IF Comp 2009: Beta Tester

Beta test of posting in the new format? Well, also a game I played!  By the way if you too want to experience the IF Comp games the place to download them is this page right here, or, you can play on-line. That’s what I did for this one, having been on my lunch break a couple days ago at the time.  Some of these reviews are just ‘catchup’ because I wasn’t actually posting my impressions on these until now.

Spoiler space is as great a time as any to mention that I don’t have any particular rules about whether I’m playing games that are pretested or not. Apparently I’m actually the Beta Tester for this game?

This game has fairly clever text and I was pleased by it at first for that reason.  It drops me in a puzzle room and gives me a puzzle to solve about ringing a bell. Not too hard to figure out and seemed to be implemented okay.

Cute response for ‘xyzzy’, which a lot of people tend to try.

After solving the hamster puzzle, I move in to what I guess is the free-roaming portion of the game.  It sets me free to solve various puzzles in the environment if I feel like it, and want to, I guess. There’s not really a specific goal here but I can figure out that I probably want to get drinks and food.

This is the part where the game doesn’t seem as well-constructed all the sudden and I wonder if I’m experiencing bugs, or if the bugs are designed to be “charming” parts of the half-broken logic of the game world itself.  The ‘Fun N Games Room’ has a lot of stuff that seems broken.  Is it really broken or “charmingly” broken?

This is a relatively small room but it is very well-decorated with nicely carved wooden cabinets and tables.

>x cabinets
You can’t see any such thing.

Talking to Hellaine, or trying to, also nets really confusing responses.  The game calls me “illegal object number.”  Wait, is that a fake bug or a real bug?

I figured out how to get in to the theater and spawn the comedian.  I didn’t figure out how to get to the walkthrough without consulting another review, since it’s not obvious.

I think I might like this game if it weren’t broken! But it is broken, I think. Or maybe not. I can’t tell so I’m giving up.


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2 responses to “IF Comp 2009: Beta Tester”

  1. Matt Weiner Avatar

    For what it’s worth, the “Illegal object number” thing seems to be an issue with Parchment. I forget how I determined that, exactly, except that I got it playing a couple of games in Parchment and people who weren’t playing in Parchment didn’t seem to get it. Were you playing in Parchment? If not, I have to change my hypothesis, and apologize to the Parchment guy for my bug report.

  2. Amanda Lange Avatar

    Yeah, I had no idea that was a Parchment bug. I mentioned at the top of my review that I played this one on-line. Odd. I still think the NPC was… at least not doing everything that she probably should.

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