Home | Profile - Edit | Your Page | Your Inbox Browse | Search Games   |   Log In

Download


Story File
Release 3 (Minor bug fixes from competition and Jay Is Games releases; used for Club Floyd)
For all systems. To play, you'll need a Z-Machine Interpreter with Blorb support - visit Brass Lantern for download links.
Story File
Original competition version
For all systems. To play, you'll need a Z-Machine Interpreter with Blorb support - visit Brass Lantern for download links.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to downloadable files
All updates to this page

Violet

by Jeremy Freese profile

Romance, Slice of life
2008

(based on 73 ratings)
9 member reviews

About the Story

Calm down. All you have to do is write a thousand words and everything will be fine. And you have all day, except it's already noon. [blurb from IF Comp 2008]

Game Details

Language: English (en)
First Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Current Version: 1
License: Freeware
Development System: Inform 7
Forgiveness Rating: Polite
IFID: 12110E65-BABB-4C67-B047-1C7BA122CAF9
TUID: 4glrrfh7wrp9zz7b

Awards

1st Place overall; 1st Place, Miss Congeniality Awards - 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2008)

Editorial Reviews

Jay Is Games
Ultimately, though, the formal invention of having the game speak in Violet's voice would not be worth much if the story weren't so well-observed... The main characters of Violet have real feelings for one another, and a real investment in their relationship — and underneath the goofiness and the cute pet-names, their problem is plausible and serious.
See the full review

Rock Paper Shotgun
Whilst playing, I certainly found myself questioning my relationship with my girlfriend, shall we say, and that recognition turned into open farce as the scenario escalated. I felt. I laughed. I enjoyed.
See the full review

Tags

- View the most common tags (What are the numbers in parens? | What's a tag?)
(Log in to add your own tags)

Member Reviews

5 star:
(42)
4 star:
(21)
3 star:
(8)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 9
Write a review


Most Helpful Member Reviews


15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Well crafted, demented, and fun, November 17, 2008
by WriterBob (Richmond Hill, Ontario)
This game is as rock solid a piece of IF as I've seen in quite a while. It is a single room, single extended puzzle, written clearly. All the objects in the room are capable of being examined and most are, to a great degree capable of being manipulated.

The tone of the game may not appeal to all people. The major conceit of the game is that the narrative is told from the point of view of your girlfriend, Violet. All of the actions you take are commented on by her voice in your head. When you look at the room the game doesn't tell you the description so much as Violet relates the description to you in her own unique voice.

The plot and motivation are developed as the game progresses. There is no need for a lot of background feelies to get the player in the mind-set of the game. As the story developed, the solutions to each situation became increasingly bizarre. Also of note is the status bar in the game which clearly relayed what the next obstacle was in the sequence of this extended puzzle.

Overall, I found this a very satisfying piece of IF.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
My favorite xyzzy response ever., November 26, 2008
by mazirian (Yarmouth, Maine)
Related reviews: IF Comp 2008, comedy, single room
Violet is entirely responsible for rekindling my interest in interactive fiction recently. The interesting aspects of this game are amply highlighted in the other positive reviews here--that it's a single room game where everything, even metagame response, is conveyed in the voice of the protagonist's girlfriend. In the hands of a less capable author this would have quickly turned into an annoying gimmick, but Freese avoids that fate so thoroughly that I was actually sad when the game was over. Everything, from the nature of the puzzles (battling procrastination) to the never ending stream of increasingly bizarre pet names (lemon squidgie?), fits together perfectly, and almost nothing in the coding of the game was irksome. The single negative review below (at the time of this review) can only be the result of an unfortunate, soul-crushing cynicism.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Fun. Adorable. Brilliant., November 11, 2008
by Kazuki Mishima (U.S.A.)
Violet is deeply implemented, contains challenging-enough-to-be-fun puzzles and a fine hint system, and tells a really charming story. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. This is the sort of greatness to which I aspire as an author.

See All 9 Member Reviews

If you enjoyed Violet...

Related Games

People who like Violet also gave high ratings to these games:

Once, by Chris Klimas
Out of the TextFire "12-pack", this is an April's Fool game "demo" in which your grandmother has you weed her garden - when you suddenly find something much better to do. [--blurb from The Z-Files Catalogue]

Djibouti Dirigible Discombobulation, by Sam Kabo Ashwell

A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin
"Walking away from a picnic, you are suddenly caught in a country storm. You must protect a bridge from being destroyed. An ultra-linear game." [--blurb from The Z-Files Catalogue]

Suggest a game

Recommended Lists

Violet appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Started But Unfinished Games by GameDesigner
These are games that I started and never got around to finishing. I intend to finish them one at at time.

IF Romances by Emily Short
IF in the romance genre is rare; here are a few I thought worked well.

Favorite Games by Ron Newcomb
Quality games friendly to those of us new to Interactive Fiction and who would have little patience with the text adventures of old.

See all lists mentioning this game

Polls

The following polls include votes for Violet:

Games where you can't screw up by Pinstripe
Sometimes, when I'm playing a game, I spend more time juggling my save files than I do reading the text. I don't want to have to restart because I picked up the green rod instead of the clay jug (with apologies to Zarf). So I'm looking...

Games for Beginners by WriterBob
I'm looking for games that are suited for adults who are new to IF. My purpose is to share these games with friends and let them get experience IF without being frustrated by mazes or guess-the-verb issues. Please avoid children's games....

One-room conversation games by Sorrel
I'm looking for a one-room game where the main focus is the conversation with an NPC. The kind of game where the NPC feels so realistic that you actually begin to feel an emotional connection of sorts. Something to the effect of Galatea.

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 10 of this page, edited by Jeremy Freese on 2 August 2009 at 2:04pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item