IF Comp 2010: Pen and Paint

As has been my practice for the last few years, I’ve set my RSS feed to truncate entries so that I can post reviews without spoilerage. Within an entry, there is a short, spoilerless discussion (though the comp purists may want to avoid reading even that before playing for themselves); then spoiler space; then a more detailed discussion of what I thought did and didn’t work in the game.

I’m also pursuing an approach I came up with a couple of years ago: I’m playing and reviewing games that have listed beta-testers, and skipping those that don’t. In 2008 that turned out to be a pretty fool-proof indicator of which games were going to end up scoring 4 or less on my personal scale, and it made my reviewing process a happier one in 2009, so I’m sticking with it. I’m hoping this will mean I have more time to devote to the remaining games, which in turn will (I hope) be of higher quality, and you, dear reader, will have fewer rants inflicted on you.

Next up: Pen and Paint.

Continue reading “IF Comp 2010: Pen and Paint”

IF Comp 2010: One Eye Open

As has been my practice for the last few years, I’ve set my RSS feed to truncate entries so that I can post reviews without spoilerage. Within an entry, there is a short, spoilerless discussion (though the comp purists may want to avoid reading even that before playing for themselves); then spoiler space; then a more detailed discussion of what I thought did and didn’t work in the game.

I’m also pursuing an approach I came up with a couple of years ago: I’m playing and reviewing games that have listed beta-testers, and skipping those that don’t. In 2008 that turned out to be a pretty fool-proof indicator of which games were going to end up scoring 4 or less on my personal scale, and it made my reviewing process a happier one in 2009, so I’m sticking with it. I’m hoping this will mean I have more time to devote to the remaining games, which in turn will (I hope) be of higher quality, and you, dear reader, will have fewer rants inflicted on you.

Today: One Eye Open.

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IF Comp 2010: The Blind House

As has been my practice for the last few years, I’ve set my RSS feed to truncate entries so that I can post reviews without spoilerage. Within an entry, there is a short, spoilerless discussion (though the comp purists may want to avoid reading even that before playing for themselves); then spoiler space; then a more detailed discussion of what I thought did and didn’t work in the game.

I’m also pursuing an approach I came up with a couple of years ago: I’m playing and reviewing games that have listed beta-testers, and skipping those that don’t. In 2008 that turned out to be a pretty fool-proof indicator of which games were going to end up scoring 4 or less on my personal scale, and it made my reviewing process a happier one in 2009, so I’m sticking with it. I’m hoping this will mean I have more time to devote to the remaining games, which in turn will (I hope) be of higher quality, and you, dear reader, will have fewer rants inflicted on you.

Next up: The Blind House.

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IF Comp 2010: The Bible Retold: Following A Star

As has been my practice for the last few years, I’ve set my RSS feed to truncate entries so that I can post reviews without spoilerage. Within an entry, there is a short, spoilerless discussion (though the comp purists may want to avoid reading even that before playing for themselves); then spoiler space; then a more detailed discussion of what I thought did and didn’t work in the game.

I’m also pursuing an approach I came up with a couple of years ago: I’m playing and reviewing games that have listed beta-testers, and skipping those that don’t. In 2008 that turned out to be a pretty fool-proof indicator of which games were going to end up scoring 4 or less on my personal scale, and it made my reviewing process a happier one in 2009, so I’m sticking with it. I’m hoping this will mean I have more time to devote to the remaining games, which in turn will (I hope) be of higher quality, and you, dear reader, will have fewer rants inflicted on you.

Next up: The Bible Retold: Following a Star

Continue reading “IF Comp 2010: The Bible Retold: Following A Star”

IF Comp 2010: The People’s Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game

As has been my practice for the last few years, I’ve set my RSS feed to truncate entries so that I can post reviews without spoilerage. Within an entry, there is a short, spoilerless discussion (though the comp purists may want to avoid reading even that before playing for themselves); then spoiler space; then a more detailed discussion of what I thought did and didn’t work in the game.

I’m also pursuing an approach I came up with a couple of years ago: I’m playing and reviewing games that have listed beta-testers, and skipping those that don’t. In 2008 that turned out to be a pretty fool-proof indicator of which games were going to end up scoring 4 or less on my personal scale, and it made my reviewing process a happier one in 2009, so I’m sticking with it. I’m hoping this will mean I have more time to devote to the remaining games, which in turn will (I hope) be of higher quality, and you, dear reader, will have fewer rants inflicted on you.

First up: The People’s Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game.

Continue reading “IF Comp 2010: The People’s Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game”

Comp Games!

The 2010 IF Comp is now open.

It looks like a strong year. I just did my first pass to identify games I don’t plan to review due to lack of credited testers. Out of 25 26 entries, I only found two to skip for sure; there were two others where I couldn’t find a tester list but other indications suggest that a lot of work went into them, so I may give them the benefit of the doubt when I finish with the definitely-tested ones.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of really polished-looking work in the collection, and quite a few familiar author names from past years. And a majority of the games can be played online, with a convenient link from the comp page.

Thanks to all the authors, testers, and comp organizing staff who make this possible for another year. This is going to be fun.

PS: Some places other than here where reviews are likely to appear, or are appearing already:

Pissy Little Sausages, Eat Lamp, Minimum Safe Distance, The Quiet Sunday, One Wet Sneaker, Paean to Wanderings, Cobaltnine, Philip Armstrong’s Games Journal, Farming the Apocalypse, The Gameshelf, The Stack, Cup of Joe, Gnome’s Lair, The Gaming Philosopher (warning: reviews not cut-tagged), Suppertime Sonnets (in sonnet form, no less), The Rest of Your Mice, Dan Shiovitz, Should I Play It, scratchm’s intfiction forum reviews, Rob “Flack” O’Hara’s intfiction forum reviews, Two Swallows, Iain Merrick’s LJ, Yoon Ha Lee, Monkey with Brain on Top, Another Mr Lizard / A Tonne of Feathers.

If you’re looking for reviews of a specific game, you can often find them linked from ifwiki (assuming any have been written yet).