Ratings and Reviews by Hanon Ondricek

Well styled, frustrating implementiation, December 10, 2016

I didn't solve this game, even though I thought I knew how. This is (I'm presuming) done in Quest and is nicely styled with sound effects. The game removes all of the normal Quest trappings such as the map and inventory so it feels original. Unfortunately at that point it breaks down.

This is a simple one-room escape with a neat solution I had figured out, but I could not get it to work to complete the game. First, there's the usual Quest problem where verb synonyms are not implemented and the response seems to tell you the action failed-which is not the case. Getting "can't do that" as a response for "press button" when the parser wants "push button" is severe misinformation. A drawer and a cupboard with an entry panel prove frustrating, a useless red button exists for no reason, and an important clue on the counter is not mentioned unless you examine the counter. A piece of paper on the counter should be more obvious at first glance than the counter would be. Two panels require USE PANEL and then waits for your entry, but that is very obliquely clued. There are also two locations. If you go east, you're by the door, which doesn't seem like it should remove the rest of the room out of scope. There are five minutes of real time for the player to figure all this out.

On the page linked from here is another version of the game that is done in what looks like Twine. I solved it in about ten clicks. This is a simple game that shows the perils of bad implementation - I knew what to do, but the time ticked down as I struggled to make the game understand me. I gave it the extra star because I thought the styling and sound effects showed some of the flexibility of Quest, but otherwise we've got what appears to be an experiment by an author with potential if they learn from the problems here.

Hanon Ondricek's Rating:

Interesting story generator, August 25, 2016

Your goal is to kill Dracula, and the game will randomly generate potentially endless methods, roles, and reasons why. The bulk of the tale is spent following leads to track Dracula; a nice use of revealing links in Twine2. While the details of the story may seem a bit like a notebook that has been tumbled in a clothes dryer too long, that's actually the point in this toybox type of narrative which is changing details like a mad-libs slot machine but still remembering your generated role from the beginning. The necessarily self-contained nature of the events might read somewhat like Fallen London storylets because of this, but individual bits of prose are juicy and nicely-written.

I can appreciate this type of magickry which I've also attempted on occasion to disguise dead-ends and repetition in parser IF. Worth a replay or two, especially if you're into classic vampire lore.

Hanon Ondricek's Rating:

Funny. Meta., May 24, 2016

I can't resist a game where you argue with the narrator.

A bit Princess Bride, a bit With Those We Love Alive, a dash of Stanley Parable, and the rest an over-enthusiastic tale of utter slapdash nonsense. I smiled the entire way through.

The greatest game I've ever played. Seriously., April 17, 2016

DoS (every epic needs an acronym) distills the infinite epic sweep of a full-size adventure down into an hors d'oeuvre you can gulp quickly and get on with your life without any of that bothersome textual detail. Roleplaying options include: Explore, open chests when you find them, fight monsters when they show up, and visit the marketplace, where you can buy a fantastically varied array of loot, ranging from wood to tin. That's all you need.

Normally I'd write this game off as an experiment in building a fighting system in Twine, but DoS actually plays so fast it achieves the same addictiveness of a slot machine or a clicker game.

I'm being serious when I say I would probably play this regularly to pass the time if it were extended just a little more to include some more variation: more loot, more outlandishly escalating monster types and more dryly mundane room and treasure descriptions as the player levels up. Throw in three or four random surprise encounter types to keep things interesting, and this is a winner. No, really. I'm serious.

Brilliant Interactive Resource, March 23, 2016

As someone just starting with ChoiceScript, I'm alternately giddy with its simplicity and stumped by some bit of trickiness. This Twine walks you through the basics as well as some moderate-skill code examples such as how to handle letting the reader choose genders for themselves and NPCs, easy ways to create a repeating hub with variable text, and the use of the testing routines provided by ChoiceScript.

Good example of multimedia Twine, March 23, 2016

This is not a long story, nor a complicated one. It is a fairly simple easy puzzle, and almost seems to be an experiment in what Twine can do. I'm giving the game two stars, but the multimedia presentation gets it another for effort. I'd like to see a more involved story presented like this.

Hanon Ondricek's Rating:

I guess this is not for me., March 12, 2016

First question: (Spoiler - click to show)What is your favorite genre? Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop, Classical, Alternative, or Other? Where's country? I don't like country, but it's a pretty egregious choice to lump it in "other".

Third question: (Spoiler - click to show)What kind of headphones do you use to listen to music? Brain Candy, Skull Candy, Eye Candy, Beats, Bose, Ear Buds, Buds, Other Buds. I use Logitech Headphones, and some of us over the age of twenty like to listen to music in the open air from speakers. Beats and Bose might be headphones, but they are high end and out of most people's price range. "Ear Buds, Buds, and Other Buds" are the same thing, unless there's some weirdness with ear buds I've not learned. I do use ear-buds, but it's either the apple buds that came with my phone, or any random $12 ones that haven't broken yet.

Very nice presentation though.
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Okay another shot. Perhaps the initial alienation I experienced was intentional. This is a weird experience and not what I was thinking. It's two strange dialogues with some media. I'm not quire sure it did much other than character study. Lots of fake choices make the experience a bit tone deaf. As an experiment in a new system (caniuseitcaniuseitpleaseisitavailable?) it's a successful prototype in that the text has timings. I'd love to experiment with it.