Congrats to Brian Rapp on Goose, Egg, Badger

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FWIW, I rate GEB higher than any of the games I've played from the 04
comp, which group includes the top 5 placers. It's clever, the writing
is excellent, the coding and design are deep and thorough. Most
importantly, it induced frequent charmed & surprised "Hah!"s, which is
what I look for in IF.

The solution to the puzzle of the Hofstadter reference in the title is
particularly good.

It might benefit from a feelie or some kind of meta-something to
condition the player's expectations a little. I ignored GEB on my
first quick pass through the comp games because it started in a
bedroom and felt rather aimless.

 

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jayjay wrote:
> FWIW, I rate GEB higher than any of the games I've played from the 04
> comp, which group includes the top 5 placers. It's clever,

Agreed, I rated it 3rd on the games I played, though I haven't played 3
of the top 5 yet.

the writing
> is excellent, the coding and design are deep and thorough. Most

I found the writing objective and economical. It doesn't say more than
is needed or flourish descriptions, but at the same time it doesn't add
much that could give you more ideas of what to do. Specially at the
beginning when you are exploring and haven't yet got the 'click' of how
proceed. On the other hand, some descriptions were memorable. For
example, when the cow, hum, "comes back" and "disappears". But again it
was too concise. It could've given the clue to what to do next *there*
instead of on the hints.

> importantly, it induced frequent charmed & surprised "Hah!"s, which is
> what I look for in IF.

It was very original (and charming). If this was a graphical game or IF
with graphics and sound for the animals (moo, quack, honk, etc), it
could be a great game for children (and adults alike).

>
> The solution to the puzzle of the Hofstadter reference in the title is
> particularly good.

Hum, I don't know what puzzle is that, can you elaborate? It's just the
title as a reference or there was actually some puzzle in the game that
would be easier if one knew anything about the subject?

>
> It might benefit from a feelie or some kind of meta-something to
> condition the player's expectations a little. I ignored GEB on my
> first quick pass through the comp games because it started in a
> bedroom and felt rather aimless.


*********** SPOILERS ************

Aimless was indeed a feeling for me at the beginning, but the urge was
there. What I found was that some puzzles were difficult even with the
hints: (from memory) I knew what to do with the duck and ape, but
couldn't figure out how, exactly. On the one hand the hints were good,
but on the other I somehow felt less than satisfied with the solutions.
The duck's could be easier. Also, the need to get electricity far away
wasn't exactly bad, but it could've been that I could plug all
appliances at once (but still go round with only one) and not have to
bring them back to the gate to swap from one to the other.

Emiliano.

 

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Emiliano Padilha <emilianp@cogscied.ac.uk> wrote in message news:<cnol9j$r3e$1@scotsman.ed.ac.uk>...
> I found the writing objective and economical. It doesn't say more than
> is needed or flourish descriptions, but at the same time it doesn't add
> much that could give you more ideas of what to do.

I would probably say the same about the majority of IF that I've
liked, starting with Zork. I suppose I tend to look to a kind of post
facto test: do the indiviudal text snippets generally make me chuckle
*after* I've managed to solve the puzzle? GEB passes that.

> > The solution to the puzzle of the Hofstadter reference in the title is
> > particularly good.
>
> Hum, I don't know what puzzle is that, can you elaborate? It's just the
> title as a reference or there was actually some puzzle in the game that
> would be easier if one knew anything about the subject?

Just self-reference and the mixing of levels in being able to examine
one's urges, the implementation of <VERB> <NOUN> where VERB = NOUN,
and so on. Nothing spectacular, but IMO definitely the neatest and
most clever piece of work in the comp.