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Glowgrass

by Nate Cull

Science Fiction
1997

(based on 61 ratings)
3 member reviews

Game Details

Language: English (en)
Current Version: Release 1
License: Freeware
Development System: TADS 2
Baf's Guide ID: 247
IFID: TADS2-0009C6BD11F41112184F6ABF6D179F4E
TUID: b1xy3s75cjlty973

Awards

Nominee, Best Game; Nominee, Best Story - 1997 XYZZY Awards

3rd Place - 3rd Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (1997)

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide


A xenohistorical expedition to recover artifacts of "the Ancients" takes on a surprisingly human and personal tone in this far-future sci-fi story. Simple Planetfall-like puzzles, thoughtful prose that establishes moods with parsimony. Short but not rushed. Well worth playing.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

IF-Review
A Brief Flash
The story packs a huge punch for such a small game, covering as it does themes of hope for humanity and for the individual. (Jonathan Rosebaugh)
See the full review

SPAG

Post-apocalyptic IF? There hasn't been any, in my memory -- A Mind Forever Voyaging is the only thing that comes close -- but there's no reason why there couldn't be, and Nate Cull's Glowgrass, small but well-conceived, is certainly an interesting attempt. Though the game itself has some flaws, the story is intriguing enough to make it enjoyable. (Duncan Stevens)
See the full review

>VERBOSE -- Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction Page

Glowgrass is a well-written game with a pleasantly creepy aura, a pleasurable way to spend a couple of hours and hopefully a prelude to more quality work.
See the full review

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Member Reviews

5 star:
(12)
4 star:
(27)
3 star:
(20)
2 star:
(2)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 3
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Nice setting, August 25, 2009
The best thing about Glowgrass is the setting. It's an interesting premise, though sparsely implemented, that does a pretty good job of drawing you in.

The environment is pretty small, and the puzzles for the most part are quite simple - though as another reviewer mentioned, there are some flaws in the implementation. For example, if you throw x at y, you are told that you can't reach y with just your hands! (Spoiler - click to show)The really irritating part is that you ARE supposed to throw x at y... but if you specify the target, you're screwed.

The conversational mechanic is also a little unintuitive - if you're having trouble, just realize there's an ABOUT keyword, and it's crucial.

If you don't get caught on the rough edges in the mechanics, Glowgrass will probably only take you 15 or 30 minutes to finish, if that. It's worth playing.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A Dispiriting Future / A Frustrating Present, April 25, 2010
by AmberShards (The Gothic South)
Glowgrass presents a future that is shrived of emotion and a time where natural resources are nearly depleted. This perspective is unavoidable, due to every room and every object being described in the same mathematical manner with salient environmental preachments. This approach made the game not very enjoyable, but I was able to muddle through until the bugs and the under-implementation hit.

Trying to (Spoiler - click to show)plug things in or connect them is a well-known problem with this game (see prior reviews). If you use the word "connect" by itself, you'll get a loverly TADS error. And if you type "HINTS", guess what? There aren't any! However, the ABOUT tells you that this game is not a puzzle-fest, but a story. That's cold comfort when you're left wondering what to do with the objects that you can't fit together in any way.

There are a few interesting moments that I was able to discover, but they don't make up for the dispiriting and frustrating whole.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Solid and Enjoyable, December 8, 2008
by Rob Maule (Florida, USA)
Overall, I thought this was a delightful game. It was fun to play with the point of view presented. The writing was also solid. There's not a lot implemented, but what is has character. As this was a competition game, it was designed to play under two hours, but I finished it just under. It would have been great to have had more to explore. Exploration is the main aspect of the game, rather than puzzles. It does have puzzles, though the mechanics have something to be desired.(Spoiler - click to show) I had to resort to the walkthrough to figure out how to attach and detach from the cable. But I was looking for a short and fun game, which I found.

If you enjoyed Glowgrass...

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Recommended Lists

Glowgrass appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Games for beginners by Eric Eve
Many of the games in this list are ones I enjoyed as a beginner, but the main aim of this list is to suggest games that are reasonably short and not too hard (so that enjoyment should generally exceed frustration!), and which should...

Not Too Long, Not Too Difficult by Eric Mayer
Being impatient and puzzle-challenged, I prefer rather short games that I can make it through without resorting to hints every other turn. The following leap to mind, in no particular order.

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These are my current favorites.

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Polls

The following polls include votes for Glowgrass:

Apocalypse How by katz
Post-apocalyptic games: equal parts cliche and fun. Authors are free to dispense with pesky NPCs, complicated modern technology, and implementing working everyday items. Players can have no inhibitions about acting like murderous...

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....

NPC-less Exploration by Dannii
Supposedly one of IFs strengths is for exploring places with few other people, often abandoned places, but I can't think of many works which have zero NPCs and consist of a lot of exploration. Usually there's at least one NPC, or the...

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This is version 4 of this page, edited by Edward Lacey on 10 February 2013 at 10:13am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item