Note: Judges reviews were optional.
_________________________________________________________________
Contents:
Sam Barlow's Reviews - Long (All)
Ian Finley's Reviews (Cove, Galatea, Guitar)
Doe's (Marnie Parker's) Reviews (All)
Mike Roberts' Reviews - Long (All)
About the Judges
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Sam Barlow's Reviews
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I'll start by explaining what I think the Art Show brief is so you know
what I'm judging the games on. In one sentence: to take the
conventions of IF and using them to produce not a game, but a
modeling* of the writer's imaginary world. We should lose most of the
puzzles, but have to rely on the strength of the rendering and of the
image itself to hold the piece together.
* not necessarily a "realistic" or scientific modeling.
Also note that I'm probably quite harsh in a few of these reviews. I'm
the type of person who if they dislike a game doesn't look hard for
good things and in the same way, if I like a game I won't look hard
for things that are wrong. None of the authors should be discouraged,
but it's only fair that we judge on a level playing field, which means
some games will fare worse than others.
I would also point out that I myself have written an IF Art entry that
was quite crap (which is why I never entered it). And so I'm all the
more impressed that the authors of Cove and Galatea managed to look
beyond the dangerous A word and produce some works that answer a few
of the questions that Doe's show set out to ask.
Anyhow, on with the show:
(My reviews pretty much fell out of my head roughly in reverse order)
Visitor.
Visitor forsakes any detailed description of the scenery or any
attempt at establishing presence in the room -- the author tries to stick
us straight into a conversation. No problem there. My initial thoughts
were that I would, undoubtedly, be expected to surprise myself with
just how interesting this old woman was. We would maybe have a story
recounted by the NPC -- an idea I have often had but never figured out
how to implement --
However, there are a few problems. The conversation does not flow.
It's hard to follow any path through it, beyond working your way
through the names of her family and a few other key words. Then, there
is little to talk about. Gladys has little to say and what she does
say is quite uninteresting (her most responsive topic is her rheumatic
joints). Any attempts to delve into her family's problems are
fruitless. And finally, there seems to be no goal or progression. I
never felt I was pursuing a conversation -- just kept plugging away to
see if a topic would give an answer. I could never forget about the
interface and involve myself in the IF because I never become involved.
In the end, Gladys herself was quite uninteresting. Her default
responses made her seem distant and vague. The lack of flow in the
conversation was irritating and left me feeling that we hadn't bonded
as much as the final score implied -- this was a very uncomfortable
conversation full of pauses and stalled questions.
I left Visitor without having learnt anything about me, about the old
woman (save a family tree), about the author, about anything that I
felt I should have been learning.
So for me, this work remains a preparatory sketch. Perhaps in another
competition the work would have fared better, but this is a competition
after all and everything that Visitor does badly is made to look easy
by Galatea.
Guitar.
As someone who knows nothing about guitars I could examine and mess
about with a real guitar. With a virtual one, it seems, I am left to
type in a list of commands given to me by the author. With Guitar of
the Immortal bard we have the Art Show version of Time All Things Come
To An End interaction destroyed by puzzle. But wasn't the guitar
richly rendered? Not to me -- I don't know any of the "parts" of a guitar
and so was limited to referring only to the guitar itself. And then
when I read the author's list of parts there was no sense of it being
rendered -- the fact that I was typing a walkthrough removed the
dimension. Whereas in conventional IF it is easy to enjoy a game
whilst using a walkthrough -- we can enjoy the plot and the details,
scenery, characters, etc. whilst missing out on the puzzle
satisfaction -- when a game is just the details, using a walkthrough
removes the interactive part of the equation.
For the fiction part, I wasn't sure what the point was, why all the
magic and mystery. What was going on? What was the piece saying about
music, nature, magic, mythology, tradition, story telling...? Back to
the interaction then. Interaction does not happen without feedback.
There was no feedback here. Just a list of descriptions of a guitar
and some strange things that happen when you play the blues. No flow,
no causality, no feeling whatsoever of presence in the fictive world.
What I'm trying to say is that the interaction is very shallow. In a
normal game interaction can become quite deep -- one thing leads to
another, and we drill down into the game's world -- the longer the chain
of interaction, the deeper the world. Here we either "examine" a bit
of the guitar or "play" a guitar style. There is no way our
interactions lead onto each other. They are all disjoint. As are the
outcomes of the actions. Whatever order we do things in, we get the
same responses -- this doesn't feel clever, this feels like a machine.
We never get away from the fact that we are sitting in front of a
virtual machine exchanging input for output.
If we are losing the exploration of an IF world, losing the sense of
interaction that puzzles bring then we must bring something new to the
table. We should be interacting with the guitar, exploring it.
Exploration and interaction require depth. Nothing is gained between
moves here -- Nothing is done that could not be accomplished by splicing
together the different descriptions*. As a closing note, I couldn't
"strum" the guitar, which seemed unfair seeing as how that's all I can
do with a guitar in reality.
(there were some grammatical and punctuation issues but they were
largely ignored in light of the problems I had with this piece)
* before you point out that the same is true of Aisle that had
meta-puzzles to play. There was progression in the reader's head.
Sparky & Boots.
Sparky and Boots offers a minimal description of the world and events.
Interaction with the pets is linear and so feels scripted and false.
These interactions are puzzles and very much so -- they are not motivated
by a desire to explore and interact but by the desire to progress and
"finish" this game (in my case). The animals had no personality -- Look
to the dog in Losing Your Grip for an example of how well animals can
be implemented. There seemed to be very little difference between the
cat and the dog (maybe this is a problem with me though, cf: my review
of Soft Food ).
I personally really dislike it when live things (people, animals) are
described as bog standard objects (You can see a carrot, a sword, Joe
and Sue here or There are a rock, a cat and a gold coin here, etc)
rather than having a special Initial or Describe quality (Joe is here,
slumped against the wall. Sparky is sitting at your feet, etc.) I also
dislike random messages. Put these two together and things look old
fashioned. They drain the life out of the people/animals. And who
would ever describe the scene as "You can see two animals (Sparky and
boots)". Surely you would say "You can see Sparky and Boots". If we
know their names then we know that they are animals, right?
Custard.
Of course this is Not What the Art Show is About , but it's a neat
kind of trick. Unless, of course, what I saw was my interpreter
packing in and this is just a boring game about a custard pie laced
with acid.
Art.
I evo evo
l l l
o e
v v
e o
l
Apollinaire. So it was nice to see some calligrams (also strangely
relevant; Apollinaire on his Calligrams: "they are an idealization of
typographical precision at the dawn of new methods of reproduction,
the cinema, the gramophone"). Not Art Show material though. Not IF. No
presence, movement... Hardly interactive . Didn't irritate or bore me
though.
Statuette
This was an Interesting one. Intriguing maybe . However sometimes the
world was minimally described and had missing responses. Mysterious
even . I wasn't sure about the end however -- After finding the music I
smashed the animal because it was the only thing left to do, not
because I wanted to get to the heart/music (which I think was the
point?) But certainly more along the lines of the Art Show that some
other entries -- Definitely an artist's vision/image rendered with the
tools of traditional IF. And I was a little scared that the animal
would come alive whilst I was touching it.
Cove.
Now we're cooking. A seascape, rendered nicely -- a few missing details
and a bit of repetition with some of the animal activities, but very
nicely crafted overall. Lots of actions implemented. Canned responses
removed. Feels real. A kind of A Change in the Weather without
ridiculous puzzles and on a beach.
I felt that the inclusion of the plot was slightly muddled -- there maybe
needs to be more rigor in terms of deciding what the piece is setting
out to do. Though there is definitely a shared emotional dimension to
the PC and to the location and atmosphere, so it doesn't not work. I
think it's the intrusion of the character at the end of the story that
has me thinking there's a problem -- the change from observing and
remembering to suddenly being in the now and having things happen .
Cove felt like Infocom games felt when I first played them -- "convincing"
is the word. When I play Infocom games now, (mostly) they feel sparse
and minimal but when I first played them they were rich, textured and
dense. And that's where Cove is heading.
Galatea.
Enigmatic. Seductive. Mesmerizing.
The thing that really interests me with traditional IF is the point
where things become real -- when the combination of the engrossing text
and the interaction make the experience Lucid dream-like and where
reality and fiction become meshed slightly. Like the time I played
Anchorhead and a flat mate asked if I wanted to go to the shops, but
I said no because I didn't want to go out whilst it was raining. It
wasn't raining in the real world.
Galatea works like that. I really couldn't have been much more against
it when I started playing -- having an Art Show entry in an art gallery
seemed like such a cliche... and classical references; not in the mood
for them, thank you.
But, wow -- the conversation flows . Her personality seems alive -- she
reacts to me, or so it appears (the appearance is all that matters
here). There's tension between us -- the narrator -- and her. It's one of
the best of the recent trend to incorporate IF conventions into the
story/message/atmosphere of the text -- the narrator's disappointment
when Galatea's responses run out and then her subsequent observation that
real people get bored when you repeat questions is superbly done.
There are lots of things to talk about and they lead into each other
from all different angles. Our PC has presence, and personality.
When I think of the sweat and tears (or maybe just sweat) put into
their work by the AIF crowd, it's funny (though perhaps inevitable)
that Galatea manages to be sexier, more interactive, more engrossing
and more seductive an interactive toy (and that's what she is, until
she steps off the pedestal) than any denizen of that field.
I shan't go on much more about Galatea , shan't attempt to focus on
any of it's themes -- the relationship between Art & Observer, beauty
real & synthetic, the sensuality of sculpture, the line between
entertainment & art -- because ultimately the thing that I enjoyed about
Galatea was the experience , the raw suspension-of-disbelief, tactile
and tangible rendering of the author's imaginings.
The PC might have quite fancied her, but I loved Galatea.
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Ian Finley's Reviews
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Ok, forgive me, I'm a horrible review writer. These are the first real
reviews I've written...ever, and I have no real format forgive me, I'm
an actor, we aren't that good on organization. While I examined the
whole of the work, my first criteria in judging was the completeness
of the subject. If something was mentioned I wanted to touch it, to
examine it in detail. Indeed if something could be inferred as having
to exist I wanted to be able to look at it. And, for the most part I
was pleasantly surprised by the completeness of the subjects. I've
only written reviews for the games I voted for as best of their
categories because finals are starting, but I hope to write out short
reviews for all the pieces because they were all quite enjoyable, and
surprisingly original. Congratulations to all the authors and thank
you for giving me a LOVELY afternoon judging them.
The Cove: What a joy! This and "Galatea" were both pieces that fully
explored the interactivity of the subject, in this case a location.
Everything mentioned could be examined or played with, but it wasn't
merely pretty, this was also a full game involving a very moving plot
and some of the mostly subtly drawn and compelling characters I've
seen in ages. Shoe-in for a XYZZY nomination for Best PC. The only
problem is that some of the actions are somewhat counter intuitive.
Let me explain: You can fully explore the environment without
"solving" much of anything, but to get the whole story requires you to
do certain things that are occasionally a bit of a stretch. To warn
you: you do have inventory to begin with and if a memory is mentioned,
try to think or remember on the consecutive turn or the memory will
pass. These semi-puzzles made it more difficult to see all there was
to see, not because they were hard, but because they were subtle.
However, in one sense these puzzles can also be very rewarding. The
first "puzzle" of the game, which allows you to reach the beach from
the cliff, I at first didn't realize was a puzzle, so until turn 36 I
thought that the opening cliff was all there was to the game. But the
moment when I went, "Aha!" and realized the obvious action to get down
the slope was tremendously rewarding and one of my favorite moments of
the competition. The game actually had several of these moments, like
the coming of the storm, that practically had me putting exclamation
marks after all of my commands. I would highly suggest this game, for
it really is a game, not just an experiment, to anyone as a wonderful
way to spend an afternoon. It fits in admirably with the line of fine
short IF pieces that have been released lately and was utterly
enjoyable. Ms. Fischer, promise us to write more!
Galatea: Wow. Oh, wow. This sort of thing makes me become very
jealous because the piece is everything I would want to write, and I
didn't. I don't want to give much away in this review because the
dozens of little moments of realization, from the first instant of
knowing the identify of the PC in this portrait, to the twisting,
post-modern ending, create a shocking and beautiful piece. And can we
say complete? The NPC practically passes the Turing test, her moods
change based on what you've said and done, she has multiple responses
to anything you can think of and, she is aware of her limitations.
Often times she will chide you for trying to test just how real she
can be. This is the sort of paradoxical awareness of the illusion that
makes me giggle like a school girl. And, like The Cove, this is a game
as well as an experiment because progress can be made, in a very
subtle, almost imperceptible way, but the progress is, to quote my
notes "SO damn rewarding!" The pregnant pauses, the poetry, the
punsoh, just download this game and play it. It's the most fulfilling
short piece I've played to date and has left a definite impression on
the way I approach IF. Mr. Cadre, Mr. Plotkin, meet Ms. Short. Watch
her.
Oh, and coincidence of the month: my brother turned on the TV while I
was playing this piece and "My Fair Lady" was on the television.
Eerie.
The Guitar of the Immortal Bard: A beautiful still life, the focus
was clearly on the guitar itself, the surrounding area forming a
lovely frame. Every part of the guitar was described, simply and
beautifully, the only shortcoming was the verbs allowed. You couldn't,
for example, "strum" the guitar. However, you can "play" different
styles of music, (another somewhat counter intuitive action, I had to
check the hints to understand the necessary syntax, but then, I'm dim)
each resulting in an evocative description. As a musician, I was
particularly affected by this choice and found the piece, while small,
an utterly lovely gem of an experience. Play it if you get a chance,
it only takes a few moments to explore (the still life category
creates, of necessity, smaller pieces than the others), you'll be
pleased.
_________________________________________________________________
Note: I was not a judge in the IF Art Show. This may seem a bit
strange since the concept/contest is one I started, but I took myself
out of the judging so I could answer questions up to the last minute
and to be sure to keep the judging totally impartial. If I had
voted... (reviews altered slightly from first publication)
Best of Show / Best of Portrait
Galatea by Emily Short
Outstanding. A little less completely implemented than Cove, so for me
Best of Show was a toss up, but this is an unusually interesting
dialogue with an NPC. Galatea is the statue brought to life by Pygmalion,
and she sits in a gallery, eerily alive, interviewable by the protagonist,
an art reviewer. What an interesting concept! The natural stilted of NPCs,
limited by our IF languages, is also used in service of the piece. Although
alive, Galatea is a statue and a bit "wooden". This deliberate employment
of NPC woodenness was extremely clever.
But Galatea doesn't remain wooden, because her conversation is
artfully constructed. She will respond to an amazing number of topics
and the piece can end in more than one way. The player is cued about
what to ask next by previous responses; the cuing is very well done. I
especially liked being able to ask Galatea about: life, death,
breathing, and food. "Hey, what's it like to be a statue?" You can
also lead the conversation in several different directions, but this
is where I found the piece slightly less effective. One time Galatea
paused and said nothing further, another time when she paused she did
say something more on the next turn, so I suspect that unfollowed up
on pause was a "bug". Also I didn't find out I could tell Galatea
about me, my childhood, until I asked her about the artist's childhood
-- the disambiguation process is what tipped me off. Also when I
started to take the conversation in one direction then switched
mid-stream to different direction, I wasn't sure it always "worked."
Although Galatea usually responded differently based on previous
questions asked, sometimes she seemed inconsistent, but, actually,
only sometimes. Overall, the conversation programming was outstanding.
One really nice touch was that ask and tell were abbreviated to make a
more involved conversation easier on the player. So I felt this only
needed a bit more "polishing" to be flawless.
Although the conversation technique is impressive, the subtext is even
more fascinating. I discovered when I started telling Galatea about
"me" that she was a great listener. As I treated her less like an
object on display to be examined (she was also nicely touchable, etc.)
and shared more with her, she shared more with me -- beautiful but
slightly repugnant woman on pedestal transformed to real, warm woman.
Galatea is the best NPC conversations I have seen. But as a feminist,
the implicit message of, "Don't treat a woman like an object," is,
naturally, what made this piece for me.
Best of Show / Best of Landscapes
Cove by Kathleen M. Fischer
This is as much like walking along a beach as an all-text Interactive
Fiction piece could be. All the scenery is very well-described and
reminds me of beaches I have walked. It is also the most completely
fleshed out and developed piece in the show, almost flawless, and I
admire good crafting. I was impressed with how everything mentioned
was an object I could examine further, either by: looking, touching,
and/or smelling. Sea anemones, algae, on and on. And one object I
thought I wouldn't be able to pick up, a starfish in the tidal pool, I
could. I could even drop it, as it turns out, in an interesting and
believable way. Also, the flying sea gulls, ornery sea lion, and
fishing sea otter, added a great deal of verisimilitude, portraying
the liveliness of nature.
As Galatea buries a subtext in conversation, Cove buries a plot in a
walk. Although this is not an NPC entry, there is a character in this
period piece, the female protagonist. An romantic old-fashioned woman,
as her turn-of-the-century clothes attest. Using her to "frame" the
experience of exploring the beach also gives the player a story to
explore, a very effective technique.
Walking along a beach can be a time for reflection. Our protagonist
uses it to reflect on a past love. But what starts as an-idle-along,
take-your-time, meandering beach walk and trip down memory lane soon
becomes more frantic with the onslaught of pounding, slashing rain
and... pounding, painful memories. The juxtaposition of the two
emphasizes both, and gives this piece its poignancy.
This piece also can end in more than one way. Unfortunately, that is
where I encountered some problems. They weren't problems of bugginess
or guess the verb, but problems of pacing. I had no problem
discovering the "special verb", but I thought maybe it shouldn't be
tied to specific locations, more to events. However, my main problem
is I got stuck in the tunnel because the memory that would have clued
me in on what to do seemed to occur later. In other words, I needed to
be tipped off sooner. I also needed more of a hint about the exit.
---------
One additional comment that may seem a bit strange, but I'll make it
anyway. For me it was very much a toss up between Galatea and Cove for
Best of Show. However, all the judges were male, and for most of them
Galatea was the clear choice. I had to stop and think about that,
because it surprised me. Then I finally realized that, for once, I had
really enjoyed playing a FEMALE . Especially one I knew was written by
a female (there may be more female protagonists written by females out
there, I just haven't played them yet). A protagonist that actually
"felt" female to me. My feeling of direct participation in exploring
the Cove was contrasted to my more remote appreciation of playing a
male that was obviously attracted to an impressive Galatea. When I
stopped to analyze it, I found my gender reaction very, very
interesting, so I thought it worth mentioning.
All I can say is I am glad I didn't have to choose between Ms. Short
and Ms. Fischer. Well, that's not all, I hope they both write a LOT
more IF.
Best of Still Life -
The Guitar of the Immortal Bard by Jason Burns
This is less involved than Galatea or Cove, almost by necessity,
because a still life is naturally less complicated than a landscape or
portrait, but it is still outstanding in its own right. The player
finds a "magical" guitar that will play different kinds of music. No
music lessons are required. The help screens are used very effectively
in this piece to let the player know the parts of a guitar (each is
examinable), and what kind of music can be played. Each type of music
has a description that literally, and sometimes magically, soars.
While I am not very musical, I am auditory (re: Iffy Theory ;-)), so
I swear could almost "hear" each song/ballad/riff.
The only problem I found was sometimes not having a blank line before
the prompt and between paragraphs, (highly visual I notice things like
that, probably too much), but that is only a quibble. It could also
have been a bit more interactive, although I have no recommendations
how that could have been achieved. I am not sure how those unfamiliar
with a guitar could have been lead to examine its parts without help.
But the music descriptions were excellent and definitely made me want
to "play more". Maybe someone with a better musical ear than I would
disagree, but I felt this really captured the essence of various types
of music. In an all-text medium that is quite a feat.
Honorable Mention for Unusual Exploration of Interactivity -
Untitled by Gunther Schmidl
Gunther is different. Gunther does different things. This is
different. A fun, highly visual, somewhat interactive, intuitive word
play. Poetry, word pictures, and combination thereof. Play it, I can't
describe it. But I am seriously thinking of adding a Gunther category
to the next IF Art Show. Except I'll call it something else, so people
not named Gunther may also enter that category. (Note: I did not
consider these word pictures to be actual ASCII art, although they
bordered on it.)
The Visitor by Peter Polkinghorne
This is a gentle, low-key piece about befriending an elderly person
who lives in a nursing home. Not a bad implementation of an NPC
conversation. Although the artist probably thought he couldn't have
separate takeable objects in a NPC piece (he could have), I would have
preferred that Gladys' family photos could have been showable to
Gladys one by one. Or personal things from her cupboard. As it was, it
took me a while to hit on the one thing that would get Gladys talking
(looking through the window). Then it was fairly easy to keep her
talking, as new topics were well cued by her previous responses. Also,
Gladys responded with additional information to the same topic on
subsequent queries. Well done. This piece can also end in more than
one way.
However, I felt it needed a bit more fleshing out to be able to fully
stand on its own. Maybe more of a dialogue/relationship between the
protagonist and subject, although sometimes old people do tend to
ramble on. Maybe takeable objects to show to Gladys, or more of a
"story" in what she said. It could have been more fully developed in
several ways. But Gladys still had a quiet charm.
Sparky and Boots by James Bernsen
The author demonstrated he can write, program, and debug. I found no
serious flaws, although I couldn't get Sparky and Boots to move to the
living room. This may have been a bug, or it may have been because I
didn't do things in exactly the right order. Because this piece
suffered from having too many sequential puzzles. Yes, the ban on
puzzles was lifted, but the rules also state "encourage the player to
explore". Exploration is the key word. So while this was an adequate
implementation of NPCs, it was not something I would consider
especially "iffy arty".
To explain how I think it could have been IF Art will be difficult.
But I'll try. Sequential puzzles stop the player again and again,
stopping exploration. I didn't get very far each time. Without the
help screens I wouldn't have been able to explore. So in this piece,
the help screens ended up dominating, and by that very fact,
subtracting from my experience. I would have found it more "iffy
arty", if what was in the help screens had been put into the piece
instead . In other words, Sparky and Boots themselves gave me very
little indication about what to do next. More and varied behavior
(even if slightly unrealistic), might have clued me in. Also, it could
have been made more challenging or experiential, if it had been
written with no puzzles at all. I suggest the author try it some time.
I have and have discovered writing "puzzleless IF" makes me rethink
what a puzzle is . But, IF Art considerations aside, I can easily see
Sparky and Boots fitting into a larger game.
Custard by Evin Robertson
When Evin emailed me his entry he said he hoped it was sufficiently
weird. I probably should let that comment stand. But I'll say a little
more -- after a specific event took place I couldn't see well enough
to find out if there was any more to do. However, that may have been
the point, I simply couldn't decide. So, yes, it was sufficiently
weird.
The Statuette by Ian Ball
Unfortunately, I felt this was seriously flawed. It had misspellings,
poor spacing (before the prompt), and the strange appearance of
question marks where apostrophes should be -- but those weren't the
flaw. There is an interesting concept submerged in this statue, but it
took me awhile to bring it to the surface and even then I wasn't sure
I fished it all out. I would have liked more things to be examinable
(surface, substance), and more verbs to be implemented (penetrate
pool, put hand in pool, enter pool, drink pool), so I could have been
more positive I had seen all of the concept. Also, although the poetry
was good, I couldn't really connect it that much with the subject of
the statue. So the flaw was -- although the statue was interesting to
explore, to me the concept was "muddy"or not fully realized -- or not
clear enough for me to "get it". (Reading Sam Barlow's reviews, I know
now I didn't see it all, but I also have no idea what I could have
done to see more.) Therefore, my main reaction to this piece was that
it had potential, but needed a lot more polishing.
_________________________________________________________________
It is hard for me to give negative feedback, especially within the
framework of the IF Art Show, because I am the hostess and certainly
don't want to discourage entries. So I hope all the artists take any
negative comments I made in context, as me honestly trying to say what
I thought worked and what I thought didn't. I was very happy to
receive and play all the entries and am delighted that the IF Art Show
is a place where people can not only experiment, but also get their
"feet wet" iffy-wise. Thanks to all the entrants for entering! Thanks
to all the judges for judging!
Doe :-)
_________________________________________________________________
Mike Roberts' Reviews
_________________________________________________________________
Index to the Reviews
Untitled by gunther schmidl
The Cove by Kathleen M. Fischer
Custard by Evin Roberston
Galatea by Emily Short
Guitar of the Immortal Bard by Jason Burns
Sparky and Boots by James Bernsen
The Statuette by Ian Ball
The Visitor by Peter Polkinghorne
_________________________________________________________________
Untitled
by gunther schmidl
The best term I can think of to describe this piece is "word
paintings," not in the sense of descriptions that create visual images
in the mind of the reader but rather more literally: Art draws
pictures out of letters.
Superficially, the pictures are just ASCII graphics * , but there's
another layer in the way the letters used to draw the pictures also
form words that in most cases refer back to the pictures they draw.
There are no puzzles here in the usual sense - user interaction is
limited to selecting one of the drawings by pressing a numbered key -
but the pictures take a little thinking to interpret, in a way
reminiscent of those word games that encode obscure messages in
arrangements of letters, such as
0
-----
MBA
BA
PhD
MS
MD
The piece also seems to have some underlying theme, although I wasn't
able to discern it beyond vague generalities. World Wars I and II are
referenced pretty directly in one place, a few of the other screens
are war references of one kind or another, there's a Pink Floyd
reference that could conceivably point very indirectly to war; but
it's hard to find the connections in other screens. Perhaps there's a
larger meta-puzzle of piecing together an overarching meaning from the
smaller puzzles.
This piece is worth a look for the experience of noticing that there's
more to it than first meets the eye. How much more is something we are
left to ponder.
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*For those who weren't using computers back before today's modern
internet age, "ASCII graphics" are pictures drawn out of text
characters. In the days of text-only terminals, it wasn't possible
to show JPEG's or other graphics on most computers, so some people
made drawings out of letters and numbers. This was obviously very
low-resolution, and usually monochrome, but it was the only way to
show graphics on a lot of systems. ASCII graphics even showed up in
interactive fiction once in a while, although it always seemed
out-of-character to me.
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The Cove
by Kathleen M. Fischer
This piece describes itself as "an interactive seascape," but that's a
bit of a ruse; the setting's true purpose is to serve as a medium for
telling the player character's story. That's not to say that the
setting isn't well-developed - the map is small, but the locations are
deeply described, with every description leading to several others at
successively greater magnifications.
The detailed setting, though, serves as more than just a picture to
look at. Everything we look at is seen through the player character's
eyes, and what the player character sees reveals the character's
story. We have a sense of discovery as we gradually assemble the
character's story from the jigsaw puzzle pieces. It is an effective
device; rather than just dumping back-story on us in the introduction
or after some important scene, the work reveals the PC's personality,
history, and current situation incrementally. This is not an
unprecedented device, but it is executed well here, and is especially
interesting to see isolated like this, with the story revealed
principally through exploration of the setting, rather than through
events and actions.
This work does thoroughly constrain the player's actions, forcing us
to move along a narrow course; this creates a plot of sorts, since we
must see things in a particular order. This aspect makes the work
quite linear (in the interactive fiction sense), which is a
counterpoint to the non-linearity (in the traditional static fiction
sense) of the way the character's story is revealed.
One minor complaint I might make is that the work is less than
forthcoming about one unusual verb that must be used several times to
get the story's full effect. I'm not even sure how I hit upon it,
because it's not one of the "standard" verbs and not one I usually
think to try. It has become common for authors to disclose any unusual
verbs or other user interface quirks they employ in a brief set of
instructions before the introduction or in response to a "help"
command, which is part of a larger (and, in my opinion, good) trend
away from the once-prevailing attitude that figuring out the user
interface is part of the fun; given that this work's focus isn't
puzzles, I doubt it would spoil anyone's enjoyment for the game to
disclose the verb at the outset. (Nonetheless, I won't actually reveal
what the verb is here, except to say that I've used it somewhere in
this paragraph.)
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Custard
by Evin Robertson
This work was entered in the "Portrait/NPC" category of the show, but
its only non-player character is a cardboard cut-out - I don't mean to
say the player is two-dimensional, or flat, or not well-developed, I
mean that the NPC is literally a piece of cardboard.
Which is well in keeping with the rest of this work, where nothing is
as it leads you to expect. The game's introductory screen asks for
your name, which it promptly throws away and replaces with one of its
own choosing. Most of the game must be played in an especially
irritating display mode in which all of the blank space on the screen
is filled with scrolling garbage text. And the "custard" of the title
is the gateway to a psychedelic trip.
I'm not sure it's "art," but it's kind of amusing.
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Galatea
by Emily Short
This work presents an amazing counter-example to the opinion I have
formed that the traditional "ask/tell" conversation system never
creates the illusion of personal involvement in a conversation.
Galatea proves that it's possible after all.
This work consists almost solely of conversation with the non-player
character of the title. The story that unfolds during the conversation
is intriguing, and the world in which the story is set is richly
imagined and detailed; the story world has many surprises, so I won't
say much about it here except that it reminds me a little of some of
Gene Wolfe's extreme-future science fiction.
This is the first time I've seen an "ask/tell" system *
produce such a convincing illusion of actual conversation. In ask/tell
games, I almost never feel any sense of involvement in conversations;
I feel as though I'm a tourist in a country where I don't speak the
language, and my ability to communicate is limited to pointing at
things. The effect for me is very distancing; I don't feel as though
I'm really interacting with the characters at all.
This distancing effect is usually compounded by the statelessness of
most ask/tell conversations. The non-player characters are busily
going about their business (which might be just sitting there blocking
the entrance to the treasure room), and if we ask them a question (or,
rather, point at something and shrug), we merely attract their
attention long enough to elicit a response; the character immediately
returns to its scripted activities. The scripted activities are
frequently so incompatible with conversation that one almost has the
sense that there are two characters in the room - one going around
vacuuming the floor or blocking the door or whatever, and another one
who pops into existence long enough to respond to a point-and-shrug,
then immediately vanishes again.
Real conversations are full of state and context. If I ask you a
question, you might answer it, but you might also then ask me why I
wanted to know, or you might ask me how I learned about some part of
what I was asking, or what I thought of your response. Ask/tell
conversations don't normally have any sort of this give-and-take.
The conversation in Galatea does several things that go a long way
toward creating the illusion of real conversation, using only a
traditional ask/tell system. I'm impressed to see that it actually can
be done.
Perhaps the most obvious thing that this work does to produce a good
conversation is also the most difficult: the character simply responds
to lots and lots of topics. The limited horizons of the setting
probably help some here, but the range of topics is quite large anyway
because many elements of the conversation suggest new topics.
This work also uses a simple but effective technique that dispels a
lot of my mute-foreigner feelings: when the player types an "ask" or
"tell" command, the work doesn't merely show the character's response,
but first shows the question that the player character is asking, in
the player character's words. While we as the player can't introduce
nuances into our questions, since we're limited to the simple "ask"
syntax, the player character can and does, by asking actual questions
in conversational language. This technique can only work in a game
with a well-defined player character, and in fact the player
character's questions prove to be an amazingly powerful mechanism for
defining his character, and they even help tell the overall story.
Some players are sure to object to the idea of having words put in
their mouths, but I find the effect to be very involving.
There also seems to be some internal context to the discussion, as
though the character is actually paying attention to us and knows
she's conversing with us. This conversation does not feel as stateful
as a real conversation, but it's certainly not as stateless as a
typical ask/tell interaction. I would like to see this area explored
more fully, because I can see the beginnings of it in this work, but I
think there's even more potential. I certainly don't mean to encourage
authors to add more puzzles of the kind where you have to ask the
troll about the treasure nine times in a row to make him finally
relent - that's not the kind of statefulness I'm talking about. I'm
talking about the way natural conversations have a sort of shared
agreement on what the topic is at any given time; the topic shifts and
changes as the conversation evolves, but each party usually has some
idea of where the conversation is and where it's going, and whose turn
it is to speak and what sort of thing they're expected to say.
I've mostly talked about the conversation mechanics, but I don't want
to leave the impression that Galatea is merely a technical
achievement. This is a wonderful piece of interactive fiction with
great writing and a fascinating story.
______________________________________________________________
*The "ask/tell" system is one of the conventional forms of
non-player character interaction that we find in many works of
interactive fiction. Computers are as yet not able to mimic actual
natural language conversation well enough to fool even the most
credulous users, so IF authors have had to find other ways to allow
players to interact with characters. Ask/tell is one of these
approaches. In an ask/tell system, the player converses by using
commands of the form "ask character about topic " and "tell
character about topic ."
_________________________________________________________________
Guitar of the Immortal Bard
by Jason Burns
This is a simple but competent still-life piece. The work is centered
on an exquisite guitar we find in a forest. We can examine the guitar,
including all of the parts one would expect to find on a guitar, and
we can play different kinds of music with the guitar.
This work didn't feel very interactive to me, even though we can do
the usual things with the guitar - examine it in detail, tune it, play
music on it. I think the reason is that the work relies on a "help"
command to list the different things to look at and the types of music
to play.
I don't mean to suggest that simply removing the help command would
help matters. This work with the help command is hugely preferable to
the same work without it; removing the help message would transform
this into a "guess-the-genre" puzzle, which would be no different than
a guess-the-verb puzzle.
I suppose, though, that the game might feel more interactive if the
information we need to explore the possible genres and parts of the
guitar were given to us within the context of the setting, rather than
as an add-on to the user interface. "Help" is clearly a system command
- when using it we are acting in the persona of the player, not of the
player character.
I can think of a couple of ways of moving the "help" information more
into the story context. For the guitar parts, the usual technique of
having inspection of the guitar lead to the guitar's main parts, and
inspection of a part lead to its sub-parts, seems like it would work.
For the music genres, perhaps the forest setting could be divided into
more locations, each of which suggests a particular genre to the
player character. (I'm not suggesting that the player would have to
figure out, as a puzzle, what genre a location suggests, but simply
that each location might suggest something to the player character ,
and that this information would be relayed to the player via the
location's description. This might even offer a chance to flesh out
the player character, since the associations that the character makes
between setting and music might reveal memories or personality
traits.)
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Sparky and Boots
by James Bernsen
This is a character simulation, where the characters are a puppy and a
kitten. We can interact with the animals by playing with them, feeding
them, and petting them. The simulation doesn't go very deep, but
there's enough to explore for a little while.
As a game, this simulation would need a little work to remove some odd
bits of feedback that make the behavior of the animals a little
confusing. For example, once we do something to get the puppy
interested in a toy, the puppy "watches you intently," but if you try
giving the puppy the toy, he "could care less" about it. Also, we must
repeat some actions to get the desired effect, but there's no feedback
to tell us that the repetition is intensifying anything, or that
anything needs intensifying in the first place. Fortunately, the work
has on-line hints, so these rough spots in the puzzle-like parts don't
get in the way for long; but it would be better if the hints were
unnecessary.
I was little disappointed that the puppy's behavior is essentially
identical to the kitten's, the only differences being which objects
they're interested in. The two also have no interaction with one
another.
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The Statuette
by Ian Ball
This is a small and unusual work involving a "virtual statuette." We
can look at the sculpture and its parts, and we can use other senses
as well.
The "virtual" aspect seems to be that the statuette changes in subtle
ways as we observe it. Why or how it changes is not made clear; the
work doesn't even draw attention to the changes, but lets us notice on
our own.
This piece has a few interesting tricks, but I really don't know what
it all means.
_________________________________________________________________
The Visitor
by Peter Polkinghorne
This piece is a fairly standard NPC conversation, where the non-player
character is an elderly woman whom we're visiting. I'm not sure what
the relationship between the player character and the NPC is meant to
be, but we can ask questions about her family and her past.
The conversation is implemented competently, with a good range of
topics to ask about. Most of the topics have several different replies
that we can elicit by asking repeatedly; there's no direct indication
that asking again would give us more information, but we can easily
tell that we've reached the last reply when the reply starts
repeating.
The elderly woman's life story doesn't hold a lot of surprises, but
the character is fairly well drawn and the responses stay consistently
in character.
_________________________________________________________________
About the Judges
_________________________________________________________________
Other judges' profiles to be filled in...
Mike Roberts - Created TADS (Text Adventure Development System) , an
IF programming language and compiler. He is currently taking it
through several exciting additions: HtMLTads and TADS Workbench, an
integrated graphical system. We can thank, first AGT, next TADS, and
later, Inform, for keeping IF alive and kicking today. Mike also wrote
the games: "Ditch Day Drifter", "Perdition's Flames" and "The Plant",
which placed third in the 1998 Annual IF Competition.
Lucian P. Smith (lpsmith) - Author of "Edifice", which placed first in
the 1997 Annual IF Competition, has coordinated the IF Comp Beta
Testers for the last two years. While his innovative IF Bookclub is
already on its second selection. Emulating a book reading group, one
IF game is played/discussed monthly or every two months. Lucian also
posts Inform programming tips.
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