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About the Story"Can Troy, the handsome daredevil autoist, live up to his "sterling" reputation? What secret threatens the career of the talented singer, Miss Melody Sweet? With the help of the mechanical genius Aloysius Pratt, can Troy and Melody thwart a madman's evil plan?" [--blurb from Competition Aught-One]Game Details
Language: English (en)
Current Version: 8 License: Freeware Development System: Inform 6 Baf's Guide ID: 1669
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Awards
Nominee, Best Setting; Nominee, Best Individual PC - 2001 XYZZY Awards
18th Place - 7th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2001)
Editorial Reviews
Baf's Guide

The version of the game as originally released in the competition was beset by some unfortunate bugs, but the author has put in a lot of work and rendered out something that is now, as far as I could tell, more or less bug-free -- at least, I didn't run into any in the course of playing. On the other hand, there are still a few ways in which its implementation seems to let it down, most notably in that the plot does not reach a full conclusion (and it is not entirely clear whether the promised 'continuation' will ever appear).
All the same, the setting is fresh and entertaining; several puzzles have multiple solutions, and many of the possible points are optional; and the NPCs are amusingly characterized and have quite a lot to say.
-- Emily Short
>VERBOSE -- Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction Page
[Note: This review was in response to version 1 of the game.]
Dammit, people, stop this! I played Fine-Tuned for an hour, and loved it. Aside from a few spelling mistakes and stray bugs, it was a delightful game with terrific writing, fun characters, and a great plot. But the further we get into that plot, the more broken the game becomes, until it finally implodes with a fiery crash that can even bring down the whole interpreter. Naturally, this happens at a climactic point in the story.
This experience SUCKS. It makes me wish I could give negative ratings. It's much worse playing a game that would be great except for how horribly broken it is than it is playing a game that's weak but bug-free. It's IF interruptus.
See the full review
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Member Reviews
| Average Rating: ![]() Number of Reviews: 2 Write a review |
Fun, But Not Fine-Tuned Enough, July 12, 2010The opening chapter as Troy is brilliant. The narrative voice is fun, it's fairly intuitive what actions to take, and I found myself becoming more and more sympathetic towards our dashing but not entirely bright hero. The second chapter, as Melody, is where the puzzles really begin, but also where it gets much less fun. You have no clear goal, so you're forced to blindly experiment, and Melody's point-of-view is much less interesting. Of course, I favour narrative over puzzles, so some may prefer the puzzly sections. The puzzles themselves were interesting, but not terribly complex. (Spoiler - click to show)Most involve utilising Melody's talent as an opera singer in some way; breaking the jars was the most amusing instance.
Fine-Tuned's biggest problem is the fact that it's unfinished. The game ends (Spoiler - click to show)right before the final showdown with a rather anticlimactic message, which is frustrating. If you don't like playing unfinished games, I'd recommend that you stay well clear until the final chapters are released.
The game could certainly use some polish on the later chapters (and an actual conclusion), but is otherwise very entertaining. I'm rating it only a four because it was incomplete, but it's still a piece of IF that will appeal to fans of both narrative and puzzles.
Turn of the Century, October 24, 2007If you enjoyed Fine-Tuned...
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Recommended Lists
Fine-Tuned appears in the following Recommended Lists:Enduring Games by AmberShards
These are games with memorable stories, whose characters live long after the window has closed, and in which the puzzles are an integral part of the game.
Comedy that works by Emily Short
Light-hearted, well-paced interactive humor.
IF that's a pleasure to READ by Maureen
I have a soft spot for "literary" IF. Good writing can draw me into a story that doesn't really have much game to it, and amateur writing can wreck an otherwise good game. That's not to say I like puzzle-less IF or text dumps. I enjoy...
Polls
The following polls include votes for Fine-Tuned:Fast-paced action scenes by Juhana
Fast-paced action is something that's notoriously hard to do in IF where waiting for player's input necessarily pauses the game every turn. Which games have succeeded in creating action scenes that convey the sense of urgency, danger and...
This is version 8 of this page, edited by perching path on 28 May 2010 at 7:41am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item
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