PyramidIF

ULTRAMARINE: A SEAPUNK ADVENTURE (Seven Submarines) - This appears to be the only full-on Ren'Py Visual Novel in Spring Thing. Seven individuals (submarines?) are credited and a lot of obvious work went into this presentation. The art skews more toward superhero comic than anime, and I got a very He-Man/She-Ra after school cartoon vibe from this. Sexy Mer-People! Look at the hair ! I like the visual design a lot but had to turn the music way down  - not because it was  bad , but because the music is performed with very synthetic instrument patches that I (personally) couldn't take much of. That could be easily fixed in software by remixing the tracks. The mer-hunks are described as "giants"...but nothing seems specifically out of proportion beyond a comic book or professional wrestling scale here... I'm a newcomer to VN, so I'm interested in how the presentation varies from text parser and choice IF. One thing about VN is that there's a lot of ...

  Really, If / Really Always, Dawn Sueoka ( The Orange Juice Public Library )  - A conversation with a simple AI based on Eliza, one of the earliest chatbots who could hold somewhat natural-seeming conversations by reframing the querent's input as another question in almost psychotherapy fashion. Since this is Twine, the player chooses from a list of responses which sometimes feel random. It seems procedurally generated, but there are only so many ways I can answer...I'm navigating a syntactical maze - am I interviewing it or... Am I still playing this? It's not long. It doesn't force itself on you, so don't be put off by the warnings if horror is not your thing - it's not exactly - but  Really, If / Really, Always got into my head in a way that most games don't. I know its still back there. It's trying to be quiet, but I can feel it.

Spring is here! Warm sun! Flowering trees! Green grass and--I just went out to move my car and there are snow flurries . I know other regions are getting actual piling snow still, so while it might not feel like a Spring Thing , a new crop of games is here! I often get wrapped up creating my own IF bidness and don't play new releases as much as I should, but since we can't really mow and plant yet, let's take shelter in the gazebo where a bumper crop of 20 entries  are festivalling. I don't guarantee I will be able to chip the frost off of all of these hopeful, budding shrubs, but here's a first foray into what will hopefully soon yield thriving IF greenery: Best Gopher Ever , Arthur DiBianca (Parser Inform/Z) - I had to resist adding an exclamation point at the end of this title. "Help the unfortunate residents of Fairview! (Who are all animals, by the way.)" This is billed as a light puzzle game for all ages and delivers on that. DiBianca has a knack...

Not like this game needs more praise piled on it, but I wrote up a short ramble worshipping Team Salvato and linking to my favorite playthroughs. I'm not syndicating this on Planet IF due to spoilers, but you can read it on my blog.

"Who could look at this title screen and not be like 'I'm having a good time already!'?" -- GG Danny It's not like the Literature Club needs more members, but I have been obsessed with this game despite the fact I never played it outright. I didn't initially think I was a VN/dating sim fan. It's not my thing , and I never would have made it through the three-hour slow build intrinsic to the plot. But I've watched dozens of playthroughs and partial playthroughs. As a huge fan of meta-horror and games that aren't what they seem on the surface this is my jam . Plus it's amazing to watch Let's Play-ers - especially grown men jaded by every other horror game  - have the absolute wonkers scared out of them during the uncanny-valley terror the game dishes out, and linger on edge when the game is cheekily playing "normal" and ramping up the paranoia of familiarity that was the whole gimmick of P.T. I almost believe DDLC might hav...

I write adult erotic IF on occasion, and I know not everyone is into that. That's why I'm not tagging this to syndicate to Planet IF. But if you have any interest, I have a preview version of a new game, Breeding Princesses of the Planet Lesbonicon available on itch.io submitted to the second of two LewdJam2017 jams that recently completed. First LewdJam 2017 Second LewdJam 2017 I had started this a couple years ago for the hilariously named "Space F****** Jam" but wasn't able to complete it with resources at hand. The game is an adult pulpy space sex comedy circa 1982, very tongue in cheek, very very weird, and very very lewd. Check it out if you're interested in erotica, are of legal age, and are not on a corporate work computer. The text is explicit, but there are no pornographic images or sound - although some of the ambient music is funky or smooth-jazz suggestive of what you might hear in a porn movie. There is also a link to a spoilery-y...

...fifteen hours... ...before EctoComp comes for you... As if there aren't enough new games with the overladen buffet of IFComp testing the table legs, the submissions for EctoComp 2017 are due in less than half a day.  You can play the games that are already submitted on itch.io, and voting will open after the deadline. Ectocomp is a festival of seasonal Halloween and horror entries that are out to scare you (or at least inspire some chills) including speed-IF entries created in three hours or less, as well as longer works.  There is usually a good range each year of both well-crafted brick and mortar haunted mansions oozing subtle gothic dread as well as tunnels of black plastic and 2x4s quick-slapped together with fake chainsaws and rubber masks; both can be a great time depending on your taste and mood for the holiday. La petite Mort  (English) Le Grand Guignol  (English) La Petite Mort  (Español) Le Grand Guignol  (Espa...