IF Games
IF Games
Lost Pig:
This game was a bit of a challenge in the beginning. It took several tries before I attempted what was an obvious option. Examining the forest gave the player a clue as to what direction he/she could travel. It was my previous understanding that in these games, the player could only go south, north, east, or west. The pig was not that hard to find. It was just a matter of paying attention to the directions given in the text and making a guess. There is not a lot of puzzle solving. I would call this game fairly easy, since it is propelled by directional choices and little else.Obviously, I see I need to somehow light the torch so I can see the pig in the closet, But my 15 minutes are up for now. Maybe revisiting later.
Ecdysis: (as a zip file)
This game is a hypertext/interactive fiction combo. Instead of just typing commands, the player clicked on "links" which made text appear. What was a relief is that I the player didn't have to think about what parts to explore (for a while anyway). The beginning of the game, where all I did was click on links and text would appear all in the same window, was what I wished hypertext fiction would have been like. I feel this game was half IF and and half hypertext fiction. The computer did as much work, if not more, than I did. Just as in HF, clicking links leads you to dead ends and story paths. I see that the tunnel in the foyer is important. Maybe I'll come back to this one.
* I did finish this game, just by hitting links. Wow, that's kind of gross*
Tales of the Traveling Swordsman:*I played this one for an hour*
*duh, run the program before you try to play the game*
Painfully obvious, the sword is meant to cut down the grass. However, it took me a good 4 minutes to realize this. "Swordsman", out of all the games so far, has made me think the most. You may think you are at a dead end in this game, but it turns out that you may have missed something earlier, like a key.The part where the player actually meets the daughter gave me some trouble.I thought maybe it was a giant dead end, but all other previous places kept leading me to the garden. I knew that somehow trying to get the apple down from the tree would get the girl's attention, but I didn't try "shake tree" at first because I thought the game wouldn't recognize the command. Don't underestimate: shaking the tree caught the girl's attention. Another obvious moment: cutting the hatch rope-but I was preoccupied with the girl to realize this right away. I think i got pretty far, but I couldn't get past the part after girl and her swarm of bees appears. I know that in order to continue the game, the player has to do something with the loft, but I can't figure out how to get the ladder down. Then, I figured I once again missed something earlier. I remembered the wagon that needs a wheel, which is down in the cellar. However, getting the wheel up the cellar ladder is perplexing me. Sure enough, the rope was the key. It only took about a dozen different wordings before I got it right. This is the point at which I stopped. This game makes you rely on your memory, so I guess there is an educational argument here."Swordsman" is an excellent example to use when trying to teach students the art of wording commands correctly.
Galatea: *also played for about an hour*
Galatea was actually my first IF game. I played it 3 weeks ago in New Media Projects. I wondering if I fare better now that I know how to play these games better.
This game is still pretty difficult. I got to about the same point I was at three weeks ago: when Galatea tells the player that Pygmalion's ghost screams at her.
Revisiting: so Galatea, I gather, loved the ocean in Cyprus because it made her feel alive. I also think she was in love with her creator. She's obviously bitter ("it takes more than it gives"). the player keeps having to think of things to ask Galatea, since the game's action is conversation. The strategy is to pick certain words from her paragraphs (like love, death, child, and life) and keep asking. At one point, I asked her about death, and the life seemed to suddenly leave Galatea. The game ended.
I guess the ending depends on what the player asks Galatea.
Photopia
I felt really stupid at first because I couldn't figure out how to start the game. I thought the right arrow would, since there was a right arrow on the screen, seeming to indicate the start. But no. I think clicking left arrow finally started the screen. What was weird is that I had the player talk to Rob after running the red and the screen switched into another player. This game bored me because it was all about examining items and hardly had any "human" interaction. Games like Photopia are the reason my Harry Potter IF is so heavy on interaction: examining things gets real old real quick. I never got past examining the housing unit-I couldn't get the character back outside.
Lost Pig:
This game was a bit of a challenge in the beginning. It took several tries before I attempted what was an obvious option. Examining the forest gave the player a clue as to what direction he/she could travel. It was my previous understanding that in these games, the player could only go south, north, east, or west. The pig was not that hard to find. It was just a matter of paying attention to the directions given in the text and making a guess. There is not a lot of puzzle solving. I would call this game fairly easy, since it is propelled by directional choices and little else.Obviously, I see I need to somehow light the torch so I can see the pig in the closet, But my 15 minutes are up for now. Maybe revisiting later.
Ecdysis: (as a zip file)
This game is a hypertext/interactive fiction combo. Instead of just typing commands, the player clicked on "links" which made text appear. What was a relief is that I the player didn't have to think about what parts to explore (for a while anyway). The beginning of the game, where all I did was click on links and text would appear all in the same window, was what I wished hypertext fiction would have been like. I feel this game was half IF and and half hypertext fiction. The computer did as much work, if not more, than I did. Just as in HF, clicking links leads you to dead ends and story paths. I see that the tunnel in the foyer is important. Maybe I'll come back to this one.
* I did finish this game, just by hitting links. Wow, that's kind of gross*
Tales of the Traveling Swordsman:*I played this one for an hour*
*duh, run the program before you try to play the game*
Painfully obvious, the sword is meant to cut down the grass. However, it took me a good 4 minutes to realize this. "Swordsman", out of all the games so far, has made me think the most. You may think you are at a dead end in this game, but it turns out that you may have missed something earlier, like a key.The part where the player actually meets the daughter gave me some trouble.I thought maybe it was a giant dead end, but all other previous places kept leading me to the garden. I knew that somehow trying to get the apple down from the tree would get the girl's attention, but I didn't try "shake tree" at first because I thought the game wouldn't recognize the command. Don't underestimate: shaking the tree caught the girl's attention. Another obvious moment: cutting the hatch rope-but I was preoccupied with the girl to realize this right away. I think i got pretty far, but I couldn't get past the part after girl and her swarm of bees appears. I know that in order to continue the game, the player has to do something with the loft, but I can't figure out how to get the ladder down. Then, I figured I once again missed something earlier. I remembered the wagon that needs a wheel, which is down in the cellar. However, getting the wheel up the cellar ladder is perplexing me. Sure enough, the rope was the key. It only took about a dozen different wordings before I got it right. This is the point at which I stopped. This game makes you rely on your memory, so I guess there is an educational argument here."Swordsman" is an excellent example to use when trying to teach students the art of wording commands correctly.
Galatea: *also played for about an hour*
Galatea was actually my first IF game. I played it 3 weeks ago in New Media Projects. I wondering if I fare better now that I know how to play these games better.
This game is still pretty difficult. I got to about the same point I was at three weeks ago: when Galatea tells the player that Pygmalion's ghost screams at her.
Revisiting: so Galatea, I gather, loved the ocean in Cyprus because it made her feel alive. I also think she was in love with her creator. She's obviously bitter ("it takes more than it gives"). the player keeps having to think of things to ask Galatea, since the game's action is conversation. The strategy is to pick certain words from her paragraphs (like love, death, child, and life) and keep asking. At one point, I asked her about death, and the life seemed to suddenly leave Galatea. The game ended.
I guess the ending depends on what the player asks Galatea.
Photopia
I felt really stupid at first because I couldn't figure out how to start the game. I thought the right arrow would, since there was a right arrow on the screen, seeming to indicate the start. But no. I think clicking left arrow finally started the screen. What was weird is that I had the player talk to Rob after running the red and the screen switched into another player. This game bored me because it was all about examining items and hardly had any "human" interaction. Games like Photopia are the reason my Harry Potter IF is so heavy on interaction: examining things gets real old real quick. I never got past examining the housing unit-I couldn't get the character back outside.
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Dani, I remember giving up on Photopia the first time I played it, but then I read a review and gave it another chance. This is not the review that I found, but it might give some context.
http://playthisthing.com/photopia