Edge of the Cliff

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Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 4 Write a review

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Edge of the Cliff claims to satirise the "non-interactive movement in IF". I do not know which games that author is thinking of, though one would suppose Photopia to be one of the prime targets. The work Edge of the Cliff overtly mimics is Blue Lacuna, which is very interactive -- except for the way you are shepherded into accepting your destiny in the prologue, and perhaps that is the object of satire here.

Poster gives us a very small scenario which always ends the same way no matter what you do. This is none too subtle, but the fact that you can only reach the ending through actions that would not seem to lead towards it is a deft touch. You cannot actively jump to your death, because that would be too much player agency.

As a member of the class of "I'm making a small point with a small game"-games, Edge of the Cliff gets two stars. (The author might want to fix two bugs I found: during the first two questions, random input does not give the desired answer; and one of the endings does not end the game.)

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Despite its stated goals, "Edge of the Cliff" is not actually non-interactive. Once past the initial questions (Spoiler - click to show)(false choices which still manage to frame the content of the piece, and can only be said to actually have been ignored *if* the player chooses a configuration other than the pre-authored one and *then* executes a command-- such as examining oneself-- which allows them to see that one's input has, in fact, been ignored), the player's choices matter. Choice and interactivity shape the content of the narrative in some significant ways. (Spoiler - click to show)Does the PC roll off the cliff in his/her sleep? Trip and fall? About what is the PC so concerned? Yes, these all ultimately wind up with the same end effect, but with different paths come different content and different meanings.

What I think this piece does successfully is to-- in a quick, highly replayable fashion-- portray a lack of agency. We may take actions, but even the PC seems to take any one of them too far (often by no fault or intention of his/her own). Its style is humorous: a farcical mode that pokes fun at overwrought or overly serious writing, at least funny enough to make me laugh.

"The Edge of the Cliff" may not have succeeded at non-interactivity, but it certainly fails interestingly.

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the premise of the game may be "non-interactive fiction", but one can still do things, for examining sandals or reading diary are active actions...
this game does not so much expose the non-interactivity of a game as it appeals to a extremily-deterministic scenario (Spoiler - click to show)in which the character can only end up dead.

use-of-medium wise, the game is just simplistically made. two questions in the beginning -which do not seem to alter the play in any way, and thus are unnecessary- and a overuse of "Instead of" rules.

maybe a better treatment of the plot and medium would have given more quality to the game.

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