RandomExile Member since February 12, 2011 Last visited December 30, 2020 Profile ID (TUID): zoyr1zhfzz95y20n

After prior contributions as a reviewer, I'm pleased to follow Jimmy Maher as editor of SPAG as of the 4th quarter 2010.

I'm endeavoring to become better networked in the IF community, and one of my objectives at IFDB is to play all new releases and write short reviews of as many games as practical in order to increase my functional IF literacy and recognize new and continuing authors. I'm playing and rating all new games, and will prioritize reviews by recency, personal interest, notability, and absence of other coverage.

I intend these reviews to be helpful and entertaining above all, but not necessarily to compete with other venues by length, scope, or analytical depth.

As of the time of writing this blurb, I've only written five reviews specifically for IFDB, and I'm learning a great deal about the peculiarities of the capsulized review. Being brief, insightful, and informative for the reader is a challenge, and I'll leave it to others to determine in which ways I am most challenged. =P

I welcome any feedback on my reviews, both positive and negative (positive *is* the goal, of course), and especially if you find a review unhelpful, please send me a sentence or two to explain how the review failed.

Grading Criteria [under construction]

I'll develop this more as I continue, likely even changing a few ratings as my philosophy on different forms of work matures.

I've been playing through some fairly recent Speed-IF, and I'm struggling with how to rate them compared to fuller, more developed works. Truly outstanding Speed-IF may still be poorly implemented by the nature of the rules. At present, I'm grading brief vignettes on a 1 to 3 star scale, wherein a 1 is shoddy and not enjoyable, a 2 is well-crafted within certain limitations, and a 3 is additionally pleasurable or meaningful. This may need to develop over time.

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Spectrum, by Caelyn Sandel (as Colin Sandel)   May 27, 2011

"Consisting of one puzzle-type in several iterations, "Spectrum" is a logical enough game in which each piece of the puzzle reveals more..." - See the full review

The man-eating, halitosic gorilla of Brazil, by Marius Müller   May 26, 2011

"The game is almost entirely menu-driven and the writing is just as slap-dash as it needs to be (minus the encyclopedic excerpts, of..." - See the full review

Love, Hate and the Mysterious Ocean Tower, by C.E.J. Pacian   May 26, 2011

"The constraints of Speed-IF force an author to identify and highlight the core elements of their story: here, Pacian has chosen theme,..." - See the full review

Out of the Pit, by Evil Roda   May 19, 2011

"I expected Out of the Pit to challenge my conceptions of freedom of information, military justice and due process, so it was..." - See the full review

Bonehead, by Sean M. Shore   May 13, 2011

"Bonehead is an interactive exploration of an historical moment and it's clear the author invested time and care into the game's design,..." - See the full review

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