79 new text adventures from The Interactive Fiction Competition

[grimace]

An annual celebration of new, text-driven digital games and stories from independent creators.

IFComp's 23rd year!


http://blog.ifcomp.org/post/165939958744/ifcomp-2017-is-open-for-judging

To have your ratings counted, you must rate at least five games by November 15, 2017.

Can the Codex play some of these "games" and submit our ratings?

There's a $247 first place prize on the line.

 

[grimace]

https://ifcomp.org/1745/content/index.html

The Castle of Vourtram

Alexandre Torres
The Kingdom of Gwalinad is in its last days of existence. The evil wizard Vourtram, aided by an army of demoniac creatures, razed most of the old cities, spreading terror everywhere. When the capital Linwynne fell, the loyal forces of the old King fled to the hidden city of Chuma Huppic, an old stronghold defended by a magical maze that prevents enemy forces from entering. However, Princess Grardobeth was captured, and many died in the hands of the evil wizard. The princess is kept as a hostage in the high tower of the Castle of Vourtram. Vourtram demands a marriage with the princess followed by the King's abdication, thus making him the new King over Gwalinad.

You are the hero, an orphan born under the sign of the Phoenix who, according to the prophecies, is destined to defeat Vourtram and his evil forces. Pick your class between warrior, wizard, and thief, each with an exclusive path to solve the puzzles. The warrior has easier puzzles, but requires some luck; wizards and thieves only require brains. It is up to you to first develop your skills as a hero, and afterwards depart in the quest to rescue the princess and destroy the evil of ... The Castle of Vourtram.

Estimated playtime: longer than two hours

I'll try this one.

 

[grimace]

https://ifcomp.org/1745/content/index.html


I'll try this one.

You are in front of a wooden cabin.
You can go west.
You can see an old lady sleeping inside the house. This small glade seems a pretty isolated, although beautiful, place to live.

> look at old lady
She is asleep, better not disturb her...

> disturb old lady
I don't understand your command.​

My immersion broke and I'm going to bed. Don't disturb me.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Lets do this.

 

[Bester]

https://ifcomp.org/1745/content/index.html


I'll try this one.

You are in front of a wooden cabin.
You can go west.
You can see an old lady sleeping inside the house. This small glade seems a pretty isolated, although beautiful, place to live.

> look at old lady
She is asleep, better not disturb her...

> disturb old lady
I don't understand your command.​

My immersion broke and I'm going to bed. Don't disturb me.

It's probably wake up old lady or something like that. Disturb is obviously not the keyword here.

 

[CryptRat]

Thanks for the heads-up.

So far I'v played this one.

Tuuli
An interactive ritual.

Daurmith and Ruber Eaglenest "The old witch, your teacher Mákke, is dead. If you want to save your village you'll have to destroy the raiding fleet that's coming. Can you do it, young Lenne-who-would-be-the-witch?"

Cover photo by Benjamin Sloth Lindgreen.

Made during June 2017 for the JAM "Canciones del desierto, la tormenta y el mar". The game is inspired by the song "Tuuli" from the Swedish/Finnish group Hedningarna.

Polished, extended and translated for the 2017 IF Comp.

Content warning: Tuuli is a short work of fantasy with horror elements: graphic imagery and witchcraft. The game has around thirty minutes of play. There no need to make a map, but saving your progress is wise.

Estimated playtime: half an hour

It took me one hour and a half or so to bet the game. It uses a parser and its story is a dark fantasy story about a young to-be-witch who eventually has to perform a ritual. Its best point is that it's very atmospheric. Exploration is reduced to a very minimum, but the few puzzles are fun enough.

 

[CryptRat]

I played this one :

Guttersnipe: St. Hesper's Asylum for the Criminally Mischievous
All the latest treatments for good little children

Bitter Karella

The year is 1929. You are Lil' Ragamuffin, the roughest toughest urchin in all of Garbagetown DC and the surrounding wastes of Montgomery County, but somehow the constabulary has managed to capture you and commit you to the city's highest security asylum. You don't aim to stay long.

Guttersnipe: St. Hesper's Asylum for the Criminally Mischievous is a humorously grotesque (or grotesquely humorous) game about a street urchin and her pet sewer rat escaping a sanitarium full of tinctures, brines, and other misbegotten 1920s health remedies.

Estimated playtime: an hour and a half

I recommend it, it's a very good game. It uses a parser and it's funny, with good puzzles and several hours of playtime.

 

[grimace]

Thanks for the heads-up.

Tuuli versus Guttersnipe

Which one wins?

 

[CryptRat]

Gutternsipe hands down.

 

[CryptRat]

I played this one :

The Wizard Sniffer

Buster Hudson

You were recently acquired by the brave Ser Leonhart and his squire to sniff out the evil shapeshifting wizard. Unfortunately, you are not a wizard sniffer (if such a thing even exists). As far as you can tell, you are an ordinary pig.

A comedy of errors experienced through a parser with a limited verb set. Also, puzzles.

Estimated playtime: two hours

You play as a pig leading the way of a knight and his squire in their quest to defeat an evil wizard. The game is relatively long.

You can only carry one item at a time. The game uses a parser. Although your actions (verbs) are limited and many actions simply imply sniffing the right object followed by the right character (you eventually can only be followed by one character at a time) the game doesn't lack challenge and the puzzles are fun overall.

The game is goofy, as you can expect from the premise, and so was Guttersnipe but, although this game is far from bad and grew on me as I played, overall I liked Guttersnipe even more, both the humour and the more classic approach to puzzles. I think Guttersnipe was also less linear but I may be wrong about that.

 

[grimace]

Playing Guttersnipe on the website and disregarded the warning.

"BE AWARE! Uktextadventures will time out your session if you're not logged in and online play may experience lag. Download is HIGHLY recommended for best experience."

My adventure timed out.

A flickering incandescent light bulb hooked to a wire running along the wall provides just enough illumination to see a few feet down the walkway, though the yawning pit to your north seems to swallow up all light.

I can download the "game" and run it through Quest interpreter.

(Quest is another popular IF system, albeit one whose downloadable titles work only on Windows.)

 

[CryptRat]

Yes I downloaded the game and the interpreter because I spotted the warning fortunately.

But now it seems you can't play the games online anymore anyway.

I started The Wand online sooner and I just downloaded another interpreter (Glulxe) to play it.
I wasn't that far into the game anyway. From what I've played it is promising, you can only examine objects and cast spells, new spells are hidden behind puzzles and riddles, and these ones have been pretty good so far.