I keep coming back to Devotionalia. It actually cropped up a lot earlier on my random shuffle, but every time I sit down to write a review, it just comes out as a jumble of thoughts, entirely inchoate and unformed. Just stick to the facts, Ade. OK - this is a short choice game. I've … Continue reading Devotionalia →

On the surface, smooch.click is a very short choice game. I'm guessing that each of the four or five choices we make controls some statistic that determines the outcome of the kiss - whether it's 'successful' or not. There are no good or bad endings per se. Replays reveal more. The game feels like it's … Continue reading Smooch. Click →

Authors, if you have a puzzle, or you require an unusual verb or noun, then someone will get stuck. I guarantee it.  Provide a walkthrough! Or some of your players will never see half of your lovingly crafted game! There have been several attempts, in this competition alone to deliver a bespoke parser experience. Some … Continue reading Escape from Dinosaur Island →

So I found this very funny. I realize it's a bit of an in-joke game and will likely appeal more to people who've been involved with the IFcomp for a while, but still. I genuinely laughed out loud while playing this. And, to be honest, once it opens out a bit, it becomes less of … Continue reading Re: Dragon →

There are still more than a couple of dozen things I haven't seen and done. Having played through about 8 times now until my 2 hours was up, this is impressive. Just after the sacrifice of a human child to the Forest God, the animals realize they might have made a mistake. Someone's gonna come … Continue reading Animalia →

Question : Is it ok to review a game subjectively which you're not very good at, really dislike the genre, and know you're neither going to enjoy nor complete it? Can you even provide an objective review? Discuss. This is not a review. So I've always been in awe of those people who can both … Continue reading Ailihphilia →

Spoilers ahead. What a mess. You've totally broken everything in the magic practice room. Now you need to fix it and learn the spells so you can pass your witches coming of age test. A difficult puzzly parser game, I got very very stuck, and went to the walkthru quickly. I had various different potions, … Continue reading Charming →

In this shortish, branching choice game, you play as "Hayley Weir, one of the greatest street magicians in the whole wide world". I played through half a dozen times and reached a variety of endings - some of which I would term 'bad', a couple of which 'good'. The game takes place during a single … Continue reading Haywire →

This game is implemented in Scratch. I haven't seen this before in this space. There may be other examples, but I'm not aware of them. If, as a developer, you haven't played with Scratch, you should - as a platform, it's pretty cool, if not particularly flexible or functional. Kudos to the author for trying … Continue reading Instruction Set →

You could consider some of the following to be spoilery. I urge you to play this game before reading. In fact, I urge you to play this game. A lengthy choice based game, I have played through several times now and still have not seen all this game has to offer. We play as Lady … Continue reading The Master of the Land →