IFComp 2007: Fox, Fowl and Feed   1 comment

Review down below.

As a new employee, you received the only uniform anyone could find on short notice: a bright orange jumpsuit left over from the days of a previous branding campaign. It has the company logo embroidered on the front pocket and the words “ORANGE YOU GLAD YOU USED SPEEDY?” printed in large letters across the back. Wearing it, you feel less like a delivery person than a convict with corporate sponsorship.

In the first IF competition there was The Magic Toyshop. It included a number of classic puzzles: some were done “straight”, and some which required the player to cheat; when an closed-system puzzle is put in a simulated world, it is possible to bend the rules.

Fox, Fowl and Feed is the same thing, except instead of the player cheating, the *game* cheats.

I have the impression from the text the author expected everyone to know how to solve the classic version of this; the structure is merely a frame to put the real puzzles. With the exception of the fox (needs more textual clues!) these puzzles are original and reasonable. I do know some people have an allergy to classic puzzles in IF, but since the classic puzzle isn’t a puzzle at all (not quite a natural action, but close) I can recommend this game without reservations.

Posted November 2, 2007 by Jason Dyer in Interactive Fiction

One response to “IFComp 2007: Fox, Fowl and Feed

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  1. Author here. Your impression is correct: I fully expected anyone playing this game in the comp to know the original puzzle. This is not something I would give to a young child who had never heard the puzzle before; it wouldn’t be fair. But I thought the approach would work within the framework of the comp. A kind of in-joke, but on a slightly larger scale, I suppose.

    I also fully expected there would be some grumbling of the “oh no, not this puzzle again” sort, and I wasn’t wrong. I’m glad you and at least some others appreciated what I was trying to do. (Though I do wish I had swatted a few more bugs before entry; I have a feeling I lost some support due to a less-than-solid implementation.)

    -Chris C.

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