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by David Welbourn

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Last Day of Summer

by Doug Orleans (as Cameron Fox) profile

2011

Web Site

(based on 19 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

It's the last day of summer, and you're old enough now to go into town by yourself.


Game Details


Awards

25th Place - 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2011)

Winner, Best Individual Puzzle - 2011 XYZZY Awards

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Number of Reviews: 2
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Pleasant But Unsatisfying First Offering, December 7, 2011
by Joey Jones (UK)

Whatever effect the author was aiming for in Last Day of Summer, it wasn't realism. That's okay- from the set up I was expecting slightly sentimental magic-realism like in Dandelion Wine. This didn't exactly materialise.

(Spoiler - click to show)I first went east and found a boat that couldn't be untied. Aha! I thought, I will need a cutting tool. Went west and found a knife lying helpfully on the ground. A bit easier than I'd anticipated. Later I find myself in the town. My first playthrough of the game ended prematurely because I'd timed it out using the xyzzy command, so I restarted and did everything as before. An NPC is upset, but its all very vague. I do the rest of the puzzles, which are easy to work out but aren't very realistic (maybe that's the point?). The game ends happily enough and I wonder what the point in all that was. The writing was pleasant enough and everything obvious worked with no bugs (though I didn't really stretch it), but other than that there's not really much to say.

(I should note that to my knowledge this was the game the author used for learning Inform- and there was at least enough promise that I'd certainly play any future game he developed).

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A small chunk of game, part of the infamous 4-game Hat Puzzle, February 4, 2016

Together with Cold Iron, Playing Games, and The Life (and Deaths) of Doctor M, this game was part of a meta-puzzle in IFComp 2011. The idea was that four games would have connections, and by pursuing clues in one, you could open more in the other games.

Last Day of Summer is probably the slightest of the games, finishable in just a few minutes. You have to sell you cranberries, so you go to town. You wander through 5 or 6 scenes, examine stuff, take stuff, etc. It's hard to guess the right verb some times.

The ambiance is charming. Playing all 4 games at once really blends well together (except for Life and Death).

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Last Day of Summer on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Last Day of Summer appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Xyzzy "Best Individual Puzzle" winners by Nusco
All the games that won the Best Individual Puzzle award, year by year. I'll avoid giveaway spoilers in my comments, but I'll still comment on the type and difficulty of the puzzle. I'll describe the puzzles by my own categories....




This is version 6 of this page, edited by David Welbourn on 27 April 2021 at 9:27pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page