If it’s not known to you yet, voting in Introcomp 2011 has just begun. Basically, Introcomp is a competition dedicated to writing the beginnings to a piece of interactive fiction.
Here’s the link to the Introcomp site: http://allthingsjacq.com/introcomp/
This year, 5 out of the 13 entries are made with Choicescript and I’m curious to hear your opinions on them!
I would if I could play them.
I am confused.
Er…guys? All you have to do is launch the index file located in the folders for the Choice games.
As for the actual lineup
Petal Throne- Awesome setting, great buildup, and while most of the nouns were utterly unpronounceable, this was probably the one I’m most excited for in the future, if only because the decisions seemed to affect you as yourself rather than the world around you. More intimate if you will. Also stopping just shy of the actual battle was maddening…and brilliant.
Gargoyle- Halfway between a tribute for our favorite Disney afternoon cartoon, and halfway a sort of spiritual successor to Dragon, I was really interested in where this was going. The choices given result in immediate action, the story’s got a good draw to it, the only caveat? SHORT. Still you know Introcomp and all. Sold on this one pretty heavily though.
Zombies- I liked the kind of sarcastic vibe, the characters were decently written, if a little cliche at times (That of course being the POINT) but outside of the whole ‘Run away’ aspect, it didn’t end on the most nail-biting cliffhanger, not necessarily the greatest thing for a sneak peek. Still, interested to see how the rest of it will pan out.
Exile- Very very dreamy in both the tone and aesthetics. For some reason that little decision not to bold the choices sort of helped with the whole ‘muddled headfog’ thing the author was going for. Kind of amusing, sort of interesting, but the main character seems a little too…meh. There’s not enough opportunity for the player to develop him properly and really Necro is the star of the show here.
Pots and Mushrooms- Not my style of humor, not my style of reading. Clumped together like rice and just served to put me off. Parodies are fine as long as they don’t overstay their welcome, I thought this did.
Get a hold of 7zip, download the file at the site, and extract it into a separate folder. The five entries you’re interested in are Exile, Choice of the Petal Throne, Pots and Mushrooms, Gargoyle and Choice of Zombies.
Choose the folder for the game you want and open up index.html with Firefox.
Follow the link given. Find the line that says and click the download link:
“The introductions are now available and can be found here in a single zipped file:
http://www.allthingsjacq.com/IntroComp11”
Once the files are extracted, open up any one of the choicescript games’ index.html files and… done!
You can also check the txt file telling you how to play the CoG games in each folder. They give you websites if your like me and are to lazy to even unpack the games. 
Exile can also be played here: http://exile.unimatrix42.com and Gargoyle here: http://gargoyle.unimatrix42.com
got them all book marked will try and get round to playing sometime this week.
Pots and Mushrooms is a total mess to me. It is confusing in the bad way, and the humor seems more suitable for a game based on Internet culture. (And being “Chinese”, I cannot feel any Chinese vibes out of it.)
Gargoyle - Loved it, but I disliked the rather uneven stats gain from the character building. The early freedom is great though.
Zombies - It is more humorous compared to Zombie Exodus, and a lot of stats are hidden. Less action, more social interaction, and slightly less reliance on stats.
Petal Throne - It is a lovely buildup. All these nouns and names are kinda confusing to new players though.
Exile - Not my type of game.
Pots and Mushrooms - Didn’t really enjoy it.
Gargoyle - The most glaring problem is the fact that all the ‘good’ options were left undone! Even as an intro, it should be a complete intro. What I’ve read so far is decent, but the fact that the protagonist is forced to turn on the magus takes away from that.
Zombies - Humorous and giggle-inducing. The characters are interesting and the way the amount of options available for an introduction is great!
Petal Throne - In my opinion, this one is the best amongst the choicescript games in the competition. The storyline seems well thought out and the premise is strong. The only issue I have with the game are the names that serve to confuse instead of adding to the story, but that’s not really the author’s fault since the game’s based on another author’s world.
Exile - The story felt… pointless? I’m not sure what I was doing or why I was doing it, though some of it was pretty decent. If it had a stronger sense of purpose, the story would be a lot more engaging.
Can I have a link to zombies and Petal Throne?
Links to the CoG games in IntroComp11:
Exile: http://exile.unimatrix42.com/mygame/
Gargoyle: http://gargoyle.unimatrix42.com/mygame/
Pots and Mushrooms: http://risingdecline.webs.com/Samurai/mygame/index.html
Petal Throne: http://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/petal-throne/
Zombies: http://www.choiceofgames.com/zombies/
Thanks and the games are going to end up on GoG I presume?
Exile: It feels… linear. There is no real interaction, and it probably wouldn’t feel any different if all the choices were removed. Plus, the ‘oh, you have amnesia’ feels a bit like a cop out. Add on the lack of any character sheet giving you even a semblance of control over the story, and it feels like the beginning of a badly retold ‘Planescape: Torment’ fanfic so far. On the other hand, this one looks extremely early in development, and could easily get a lot better, a lot quicker.
Gargoyle: I can’t say a lot on this one, because I’m unsure about it. When I first noticed the sharp contract between the ‘dark’ and ‘light’ paths, particularly the light path with is closed off (helping the castle), I wondered how divergent the paths will be. If they spread as sharply as they look like they will, I probably won’t be able to heap enough praise on the depth of the game, but the full story remains to be seen. Considering the quality of the game though, I’ll probably love it either way.
Pots and Mushrooms: “You’re a Chinese samurai imprisoned in Japan.” When I read that, I literally facepalmed. Basically, you’re a Chinese guy in Japan, except, you know, no one can realize, 'cause white people can’t tell Asians apart. Also, you know the city, no wait, you don’t know the city. Also you have a history, ah, nevermind it’s only there to choose your stats. Finally, you have a sh*tty vampire style European name. Also, if you’re a good fighter, you have to be stupid, and if you are stoic, you can’t be a good leader. I really wasn’t able to read the last bits of this, as it go so horrible. Sadly, the writing itself is pretty okay, far too modern to give a feel of any ancient Asian country, put okay none the less. While other people are mentioning ‘humor’ I can’t really find any (and I’m not trying to be funny either, I just didn’t notice more than one or two throwaway lines they even looked like they were trying to be funny).
Petal Throne: I like this game, but feel like there are just some problems. I dislike the setting (yes, I know it is someone else’s setting, but the author of the game is choosing to write within its confines), including the overly difficult nouns and, well, the setting in general (including things I have read which have yet to show up within the game). On the other hand, that was really my only complaint. The writing is good, and the choices feel like they are actually kind of important.
Zombies: This one I love. It’s tongue in cheek sort of humor, with choices that really do make a difference, and it doesn’t even appear the the game is really yet to start. I just hope that it lives up to its potential.
tl;dr
Exile: Feel linear, hope it gets better, and seriously, no stat sheet?
Gargoyle: Feels like it’s going to be epic. Hope it lives up to that.
PaM: Facepalmed repeatedly, and couldn’t even force myself to read to the end.
Petal Throne: Dislike the setting, but like everything else.
Zombies: Funny and well written. Hope it continues to be.
Oh, and @Nack look at the addresses for Petal Throne and Zombies. Somebody isn’t releasing everything quite yet.
Alrighty then
Exile: I thought this felt too much like Planescape: Torment remix. Usually that would be a GOOD thing, since I love that game, but it felt way too much like ‘borrowing’ from the same plot devices and characters and lore. Planes, demon summonings/real name usage, ghostly beautiful woman that was a past love, skull that is snarky and your deviant best friend and calls you ‘master,’ instead of creepy shades it is a hound that is hunting you, the protagonist has amnesia, and so forth.
Perhaps once the game is fleshed out, story and choices expanded upon, and sundry, it will be interesting to those that haven’t played Planescape: Torment. But as is… with the set male protagonist, lady of the lake romance drama, et all, I am just not interested or feeling it. (And admittedly, a good part of that, too, is that I do not care too much for choice-games that do not allow for protagonist customization. There’s a dime a dozen for stories, games, and media with hetero male POVs.)
Gargoyle: (I am assuming Simon is the same Simon that wrote Exile.) Unlike the Exile attempt, I found Gargoyle to be much more interesting and entertaining! Granted, it was only a sneak peek at the game’s potential – but it was a great peek, imo. I had control over my character; the ability to customize him/her/neither nor; to be a mage or a warrior, each with their own sub-branches of various types of magic and combat to learn; and the capacity to choose my own romance potential (and sexuality), or so the game implied when choosing the ‘peek’ flirt option with Wolf, and I am assuming the Duke’s daughter is going to be fleshed out to be an option as well.
The choices felt like they mattered and had an impact not only on my character’s life, but in the actual story and outcome of situations. I liked that very much. This one makes me really look forward to seeing it when it is finished.
Pots and Mushrooms: The writing was decent, but the story and the plotline and the set-up of being a “Chinese samurai imprisoned in Japan” really made me cringe. Yes, I read the warning that the game has historical and georgraphic inaccuracies (or so I read it as meaning it is pure creative fantasy than realistic of any sort), but, being asian, I still can’t help shake my head at it all.
Anyway, aside from that, I didn’t feel like my choices were mattering too much. I did like that I had dialogue options in which to converse with NPCs, but altogether none of them were really memorable or interesting (just over the top plot devices). I was also very confused whether the protagonist was a set protagonist or not. When the time came to choose a name, ‘Amber’ popped up in my list of name choices. I imagine it could be a male name, but it confused me since there are references elsewhere in the game about being a ‘father’ and having a family. In the end, it wasn’t my cup of tea.
Petal Throne: I thought it was well done for what it was. I enjoyed the customization of the protagonist, and how your choices seemed to matter when dealing with Wave, and your general disposition and use of your skills in situations. I also enjoyed the intimacy that seemed to build between your character and the world they were in, seemingly that what you chose to do resulted in a worthwhile roleplay scene for a few ‘pages.’ It is written quite well. Never too overly verbose or scant, giving details of the environment and the character(s) just enough for my imagination to stir.
I also liked that Wave and the protagonist, whether straight or same-sex, had a very fulfilling love-life together. It isn’t like in most games where you get the boy (or girl), romance, have sex, and boom, the story’s over. The two of them were quite engaged in each other (at least, they were in one playthrough of mine, anyway) and it was sweet.
The only negative reserve I have, and perhaps it is a big one, is the setting in which the story takes place. I know it isn’t the author’s own world creation, but that of an established world made by someone else. However, while some cultural things are interesting in the setting/society/norms, there are others that seem still too generic and expected. Like, the goddess of Fleshy Pleasure and demons. Women are sexy evil trope. Women are sub-citizens, not equal in the eyes of society (can’t hold property, etc), unless they give up their ‘natural role’ and become warriors and thus be seen as men. In my fantasy and games, I’m really for escapism rather than reminders of minority statuses that really are part of our real world reality, and stereotypical tropes ascribed to women. Things like that knock me out of my interest in a game.
Still, given the choices and customization of the protagonist and the writing, I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Zombies: I thought it was great fun in the zombie genre! Kind of like a popcorn movie, in choices style. I thought all the characters had very good characterization and distinct personalities. I also liked that these personalities came into conflict with each other, and spur decisions that can roll into further questlines/subquests in the overall main plotline (i.e. rescuing one survivor can open a questline path to getting another survivor). Plus, it is downright awesome to have someone like Bonnie in a game. It is extremely rare in games and movies and media in general to see an older woman in the role of a hardcore survivalist and all around general badarse. Usually, and especially in zombie movies and games, there are the young attractive ladies that are only damsels in distress or competent ladies that run around in tight clothing and still need protecting and so forth. So it’s very welcome.
I look forward to this one when it’s finished, too.