ABANDONED: Skies Above
Oct. 24th, 2019 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoIFComp continues.
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:36]
" Your plan for a peaceful day out comes to a halt when you see a person selling cats on the pavement. The cats look sick and require immediate veterinarian help! It’s all legal, but it’s also wrong. You must find a way to save the cats.
The game offers three characters to choose from and a total set of 10 endings.
Content warning: Implied animal abuse (nothing explicit); environmental damage
15 minutes or less • Choice-based • Web-based "
JESUS. No.
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:40]
" Springtime, 1993. Prom night. A lonely road on the way to the big dance. This should be a magical evening, but your date suddenly seems distant and withdrawn. Is it something you said? Or perhaps something more sinister is going on...
Horror • An hour and a half • Parser-based • Glulx (See guide) "
Looking at the banner, this is very obviously a werewolf story. Looking at the "Horror" tag, this is probably not played for "anyway your boyfriend is fuzzy now and that's hot." She should not click the IF game, run away run away run away, full moon is on the sky and we've other games we should play
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:41]
" Years ago, orphan Henry Smyth was saved off the streets when he was adopted by Katherine Kellner - only to run away a few years later. Now, he’s finally made a decent life for himself. His world is turned upside down when he finds out that Kellner has been arrested on the charge of being a pedophile. This knowledge brings impulsive decisions and repressed memories along with it.
Play as Henry as he struggles to make sense of his past and come to terms with it. Your decisions throughout the story affect Henry’s confidence and morality – choose wisely.
Content warning: This game is intended for mature audiences only. Contains: strong language, violence, mention of child abuse and suicide.
Drama • Half an hour • Choice-based • Web-based "
See if you can spot the exact word where I noped out of this one.
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:43]
" Play minigames to get your airship flying, tour the skies, and see what mischief is going on up there.
Parser-based • Glulx (See guide) "
There we go. Yes good we'll take it.
And so, IFComp 2019 pick number four is "Skies Above" by Arthur DiBianca. It's the first-ever IFComp game I wrote off without actually finishing it, yet it still somehow managed to be my favorite one of this year so far.
As the copy suggests, "Skies Above" is about performing IF text-based minigames to get your airship flying. By this, what it means is that this game is a blatant and direct grind-fest. Your two currencies in this game are Larks (the actual currency with which you buy things) and Floatrons (used purely to gate off sections of the game.) You have access to a small handful of locations, some of which have a person to talk to, others give you the option to WORK a shift of whatever minigame they offer to raise either Larks or Floatrons, depending. A small store sells packs of Floatrons, items that increase the efficiency of your work output, or a few trade items (a chocolate bar that an NPC in the local park is asking for, for example.) Redeeming these almost invariably leads to a Floatron bonus.
The setup is basic: Work, sleep to reset the "one shift per location per day" limits, repeat. Once you have enough Floatrons, the ship can now access the next tier of locations, which offer more minigames with more ways to earn more Larks and Floatrons, the latter of which can eventually unlock the next tier of locations, and so on. The world is streamlined to the point of occasionally feeling bare-bones, with oddities such as every major location containing exactly one (1) NPC to talk to. This is because the player will quickly figure out the quickest way to hit their favorite minigames every day, and any clutter getting in the way of their path would likely prove frustrating.
All in all, I'm making this game sound a lot worse than it is. Yes, it's a game purely about grinding to watch currency levels go up. You raise Floatrons to unlock more ways to raise Floatrons to unlock more ways to raise Floatrons to etc. But there's something... peaceful? about its progression. Some of the minigames I enjoyed more than others but my favorites were definitely engaging, I was never left without feeling like I had a goal to work toward, and... I don't know. Progressing is fun. It was nice. I enjoyed it.
However, a very unfortunate crash later on (like around when I was at 11K or so and working toward the 70K goal) wiped out a ton of my progress, and it would not have been possible even to get back to where I was, let alone complete the game in IFComp's very strict no-nonsense two hour window. It's unfortunate... though unless there's some dramatic twist toward the end, something tells me I've at least played enough to assume it's more or less like this all the way up.
Still, this was a fun little diversion. I enjoyed it while it lasted.
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:36]
" Your plan for a peaceful day out comes to a halt when you see a person selling cats on the pavement. The cats look sick and require immediate veterinarian help! It’s all legal, but it’s also wrong. You must find a way to save the cats.
The game offers three characters to choose from and a total set of 10 endings.
Content warning: Implied animal abuse (nothing explicit); environmental damage
15 minutes or less • Choice-based • Web-based "
JESUS. No.
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:40]
" Springtime, 1993. Prom night. A lonely road on the way to the big dance. This should be a magical evening, but your date suddenly seems distant and withdrawn. Is it something you said? Or perhaps something more sinister is going on...
Horror • An hour and a half • Parser-based • Glulx (See guide) "
Looking at the banner, this is very obviously a werewolf story. Looking at the "Horror" tag, this is probably not played for "anyway your boyfriend is fuzzy now and that's hot." She should not click the IF game, run away run away run away, full moon is on the sky and we've other games we should play
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:41]
" Years ago, orphan Henry Smyth was saved off the streets when he was adopted by Katherine Kellner - only to run away a few years later. Now, he’s finally made a decent life for himself. His world is turned upside down when he finds out that Kellner has been arrested on the charge of being a pedophile. This knowledge brings impulsive decisions and repressed memories along with it.
Play as Henry as he struggles to make sense of his past and come to terms with it. Your decisions throughout the story affect Henry’s confidence and morality – choose wisely.
Content warning: This game is intended for mature audiences only. Contains: strong language, violence, mention of child abuse and suicide.
Drama • Half an hour • Choice-based • Web-based "
See if you can spot the exact word where I noped out of this one.
Celine & Sara Kalante, [21.10.19 22:43]
" Play minigames to get your airship flying, tour the skies, and see what mischief is going on up there.
Parser-based • Glulx (See guide) "
There we go. Yes good we'll take it.
And so, IFComp 2019 pick number four is "Skies Above" by Arthur DiBianca. It's the first-ever IFComp game I wrote off without actually finishing it, yet it still somehow managed to be my favorite one of this year so far.
As the copy suggests, "Skies Above" is about performing IF text-based minigames to get your airship flying. By this, what it means is that this game is a blatant and direct grind-fest. Your two currencies in this game are Larks (the actual currency with which you buy things) and Floatrons (used purely to gate off sections of the game.) You have access to a small handful of locations, some of which have a person to talk to, others give you the option to WORK a shift of whatever minigame they offer to raise either Larks or Floatrons, depending. A small store sells packs of Floatrons, items that increase the efficiency of your work output, or a few trade items (a chocolate bar that an NPC in the local park is asking for, for example.) Redeeming these almost invariably leads to a Floatron bonus.
The setup is basic: Work, sleep to reset the "one shift per location per day" limits, repeat. Once you have enough Floatrons, the ship can now access the next tier of locations, which offer more minigames with more ways to earn more Larks and Floatrons, the latter of which can eventually unlock the next tier of locations, and so on. The world is streamlined to the point of occasionally feeling bare-bones, with oddities such as every major location containing exactly one (1) NPC to talk to. This is because the player will quickly figure out the quickest way to hit their favorite minigames every day, and any clutter getting in the way of their path would likely prove frustrating.
All in all, I'm making this game sound a lot worse than it is. Yes, it's a game purely about grinding to watch currency levels go up. You raise Floatrons to unlock more ways to raise Floatrons to unlock more ways to raise Floatrons to etc. But there's something... peaceful? about its progression. Some of the minigames I enjoyed more than others but my favorites were definitely engaging, I was never left without feeling like I had a goal to work toward, and... I don't know. Progressing is fun. It was nice. I enjoyed it.
However, a very unfortunate crash later on (like around when I was at 11K or so and working toward the 70K goal) wiped out a ton of my progress, and it would not have been possible even to get back to where I was, let alone complete the game in IFComp's very strict no-nonsense two hour window. It's unfortunate... though unless there's some dramatic twist toward the end, something tells me I've at least played enough to assume it's more or less like this all the way up.
Still, this was a fun little diversion. I enjoyed it while it lasted.