Some house that was

Title: The House
Author: “vdweller” (Emilios Manolidis)
Release Date: May 2007
License: Freeware; click here to download
Author’s Site: Vdweller’s website

[SPOILER ALERT: This article contains some spoilers.]

I came to this game primarily after browsing through Gnome’s Lair (where it was featured) looking for any new games I could sample on. Since The House was entirely homebrewed (having been made entirely from Visual Basic), I decided to give it a whirl and see what it could offer.

The House is a very short 2D adventure game where the player is cast as a stranger inside a mysterious abode, with no recollection as to how he got there or how to get out. There is very little information about who the player is in the game, as well as how the House is related to you. All the background “story,” as it were, was contained in a few dialog boxes at the start, and nothing else in the game that provided more clues for this.

First things first - the music was awesome. It’s nothing ground-breaking, really, but when you’re playing the game by yourself at 2 am on a Monday morning, it grows on you. I had to turn the speakers off while I was halfway through to help me concentrate on the damned puzzle at hand. Of course, that could just be me Same goes for the graphics. Simple but well-done, the warm colors especially add to the sense of haunting atmosphere the music is trying to create.

The House employs a Myst-like interface when dealing with objects. Gameplay was smooth as the game responded promptly to my actions, and the hotspots are clearly defined. Since the game is very short, the author had decided to leave out the Save/Load Game features, so be warned.

[OFF-TOPIC: All the game's resources (music, sounds, images, etc.) are kept in separate folders in their native format. A smart player can modify the contents of these folders and ruin the game. I would have preferred it if the author bundled all of these in one or two separate resource files so no one can modify them. That's essentially what an adventure game design engine does.]

What irked me at the end was the “win” screen. It tells the player that he/she was able to get out of the house, and that it took her only so-and-so minutes. This kind of congratulatory text totally breaks mimesis, since it clearly tells the player that he/she has just solved a huge puzzle. The game doesn’t even bother keeping with the plot, no matter how thin it was.

If you’re looking for a short puzzle game with “haunted house” elements, The House is perfect for you. Unless you’re looking for something more deeply involving, which The House is not.

Grolly!

Title: Trilby: The Art of Theft
Author: Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw
Release Date: November 2007
License: Freeware; click here to download
Author’s Site: Fully Ramblomatic

Here’s another testament game to AGS’s versatility as a game design engine: Ben Croshaw’s Trilby: The Art of Theft, another mission-based platformer based on an improved version of the engine Croshaw used for his other more sinister platform game, 1213. According to the author himself, the game is set 2 years before the events in 5 Days A Stranger, which makes TAoT unrelated to the Chzo mythos games. The Art of Theft features excellent artwork and animations from Croshaw, plus some subtly humorous and exciting music from Mark Lovegrove.

The Art of Theft aims to show more of Trilby as a master burglar, and Croshaw has made it a point to produce more of a game this time, compared to the 1213 series which had a lot more backstory. Set in fictional Chapow City, the eccentric Trilby tries to rob the rich Dominic Perota, which unknowingly was part of a plan by a secret group called the Company. The Company wishes to make use of Trilby’s talents, and they do everything to make him do so, with any means necessary. Each act of robbery in the game - whether you steal items, break safes, and turn off alarms and lights - lets the player earn not only money but also what the author calls “reputation points.” These points allow the player to upgrade his skills as a thief by letting him “purchase” whch abilities he wants to further learn.

Though I have only played about 4 levels, I’ve found this game a lot easier to play with compared to its ancestor 1213. The gameplay is much smoother, and there’s a lot more gadgets and objects to play with. There are less restrictions with movement as well - I don’t have to deal with Trilby complaining about his ankles after jumping from tall places, nor do I have to frantically look for a shower just to nurse myself back to health. In TAoT, if you fail the mission, you don’t have to die - you just got caught, that’s all, and you restart the mission.

However, in keeping with Trilby being a gentleman thief, other “restrictions” have been put in place as part of his “personal standards.” Depending on the mission, only a limited number of guards can be immobilized with a taser, and only a number of alarms can be ticked off. There are several ways these can be avoided, though sometimes there are cases where there’s no other choice. Which is fine, in my opinion, since not only does it add more challenge to the game, it forces the player to think and to observe more.

The only thing I dislike in the game is the fact that rolling is something I have to spend reputation points on. I understand Trilby is a master thief, and a gentleman thief at that. That should not mean he doesn’t know by heart how to roll his body on the floor especially when needed. He can’t even run, for chrissakes; he can only creep. This is a problem especially for players with less deft fingers (yeah, that includes me). Rolling should really have been inherent in Trilby, not another skill to learn.

Another complaint I’ve heard from a sibling of mine (whom I’ve introduced the game) about this game are the controls. He complains that game should allow him to set whatever keys he would like to use for the game, instead of getting used to just what was originally set, since some of them are pretty counter-intuitive. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

All in all, I haven’t been able to do work since I started my Thanksgiving vacation because of this game. I recommend The Art of Theft for anyone looking to spend some time with a stealth platformer, or even just a simple distraction. You can’t go wrong on this one.

IF Comp 2007

The competition has finally finished, and the winner is Admiral Jota’s “Lost Pig” (see the full result here). Though I registered as a voter last month, I regretfully was not able to play and vote on at least 10 of the games because of busy schedules. I was able to set some of the games as something I would not vote on (with the NR rating), but nonetheless, I was not able to play at all.

Hopefully, since my schedule has loosened up a bit, I should be able to post a review for each of the games entered in the annual competition, including the ones disqualified. Here’s my comments on a couple of games to start with.