This is an amusing little one-mover jaunt about dumping your boyfriend Sam at a diner. I guess we most of us know Sam Barlow's Aisle was the first game to try this. This one allows a ton of ideas but the entries are a bit long-winded, and I wasn't able to get clues.
I liked other Apollo 18 one-movers better but I did enjoy the title, the idea, and the energy. It's just--brevity is the soul of wit, and I really enjoyed the responses AFTER you tried something that worked more than the initial responses. And though I had to plug this into the TXD disassembler to get the rest, I still had fun. It's good to see a new game like this every few months but it'd also be easy to overdose. Still, worth a look, even if it probably won't make my top 9 if I play all the games.
... about dumping your boyfriend Sam at a diner
ReplyDeleteI moved mountains to keep both Sam and the protagonist as gender-ambiguous as possible, abusing the pronoun "they" over and over again, but thanks to your review here, I found the one location where I had slipped and described Sam as a "him"... and have expunged it for a post-comp release.
Undoubtedly I needed some editing, but due to the source material I needed a minimum of 50 short stories and I only made that benchmark the morning the submissions were due, so there was just no time (nor to implement further responses, to make the game less about finding the 50 true recognized verbs and more about just trying 50 things, it's easy.) I do look forward to continue working on the game to, basically, make it the one I saw in my head instead of the one I had on my computer the last day of the testing period.
Whenever that happens, I'll probably drop you an update here. Thanks for giving me the column inches! It's such a thrill just to have the very existence of one's creation acknowledged!
Well, I'm glad for my part that someone's paying attention to my blog! Definitely let me know about your progress--and don't forget to post it on IFDB and/or intfiction.org.
DeleteWell, I'm glad for my part that someone's paying attention to my blog!
DeleteAnyone who doesn't Google themselves from time to time is really missing out 8)
Also re ambiguity I was curious if I weren't reading well. I figured I''d guess wrong either way. I did the same sort of thing in my EctoComp game where it was purposely unclear if the main character was homosexual when he talked with the ghost of someone who'd gay-bashed him.
ReplyDeleteAlso re ambiguity I was curious if I weren't reading well. I figured I''d guess wrong either way.
ReplyDeleteThe problem for me is that I can make the names as ambiguous as I like, but when the characters open their mouths, immediately there is the author's dudely voice coming out, making all the conversations between two men whose romantic relationship is coming to an end. Writing in a female voice is a different challenge, and writing an ambiguous character remains a whole other ball of wax as well.
I pondered having each story segment randomize gender pronouns, but it seems like a lot of work for unclear reward, besides which I've seen such systems fail spectacularly (characters switching gender mid-paragraph) on a few occasions in Choice of Games productions.