cobaltnine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cobaltnine) wrote2011-10-02 12:05 am
cobaltnine) wrote2011-10-02 12:05 am
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IFComp 2011 - 'Ted Paladin and the Case of the Abandoned House'
'Ted Paladin and the Case of the Abandoned House' is the sole Alan game in the comp, written by Anssi Räisänen.
Letter Grade: I (Incomplete/introcompy)
My biggest problems with this game were some guess-the-noun or verb puzzles, starting with leaning the fence on the house to make it act as a ladder. Oh, and purple isn't red, so I guess I can add guess the adjective, too.
The penultimate puzzle required a 'common buggy shorthand way of playing IF' or something along the lines, but since it's not something I ever got into the habit of, it didn't occur to me to try. I'm not sure how this makes me feel. It's an interesting purposeful use of an unintended consequence of some of the programming, but it's not something I would have guessed; it relies on players coming up with similar playing styles. Would screen-reader players be less likely to use color adjectives as shorthand? Who knows. Maybe it's because, in real life, myself saying 'it's in the green bag' is pretty much useless, since all my bags are green.
That being said, it's basically a collection of puzzles with some thin plot at the beginning and end; a puzzle sandwich on sandwich loaf. The fillers are more interesting than they could be, thanks to their variation and their fourth-wall-breaking, but it's still not satisfying. Where's the fiction this year?
Letter Grade: I (Incomplete/introcompy)
My biggest problems with this game were some guess-the-noun or verb puzzles, starting with leaning the fence on the house to make it act as a ladder. Oh, and purple isn't red, so I guess I can add guess the adjective, too.
The penultimate puzzle required a 'common buggy shorthand way of playing IF' or something along the lines, but since it's not something I ever got into the habit of, it didn't occur to me to try. I'm not sure how this makes me feel. It's an interesting purposeful use of an unintended consequence of some of the programming, but it's not something I would have guessed; it relies on players coming up with similar playing styles. Would screen-reader players be less likely to use color adjectives as shorthand? Who knows. Maybe it's because, in real life, myself saying 'it's in the green bag' is pretty much useless, since all my bags are green.
That being said, it's basically a collection of puzzles with some thin plot at the beginning and end; a puzzle sandwich on sandwich loaf. The fillers are more interesting than they could be, thanks to their variation and their fourth-wall-breaking, but it's still not satisfying. Where's the fiction this year?