The yearly IF Comp has started once again, and this time I'm going to try and judge again. Since my blog has changed a bit since the last time I did this, I'll keep this short and talk about more than one game per entry so as not to bore my non-IF interested readers to tears. Don't worry, my babbling about films will continue in its usual pace throughout.
Interface: A perfectly nice little romp, solidly written if a little ambitionless (that word again). The first game in the comp this year I have played that didn't seem out to annoy or bore me, so that's definitely a plus. The game is based on a design the author wrote when he was 14 and it shows in the silliness of the plot and a lack of complexity. Well, it's still a small friendly game.
Byzantine Perspective: Oh joy, another one puzzle game which doesn't make a lot of sense if you don't understand its puzzle. The Internet tells me what this is all about, but I can promise you, without it I'd still stare at the game and its walkthrough in disbelief and puzzlement. It doesn't help the game that it hinders you from doing perfectly logical things (like taking off your goggles) because that would ruin the puzzle (or help you understand what's going on on your own, which would make the whole affair fun for the slower among us, and we obviously can't have that).
It's decently written, but what's the use when the one trick the one trick pony does doesn't work for me?
The Hangover: I know, it's not nice to make fun of the grammatically challenged, but descriptions of "ill-loking" beds, fear of apostrophes and sentences like "I'm pitty you for the sole fact that you actually sleep there", not to speak of the author's misuse of the word "women" - you know, the sort of stuff a little spellchecking and editing could have avoided - don't leave me with much of a choice.
At least there's no hidden gem behind the terrible writing, instead, it's the sort of illogical mess you'd expect, full of exactly the same implementation problems every second comp game has had since the beginning of the comp. I'll never understand why someone would want to submit something like this, I think - there's a large amount of reviews online that should teach anyone willing to listen exactly what not to do and still we get pieces like this wasting our time.
Yon Astounding Castle! of some sort: This seems to be wholly written in a completely unfunny mock olde English and is therefore completely unpalatable.
GATOR-ON!: And another "trundling through barely described locations with no particular goals the game bothers to explain" game. The lack of signposting wouldn't be a problem if there was any feeling of exploration here, but the lack of descriptive depth puts a stop to that possibility. The puzzles are on the easy but tedious side. Tip: if you need the player to repeat a single command at nauseam, don't expect him to have any fun or interest in continuing. At least there are no typos or grammatical problems to speak of here, but you know what? That's not a feature, it's a matter of course.
(Yes, I am getting less tolerant and more sarcastic as the barrage of crap continues. Give me a game that's at least trying to be good, and I'll probably not mock it, but if you as a game's author can't even bother to use a spell checker or keep your game's critical path clear of game-breaking bugs or try to break my brain through tedious repetition, you can't expect to be treated better than a door to door salesman.)
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