buffalophil 2012-08-27 23:40
Great work; fun read!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD24 → The Erebus and the Terror
By sfernald
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 3 | 62 | ||
| Mood | 103 | 3.28 | ||
| Humor | 245 | 2.45 | ||
| Overall | 305 | 3.09 | ||
| Innovation | 332 | 2.94 | ||
| Fun | 394 | 2.75 | ||
| Theme | 598 | 2.29 |
Great work; fun read!
Good writing
great story, I honestly wasn't expecting any text adventures, but this was great!
I'm really, really enjoying this IF so far; mine pales in comparison! However, I've reached a point where I feel the game may be slightly broken - it seems you are allowed to open the pantry multiple times. I'm unsure if this is intended behaviour (I'm trying to complete Raul's second objective).
My first N/A rating on graphics :)
I like this - it's nice to see something different. Your writing voice is very consistent, and the game is perfectly sized - the world is small, detailed enough to have purpose but not to the extent that it's overwhelming.
I haven't played very many interactive fiction games, so it may just be my lack of experience, but I got stuck on this one a few times, so I think that in the non obvious points a few hints might be nice.
Other than that though, great. I'm very impressed - you've inspired me to try to get into the IF world, which I've always known has existed but I've never taken the time to explore.
Mach, that's a bug. Once you have it open you are set. Now you just got to figure out what to do from there. You are doing great! Can't wait to see if you like the ending.
Raul was supposed to give hints and details of the backstory as you played the game, but I ran out of it. Hints got left out. I'll give hints on here, if you run into any particular things you can't get past.
ps, mach, let me know if you want more of a hint on what to do next and I'll give it to ya.
The game shows me this error:
"An error occurred:
Parchment could not load load the story. Check your connection, and that the URL is correct."
The story is well written and the commands are easy to understand even on first glance.
Great writing, intuitive controls, best text adventure I've seen in a while!
So much fun!
yettatore, what computer(or device)/os/browser are you using?
I just checked it and it's up. Is it still not working for you?
This is well written but I got stuck on the quest for popcorn.
Good stuff. Although it takes a lot longer to review a game like this I appreciated the writing. Was very immersed in the exploration of the spaceship.
hint for popcorn: try searching around. it is where you think it is.
Has anyone made it to the Kat-A-Klone machine yet? That's where I think it starts getting interesting ;)
I made it to the kat-a-klone last night, but I'm stuck looking for a seed card or whatever.
Hint for seed card: where do we sometimes lose stuff in real life?
Anther time. The command SAVE creates a URL with all your state so you can resume the game at that point at any time.
Another tip I mean.
A fun entry - brought me back to my early days of playing text adventures. Well-written and interesting, with lots of stuff to try out. I enjoyed it - nice work.
Finished the game (I think?), some very nice parallels with Alien throughout! Great job! :)
Oh, I tried something different and got the proper end! ;) I knew there was a reason why I could go in there...
Really liked this game at the beginning. It set a solid atmosphere and the mystery of what was going on encouraged me to continue playing. I unfortunately ended up getting frustrated after wandering around for a while and despite trying a few things to progress I concluded that what I was thinking wasn't the "correct" way of moving forward in the story or I just wasn't phrasing what I wanted to do properly. Having no more ideas of what I could possibly do given the items I had, I decided to give up.
I may return and try the game later on, since it does pose a good mystery. I also quite liked what I felt it was foreshadowing and did find it enjoyable up to the point where I got completely stuck.
RxiI, where did you get stuck? Did you get through part one, getting some sleep?
Good writing. Compact, descriptive, yet setting a definite mood without forgetting some humour!
It is funny, I can sort of see a visual game playing out while I'm reading it :D
*** POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS BELOW ***
@sfernald
From memory of a few hours ago, so I may be recalling some things wrong:
I'd slept and gotten the grenade. Raul told me to get popcorn and watch a movie, I found the room with Raul in and got the combinator, I tried to sit on the couch and used the remote but I couldn't find the popcorn anywhere. I tried to use the grenade on a bunch of things by taping it and using it, which it didn't seem to understand. I hadn't got through the blast doors at the south, I hadn't got into the pantry, If there was a kitchen I couldn't find it, I couldn't go into any of the "up" exits.
But I will most likely give it all another shot later on, as I'm sure I missed something obvious!
rxi, you got to figure out where to use the grenade.
Try this, 'attach grenade to [something that looks like it's in your way]'.
@sfernald
Aha, "Attach" I think is the word I was missing out on (since I did try "putting" and "taping" it to a number of things). I'll give it another blast, thanks for the tip!
I think I added "place" too as a verb. Good luck!
I think I got to the end (the part that says *** The End *** at least..). Quite enjoyed it, a good couple of bits made me chuckle. Some parts did feel like you were expecting the player to be a bit psychic though (the "where do we sometimes lose stuff in real life" bit). Nice work @sfernald.
Ah, but did you survive? That can only be done through evolution, lol, or at least DNA merger.
@sfernald
In that case, I think I'll be playing it through a third time.. I'll probably leave it a few days though, and give some other games a chance ;)
if anything the only problem is with the engine used, its VERY picky about wording, even more so than most old adventure games, and refuses to accept simple noun/verb combos...you have to be super specific what you want.
Raptor85, yeah I agree, I put in the basics to solve the adventure, but there's an endless about of details and actions I could add with the proper amount of time. 20+ rooms is really ambitious for a 48 hour contest. What I'm doing is capturing the transcript of everyone's play and I'm going to go through them when the contest is over and use that information to fill out the game. The transcripts provide great information on what people are actually trying to do in the game.
For example someone typed 'cook' in the kitchen, and I should have a response for that, but the game currently doesn't even understand the verb cook.
oldtopman:
Really nice game! I played through it for a bit and closed it. It would have been nice if I knew about the save feature though.
However, as innovative and fun as your game is, you are in clear violation of rule 6 in the compo.
Jamiebell,
As I mentioned just before the end of voting, i intended to put it up just before voting ended. The natural language source reads like a cheat guide. I wanted to give people a chance to solve it without having the option to cheat.
That said, it looks like some people have already solved it, so I'll put it up shortly.
Source added.
Lots of detail and well thought out scenario. It does suffer from the standard IF problem of "what am I supposed to be doing?"
Great writing! This game really kills my time to vote. Excellent Job.
Oh man, looking at these transcripts is amazing help.
I found a bug with the popcorn, and i realize right away where I need to give more hints.
Worse of all someone made it right to the end and then got stuck in the Kat-a-Klone machine because of a bug.
I think I'll be able to improve it greatly. Thanks for all the feedback and playthroughs guys.