Thursday, October 15, 2020

Big Trouble in Little Dino Park: IFcomp 2020


Big Trouble in Little Dino Park was written by Seth Paxton and Rachel Aubertin, using Ink.

I enjoyed exploring the question at the heart of this entry: "What if Jurassic Park gave summer jobs to disaffected teens?" Things quickly change gears from summer job to survival challenge as catastrophe strikes and you must find a way to escape the park's hungry inhabitants. You make choices to visit (and re-visit) areas while avoiding the park's hungry inhabitants in a search for survivors.

This entry could have used more polish, but it's entertaining in its current state. The authors explain that Big Trouble in Little Dino Park was created in 30 days, which explains why it includes a substantial number of typos. 

Some descriptions made it difficult to tell where I was in the park, or where I wanted to go, but other passages updated to show how my previous choices had changed the situation. In some places, like the Dinosaur Nursery, it seemed like I was repeating passages that were only supposed to display once. 

I was a bad employee and a worse survivor, dying 5 times and seeing 4 out of 7 possible deaths. 

Parts of this experience felt like living in one of those horror movies where the main character is alerted to obvious danger. I appreciated having the option to just go somewhere else, although calculated risks were necessary in a few places. Overall, this entry delivered thrills, chills, and the omnipresent threat of violent death.

Artwork from Donald Conrad:



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