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Blog Details for "an occasional player's review"
an occasional player's reviewan occasional player's reviewA game review blog from the viewpoint of an dabbling player and budding designer, it focuses mostly on graphical adventure games and interactive fiction.
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Articles
A mysterious adventure
2011-06-09 22:20:00 Matthew Cangelosi’s A Curious Nightfall is a short platformer about a young girl who finds a mysterious pouch dropped by a bird. When she attempts to discover its contents, the earth beneath her cracks open and she falls into a mysterious world. She then sets out to return the bag to its rightful owner. Unlike ... More About: Games , Adventure , Mysterious
That effin? punk
2011-06-03 13:17:00 Playing through the AGS One Room-One Week (OROW) competition entries reminds me of that point in Samurai Showdown IV where the characters expends more than 75% of his life bars in order to gain more power. Some of the games produced in the comp have been pretty astounding, to say the least. Take, for example, ... More About: Games , Punk
Cryptozookeeper released
2011-05-30 11:33:00 Necrotic Drift and Fallacy of Dawn author Robb Sherwin has finally released his latest piece called Cryptozookeeper. Sherwin describes the game in an early interview as “basically a cross between Monster Rancher, Zork, and a good call on Coast-to-Coast AM.” The game can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. It’s a hefty one at around ... More About: News , Games , Released
Pow. Zoom.
2010-11-04 16:20:00 Today I am resurrected to bring some good news from the interactive fiction front. Andrew “Zarf” Plotkin’s Hadean Lands project on Kickstarter has went over the top in, as he himself reported it, Day 1. Seriously. There’s some interesting discussion going on over at Emily Short’s blog, too. More About: News , Games , Zoom
The Operative Word is ?Extreme?
2010-06-14 09:50:00 Darius Poyer’s rein is a really short point-and-click adventure made in AGS where you play as one of the staff working in a secret research facility called Fraxtor 21. The story starts with the entire building collapsing around you, so you run and try to escape. I’m going to start off with a warning: the ... More About: Games , Word , Extreme
AGS Games on the Web?
2010-04-28 10:54:00 Awakener looks really good being played on the Web using Daniel ?Clarvalon? Alexander?s XAGE. Apparently, the game appears to have undergone almost the same process that Z-Code games go through for Parchment. Currently, though, Parchment can be set up to allow people to play IF games off the archive without needing to download any software. ... More About: Games
Rude awakening
2009-10-20 04:07:00 Barely awake from suspended animation, you sense the ship is about to crash. Your other companion isn’t as lucky; you find him slumped down on the floor, lifeless. Inside the cockpit, the pilot, who also happens to be your captain, is skewered to his seat with a long steel rod, unable to move. The console ... More About: Games
Going on the Offensive
2009-10-18 16:11:00 Got wind of this from Ice Cream Jonsey’s post in Jolt Country. It’s better to show it with a screenshot: See the highlighted portion? Wow. What a way to blow off the competition. All of Malinche Entertainment’s games are made with Inform, so any platform with tools that can run Z-code games can naturally play their own ...
Toeing the party line
2009-08-17 07:38:00 Beyond Exile is Doug Shanahan’s adaptation of author Lawrence Johns’ epic poem, written in Quest. During most of the game, the player dons the role of Frank Glendover, continuing his philosophical and personal journey during the 1970’s which is said to have started out in Johns’ previous work Love and Hate. However, the game also ... More About: Party , Games , Line , The Party
Crying Uncle
2009-08-03 00:14:00 I recently spotted an IF game on the Artsy Games Incubator website called My Uncle George, written by Filipe Salgado (download page here; web version here). It’s a one-room piece written using Inform 7, which casts the player as 17-year-old Matt, trying to kill some time before school, having a “criminally awkward” breakfast chat with ... More About: Crying
Two of a Kind
2009-07-27 00:34:00 One of the things I generally look for in games is how well-meshed the gameplay is with the narrative. Inform author Graham Nelson himself wrote about it in his introduction to his essay The Craft of Adventure, where he refers to adventure games as “a crossword at war with a narrative.” Fortunately, Ben Chandler’s games Shifter’s ... More About: Games
Editor Releases Game, Gets Interviewed
2009-07-18 20:34:00 Jimmy Maher, editor of the online magazine SPAG (Society for the Promotion of Adventure Game s ) and recognized IF historian, recently released his new game The King of Shreds and Patches. From his original rec.arts.int-fiction post: The King of Shreds and Patches is a novel-length work of interactive fiction. In it you will explore an historically accurate recreation of ... More About: Editor
The Color and the Shade
2009-05-29 14:16:00 Since I had some available time this week, I went on a lark and visited the AGS forums to see what’s cooking. One link led to another, which led me to their Pick of the Month for May 2009: Fading Shades. The blurb for the POTM also reminded me of another first-person game I’ve always ... More About: Games , Color
The Silliness of it all
2008-12-29 07:32:00 Title: The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge Author(s): Jonas Kyratzes (design and programming), Verena Huber (graphics), Helen Trevillion (music) Release Date: November 2008 License: Freeware; click here to download Author’s Site: Jonas Kyratzes I don’t know what to make of Desert Bridge (better than referring to the game as “TSSSTHDB”). After playing through nearly ... More About: Games , Adventure , Silliness
New Jonas Kyratzes Game Released
2008-11-24 00:43:00 Here’s a new title off Jonas Kyratzes’s drawing board: The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge, released just 2 days ago. Desert Bridge opening screen The game features music by composer Helen Trevillion and colorful hand-drawn art by artist Verena Huber. I still haven’t started playing the game yet, but the screenshots ... More About: Adventure , Released , Game
And the winners are
2008-11-17 05:13:00 The 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Comp is finally over! A huge applause to the winners of this year’s competition: Violet by Jeremy Freese, Nightfall by Eric Eve, and Everybody Dies by Jim Munroe. These games were also chosen as winners of the Miss Congeniality award in this year’s comp. The rest of the entries and their ... More About: Games , Winners
Killfun is a Name No One Forgets
2008-10-27 02:46:00 Title: Nanobots Author(s): Erin “The Ivy” Robinson (design, art, writing); Vince Twelve (scripting); Chris “Scorposer” Moorson (music) Release Date: June 2008 License: Freeware; click here to download Author’s Site: Lively Ivy I’ve seen Nanobots being announced before on the AGS boards, but since I was floored at work back then, I decided to let the game simmer first. The same ... More About: Games , Adventure
Tool Updates, Part 3: ACK
2008-08-24 18:01:00 Those familiar with Rogue-like games and other tile-based adventures (such as Ultima IV) would be happy to know one of the tools for creating these games is still kicking and breathing. Unless, of course, you’re not into designing games… Enter the Adventure Creation Kit, otherwise known as ACK. Its latest version (3.212), though essentially a DOS ... More About: Software , Tools , Games , Updates
Tool Updates, Part 2: TADS 2
2008-08-22 13:23:00 Mike Roberts had recently posted on the IF newsgroups about the TADS 2 update. Those who have been more-or-less involved in the newsgroups are probably aware that the last version Roberts had released for TADS 2 was v2.5.10. This version consisted mostly of compiler and run-time engine bug-fixes, but nothing much in terms of UI ... More About: Software , Games , Updates , Tool , Part
Tool Updates: AGS
2008-08-21 13:57:00 I’ve previously written about certain adventure game authors shifting their gears over to other software that are more regularly updated. This post will feature the recent (and not-so-recent) changes to some of the game design software I’ve been checking out, so readers can have a better clue of what they need to be looking for. First ... More About: Software , Tools , Games , Adventure , Updates
Something Else
2008-08-19 12:11:00 Title: The Vacuum Author: David Proctor Release Date: August 2008 License: Freeware; click here to download Author’s Site: Serious Business [SPOILER ALERT: This article contains some spoilers.] You get off smelling clean, looking prim and proper in your red long-sleeved shirt from the bathroom. When you reach the kitchen, one of the other passengers on your ship apologizes for grabbing that ... More About: Games , Adventure
Care to chat?
2008-08-17 09:28:00 Title: Chat room Author: TheJBurger Release Date: July 2008 License: Freeware; click here to download the game Author’s Site: None [SPOILER ALERT: This article contains some spoilers.] There’s always something to be said about objects that allow human conversation, even interaction, without the extras that provide other important clues, such as facial and body movements. Like most other new technologies, a ... More About: Reviews , Games , Care
Now it all comes together
2008-02-11 01:03:00 Title: All Roads Lead to Paradise, The Good Dr Ferrer, Jack French and the 7 Dwarfs[sic] (Jack French series) Author: JohnnyBDesign Games Release Date: 2006-2007 License: Freeware; click here to download all three games Author’s Site: JohnnyBDesign.com Having further exposed myself into other game “genres” the last month or so, I’ve gained a better appreciation of different kinds of game ... More About: Adventure
SLUDGE goes Open Source
2008-01-07 01:36:00 Finally, Tim Furnish has decided to officially declare SLUDGE as open source! He had recently uploaded the source code to Sourceforge, and has renamed the whole bit as OpenSLUDGE. Here’s hoping all the bugs get fixed once people start tinkering with the engine’s code, especially those memory leaks some authors had been experiencing. Definitely w00t! [ Thanks go ... More About: Software , Open Source , Games , Adventure , Sludge
Moving forward
2007-12-26 10:32:00 Several game designers are switching to other development systems for their projects these days. Deidra Kiai, aka “Squinky”, has shifted gears from SLUDGE to the Wintermute Engine, as evidenced by her new game Chivalry is Not Dead, which she announced 2 months ago in the WME forums. In fact, she released her second game in ... More About: Moving , Forward
Games, game stuff, game design stuff
2007-12-23 05:26:00 I’ve been playing different games and juggling work duties during the whole 2 weeks (or was it 3?) I’ve been out. I initially thought replacing dial-up service with broadband was overkill, since we mostly use the Internet for emails and regular browsing, but it’s turning out to be different. Now bittorrent downloads, RSS feeds, and ... More About: Design , Games , Stuff , Game , Game Design
Some house that was
2007-11-25 20:07:00 Title: The House Author: “vdweller” (Emilios Manolidis) Release Date: May 2007 License: Freeware; click here to download Author’s Site: Vdweller’s website [SPOILER ALERT: This article contains some spoilers.] I came to this game primarily after browsing through Gnome’s Lair (where it was featured) looking for any new games I could sample on. Since The House was entirely homebrewed (having been made ... More About: Games , Adventure , Some
Grolly!
2007-11-23 12:48:00 Title: Trilby: The Art of Theft Author: Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw Release Date: November 2007 License: Freeware; click here to download Author’s Site: Fully Ramblomatic Here’s another testament game to AGS’s versatility as a game design engine: Ben Croshaw’s Trilby: The Art of Theft, another mission-based platformer based on an improved version of the engine Croshaw used for his other more ... More About: Reviews , Games , Adventure , Olly
IF Comp 2007
2007-11-18 22:51:00 The competition has finally finished, and the winner is Admiral Jota’s “Lost Pig” (see the full result here). Though I registered as a voter last month, I regretfully was not able to play and vote on at least 10 of the games because of busy schedules. I was able to set some of the games ... More About: Reviews , Games , Comp
Who?s afraid of the big bad?goat?
More articles from this author:2007-06-28 01:57:00 Title: Beyond the Threshold Author: Thomas ‘Nihil’ Busse Release Date: June 2007 License: Freeware; click here to download Author’s Site: None [SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers. It is recommended to play the game first before continuing to read the review.] Beyond the Threshold is one of the two graphical adventure game entries from the HP Lovecraft Commonplace Book Project organized ... More About: Games , Adventure , Raid 1, 2 |
