#ifcomp 2018 notes

This reminds me of Lux, also from this comp, but in parser. Like Lux, you're blind, with someone else telling you about your surroundings, where supposedly there was a massive accident that destroyed everything, and where you're trying to escape from the remnants of the accident.

I liked the limited parser interface; there wasn't anything overly complicated for a non-parser player like me.

[spoilers]

Okay, so this is like Lux in a lot of ways, the most noticeable being the unreliable (and somewhat evil) narrator. Unlike Lux's neutral and comforting narrator, here the narrator's voice was really obnoxious. Which should have clued me in, before I completed his plan in the first playthrough. Also like Lux, there’s an evil corporation, or perhaps multiple evil corporations.

The actual gameplay was pretty straightforward. There weren't any real puzzles to speak of, besides figuring out the narrator's plan. But this might be for the best; more complicated puzzles might just distract from the interesting things done with narration.

So, this is a heavily mechanical and puzzly Twine game, that seems to emulate a typical parser-style game. There are rooms, navigation by cardinal directions, puzzles. It's sort of like The Axolotl Project, with a similar premise even.

As with many other adventure games, there's a lot of guess-the-item; sometimes the intuitive solution (to me) is wrong, and the player has to guess the mind of the puzzle designer. There's basically only one answer to each puzzle. The AI is pretty good at giving hints and clues, but this still gets a bit troublesome. And if I have a criticism about the interface, it's that it's a bit tedious having to select an item from the inventory each time I have to use it.

But the game is really well implemented! Everything works, as far as I can tell. Navigation feels really easy. The puzzles are interesting, if frustrating at times. The game is long, organized into 4 main levels that correspond to different sections of the space station. After entering each section there’s usually a point of no return, but I don’t think it’s possible to put the game into an unwinnable state, and I haven’t died.

[spoilers]

(by section I) Okay, the AI is getting really really sketchy. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to have caused the explosions all along. And that the "outworlders" who are trying to break in at the end are actually just humans who are trying to rescue us.

(after getting the first ending) The ending feels ambiguous. It could be that the AI is, surprisingly, not evil, and you're just tired from the adrenaline rush. Or the AI just killed you.

If there's any prime rule of science fiction, it's to not trust the AI.

Okay, after reading the walkthrough, I've gotten to the alternate path, and it's pretty good. I love the transition to sightedness, with illustrations even! The story outcome was sort of predictable (my suspicions were correct), but I still liked it. There was no way I would have discovered the path on my own though...

Question: is it possible to open the side table in Sasha's office? I tried placing the white king in the correct position?

This is a very brief twine story about an unrequited teenage love, many years later. It’s a vignette of a man’s life, an otherwise unremarkable moment given significance by experiences of the past. The story is written in first person, almost like a letter to the love interest, who is called "you" in the story. Basically, for some reason our protagonist decides to Facebook stalk his adolescent crush and find out where he lives. He then decides to pay him a visit. There's only one choice: whether or not the love interest remembers the protagonist. If he does remember, then the protagonist confesses his love (why would you do that???) and then they're about to kiss but not really. And then it's over. tbh I felt like the “remember” ending was sort of unbelievable, the way it all panned out... it almost felt like the narrator’s fantasy...

I sort of feel bad criticizing this story since it feels like a personal confessional kind of thing...

The story functions as a superhero/supervillian origin story for Hayley Weir, or Haywire, a person who can read minds and do some sort of mental manipulation. Her family's all dead and she works as a street magician to survive. Then one night, everything changes... or something like that (why do so many potentially life changing events all happen in the same night?).

I like this story, even if it's not exactly advancing the medium of twine. It's well written, often with quick transitions between funny scenes and really dark and serious scenes. It has interesting characters and plot, and has a range of choices that affect the outcome. There's quite a bit of replayability with all the different potential paths through the story. Sometimes, though, the choice is basically to win or lose, and it's pretty easy to guess which is the correct choice.

This is not a serious game. It seems to attempt some kind of comedy, but it doesn’t really work for me. Maybe because gratuitous murder isn’t really funny or interesting? idk. The writing can be funny though, especially with the character descriptions in the beginning. Overall, the writing is pretty decent throughout the short story, even though ... murder and stuff.

In terms of gameplay, it’s a Sorting Hat; your choice of accomplices at the beginning basically determine what kind of ending you’ll achieve at the end, with some branches/options. There isn’t really a “strategy” to the game, despite what the intro might suggest. the outcomes of the character choice combinations are basically random (one results in instant death because magic apparently). It’s a pretty short game and quick to replay to test out a lot of options. There are a number of endings that are scored by whether or not you died, are arrested, and how many accomplices survived.

So this is another life sumulation/RPG style game. You wake up in the middle of nowhere, a nameless, nondescript protagonist, who is dying until you are rescued by two people who own a tavern. Since you don't have any connections, they put you to work, and that work happens to involve... going to an alternate reality and killing animated vegetables there. Beating the vegetables up so that they die and your hosts can make them into dinner to serve their customers. Yeah.

The premise is obviously ridiculous but the game is surprisingly fun.

As often happens with these sorts of games, the actual gameplay is sort of repetitive and unbalanced. There's no real challenge or strategy to winning the fights with the vegetables, as far as I can discern. I never died or felt threatened. The only strategy seems to be to click dodge whenever there's text warning you about an attack. And all the enemies feel the same, even if there are different stats in the backend.

I do like the progression though. As you kill more vegetables, you can upgrade your weapons and armor, and eventually unlock "cosmetic" customizations that don't really do anything. The tavern's menu also changes and improves, and there's a greater variety and higher class of guests.

First impression: the problem with a custom parser is that all the expected commands don't really work. Although, the game helps you out by putting most of the available options in all caps. But then the game’s structure becomes virtually identical to twine, with more friction for the player. Maybe the friction is the point...

This game feels like homework, in two ways. One is that the custom Unity parser feels like a programming exercise. The other is that the "dilemma" aspect suggests an undergraduate philosophy class, addled on increasingly contrived trolley problems.

Synopsis of the game: So there's a dilemma. A school bus is about to hit an old man. Do you save him and possibly cause a bus accident, or let him die? Or is there something else you can do to save everyone??? The problem is, trying to do “something else” becomes increasingly convoluted, while at the same time recapitulating standard thought experiments in moral philosophy.

Honestly this game was fun, despite feeling like homework. It was really funny how matter-of-factly the story presented absurd situations.  Actually the game works well as an occasionally dark comedy...

Also the ending, no matter what you pick, always attempts to justify it as the morally correct choice while instilling some doubt.

[spoilers]

Endings I've gotten (out of 51):

Every time I play through this again, it feels more interesting, as I keep on discovering new things. Despite the short length of one playthrough, this game is surprisingly deep, with a lot of paths through the story.

You play as a robot casino worker who has also been employed as a sex worker. The game takes place entirely within one round of poker, with a few flashbacks and optional digressions. There are at least 8 possible outcomes of game.

[spoilers I guess?]

...

The cards that are dealt can differ between playthroughs, and this affects the outcome of the story. At first I thought it was random, but it actually depends on your first three choices in a pseudorandom manner:

recognize, answer yes, deal the turn: 8 of clubs -> get drink for sunglasses man -> 10 of clubs -> girl with hood wins

recognize, answer yes, don't deal the turn: Jack of hearts -> Ace of hearts -> man in sunglasses wins

recognize, answer no, deal the turn: 2 of hearts -> husband asks for water -> 2 of clubs -> husband wins

recognize, answer no, don't deal the turn: 7 of hearts -> 2 of hearts -> wife wins

don't recognize, answer yes, deal the turn: 3 of hearts -> kiss the singer -> 7 of hearts -> older woman wins

don't recognize, answer yes, don't deal the turn: 5 of spades -> 4 of spades -> newcomer wins

don't recognize, answer no, deal the turn: Queen of spades -> wife discovered cheating -> 8 of diamonds -> singer wins

don't recognize, answer no, don't deal the turn: 7 of diamonds -> man cursing -> Jack of diamonds -> slot player wins

Is the pseudorandom structure of the game a comment on free will????

I like how the choices (or lack of thereof) interfaces with the themes of the story. This game makes a great use of the forced choice technique: you can choose to not deal a card, but you'll always be compelled to deal eventually. Your programming as an AI leaves you no choice but to fulfill the directives that your employer imposed upon you. There's also a lot of talk of binaries. Humans always think in binaries. You as an AI are programmed to work in binaries. And there's always at most two choices, until the very end.

Also I love the writing style. The diction seems “robotic” and unemotional on the surface, but there’s always the sense of deep internal turmoil. The robot’s programming controls her internal thoughts/analyses as well as actions, but the writing creates a sense that there’s something going on inside her mind that was unanticipated by the programmers.

If there’s any criticism I have for this game, it’s that the game is too short, and re-playing feels repetitive. With only one playthrough, it’s really easy to miss a lot of interesting content. And the open ending, while it makes sense from a thematic point of view, is sort of unsatisfying if one is more interested in the character or story.

There's some uncomfortable content here. The robot protagonist is often the victim of violence, especially sexual violence (there are also references to domestic violence not involving robots). Robots in this world have become receptacles for the worst of humanity. As often happens with robot stories, there are parallels with working class experiences, especially in the women-dominated service industry.