IntroComp 2021: Final Girl 2.0

Final Girl 2.0 is a choice-based adventure from Hanon Ondricek that was entered into IntroComp 2021.

This entry starts by referencing the Final Girl convention from horror movies, showing that the author knows how these films work. It also suggests that the reader is equally clever. It must be simple to avoid making the dumb mistakes that you see characters making in these stories, right?

Final Girl 2.0 argues that it’s not so easy when you’re the one being stalked by a homicidal maniac. Suspenseful background music and timed events work together to provide dramatic tension while you’re fighting for your life.

This entry's clever design choices struck a balance between keeping the game accessible and maintaining a sense of urgency. I particularly liked how some links had to be selected in a specific order, which felt similar to performing a challenging sequence of actions in the real world.

The resulting experience is like a magic trick. Close inspection of the text is the only way you’ll survive, but the story’s atmosphere prevents you from loitering and inspecting things too closely.

I reached an ending on my first playthrough — there are clear signals guiding the player to safety — but when you go back to experiment with some of the other options, it’s clear that some of the illusions were meant to be dispelled.

I want to see this developed into a full game. Final Girl 2.0 already suggests a lot of possibilities in its current state.

IntroComp 2021: Gender Exchange

Gender Exchange is a work by nDev that was submitted to IntroComp 2021.

This entry is a visual novel, which means I’m not going to be the best judge of its strengths — everything I know about VNs has been written by other people.

Gender Exchange is the story of a boy who loves Japanese culture so much that he’ll pretend to be a girl for a chance to study there. It’s also an unbroken narrative with no choices for the reader. (Maybe that will change if it’s developed into a full game?)

The plot seems suitable for the VN format, although I was a little surprised that it didn’t rocket straight into NSFW territory. Cross dressing is central to the story, but it’s not used to describe any sexual thrills. And horny people make suggestive remarks, implying devious plans, but the narrator maintains an innocent, unapologetic enthusiasm for Japan and Japanese culture.

I respected how the protagonist accepts himself, and his love of Japanese culture, in an unfailingly positive way. He endures verbal abuse because people dismiss his hobbies as weird. He makes some cringe-inducing choices in pursuit of his dreams. And nevertheless, he persists.  

Switching genders to attend high school in Japan is not something that I would enjoy. But the narrator’s excitement is so earnest that I’m happy he enjoys it.

IntroComp 2021: MISSION UNKNOWN

MISSION UNKNOWN is a choice-based story by Carl Muckenhoupt that was entered into IntroComp 2021.

This story created a nuanced, well-defined atmosphere in a short period of time. The experience of poking around in a file directory showed how different mechanics could provide variety in a full game, but it mostly used basic text choices in a way that didn’t intrude on the narrative.

I was struck by the elegant way handling of the player’s decision to begin the adventure. It reminded me of an earlier discussion about implementing the Hero’s Journey in video games — the “Refusal of the Call” needs to be handled carefully, and MISSION UNKNOWN was an example of using that decision to define the stakes involved and reflect on the protagonist’s self-perception.

It would be interesting to see how this develops into a complete game. 

The prologue used familiar themes and recognizable conflicts to make its science fiction setting more relatable. It showed a narrator who whose workplace has gradually transformed into something alienating and uncomfortable. And then it abandoned all that for a voyage into the unknown.

IntroComp 2021: Resist

Resist! is a choice-based adventure from Damon Wakes that was entered into IntroComp 2021.

This entry uses a minimalist interface — you decide whether to tap a key before the timer runs out — like the one in Move On, the IFComp 2020 work from Serhii Mozhaiskyi. Although the mechanics are similar, Resist! uses a different tone to explore a separate genre.

Wakes is a skilled writer who starts this story with familiar scenes from zombie movies. This time, the player is part of the undead horde, and the narrator puts a different perspective on the violence and bloody mayhem that accompanies their rampage.

On the one hand, text effects and strong writing do a good job of conveying emotion and character. The design choice to use timed text fits with the theme of the game. The player gets carried along by the narrative and chooses when to actively oppose it.

On the other hand, it’s still timed text. Settings are available to control the speed, but there’s no option to disable it entirely.

This entry was polished, entertaining, and short. Although I’d like to see a longer version, I also think it would be challenging to maintain an engaging experience over the length of a full story, especially when all the decisions have to be steered with binary yes/no choices.

(For the record, “challenging” is not the same as “impossible,” and I think that Wakes is skilled enough to pull it off.)

Daddy's Birthday: ParserComp 2021

Daddy's Birthday is a text adventure from Jonathan that was entered into ParserComp 2021.

I chose to take this entry at face value: a sweet collaboration where an 8-year-old’s work of interactive fiction has been implemented by a skilled programmer.

Emily Short described this approach to game development as writing the through-line first, starting with an ideal walkthrough and then building out a larger experience from there. Daddy’s Birthday includes an extra feature that lets people read their original walkthrough to see what the writer had in mind.

It’s interesting to see the mainstays of interactive fiction interpreted by a younger author. While there are familiar mechanics at work, some design choices have gone in novel directions. (The house is laid out along diagonals, with most of the passages heading northwest and southeast.)

Some of the writing is understandably awkward — one description says “A few rooms go different directions, but you decide to go down the stairs” when a different phrase might have worked better — but that’s largely because the implementation remained faithful to the source material.

The complete project feels like a thoughtfully negotiated compromise. It’s an interactive experience that maintains the spirit of its original ideas, and I hope that the creators continue to build on those ideas to explore new frontiers in game design.

Foreign Soil: ParserComp 2021

Foreign Soil is a text adventure from Olaf Nowacki that was entered into ParserComp 2021.

This entry starts strong, with effective writing that clearly establishes the main character’s situation and how they feel about it. Narrative details provide hints about a backstory, and environmental threats offer a sense of danger.

A substantial part of the gameplay involves figuring out what to do next, which makes it tricky to discuss Foreign Soil in a way that doesn’t ruin the experience. I liked how the environment changed around me, creating new locations and updating descriptions as various objectives were completed.

I also appreciated how in-game deaths were handled — the setting is supposed to be harsh and unforgiving, so it needs to show appropriate consequences for risky decisions. The game struck a nice balance that encouraged experimentation while showing how dumb choices will get you killed.

Unfortunately, I got stuck in the middle of the story because I wasn’t willing to take enough risk. I knew where I was supposed to advance the story, but I was reluctant to try different commands that might move things along. After overcoming that hurdle, things flowed logically through the endgame.

Foreign Soil was fun, and my only complaint is that I wish it was a longer experience.