For A Change

Author: Dan Schmidt, 1999.
Review by Jess.

Nutshell: Fairly short, fairly straightforward, with a great sense of place and time, even though we don't know what's going on. I liked it.

Game Info: (where to download, other games by this author, etc)

This game starts off with a lot of promise. The feel of the game is surrealistic in a way that makes me believe that I live there, or used to live there but had amnesia, or something like that. I mean, you can't beat the line: "The sun has gone. It must be brought. You have a rock." The vocabulary is shifted, in a very simple and effective way, so that you wake up from your nap on a "resting," and there is a "mobile" (road) that "releases" (leads) away. The land "relaxes" in one direction and rises to the other. In addition to that, you've got all these cool, important-seeming scenery bits. It's a great feel for a world, and it is vastly improved and made accessible by the helpful guidebook provided at the outset. The guidebook allows you to look up "unfamiliar" words, even though it seems to assume that the user has a certain background.

Anyhow, the feel is great; I loved looking at the fod. Unfortunately, the feeling isn't as consistent everywhere as it was at the very beginning, although certain items were perfect for the setting: like the "songlantern," which sings and lights up the air with its words. I loved the songlantern. As to the game itself: being written for the IF Comp '99, it is supposed to be playable in under two hours. That's great for me, because it means it can't be too hard. However, I still ended up looking in the online help system (which, by the way, is written in straightforward language). There are several weird things and artifacts just lying around the landscape, none of which are of any obvious use. The only thing of obvious use is completely inaccessible (really!). So I did a bit of wandering, wishing I knew more about the obviously rich history of this land, its strange dependence on the sun and the wall, trying to figure out what to do next. Or first. So I used the hint system.

The parser is of typical (for Inform) high quality, and there isn't a whole lot that isn't implemented. Of course, there isn't a whole lot in the game. But what's done is done well.

And now for the score. Cool graphics to come later. (BTW, this may or may not be the same as what's currently on our scoring system explanation page. We are still trying to sort out a usable and helpful system.)

Story	7/10	Cool and original, but not enough of a view.
Writing	9/10	Great use of new words, consistently well-written.
Puzzles	7/10	I had to use hints, but then again, I suck at puzzles.
Coding	10/10	No apparent bugs or flaws. Good job with changing default responses from the standard to something more appropriate.
Parser	8/10	Strong as usual for Inform.
Humor	4/10	It only existed as the quirkiness of the situation.
Involvement	5/10	I wanted to feel for the character, but it slipped away after the first few scenes.
Lack of Annoyance	9/10	Two objects have too-similar names. Other than that there was not much annoyance.
Game Idea	6/10	The story and setting are cool, as I said, but the game seems more like a find the right tools and use them in the right place then you're done sort of thing. Not bad, just not that exciting.
Wildcard	7/10	I just liked it! It was cool!
Total	72/100

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