue reading
IF Comp 2018: Birmingham IV
This is a port of an I7 game written in 1988, using The Quill, on a BBC Micro. In the intervening thirty years there have been rather a lot of developments in parser IF, in terms of design as much … Continue reading
These Heterogenous Tasks 