The Lady and the Tower Game Chef Review
Apr. 23rd, 2012 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
p_h_leeSo I've decided to do some gamechef reviewing. As I didn't not actually submit my game (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=32954.0) I have instead simply generated random numbers to pick amongst the games available in English. The numbers I generated were 33, 34, 55, and 61.
To start we will do 34 because it's short and written by a friend of mine. Hey +Joel Shempert I'm reviewing your game.
The game starts off with some poetry, which is fine, and then a really unfortunate paen to rule zero (the old-fashioned rule zero where you get to make up new rules whenever you want.) Given that most of the rest of the rules of the game are about what rules to change, what rules not to change, and how to make those decisions, it is particularly galling to have this in front of the text.
This is absolutely the worst decision of the game. You do not need to worry about the adaptability: you have provided in the rest of your rules excellent adaptation guidelines. Pre-obviating them before you even start is just a slap in the face of not only the players, but of your good design work in providing a robust, adaptable game which is deeply personal for both you, the designer, and also for the players.
The rest of the game is good. It's clearly in the "instructional art" category of game design, which makes it somewhat hard to review. A lot of this category is more about the text than the play, although in this case the game does seem legitimately playable. In terms of construction, I think it seems pretty much sound. I worry about the pressures of having to speak for natural phenomena... I feel like, with myself in that place, I would have a hard time not being clever or interesting. Perhaps if there was more framing around the actual play (the text is framed quite well, but play is pretty non-framed other than the flashlight bit) it would help with both the self-consciousness and the ability to speak for unconscious forces.
I feel that the game might benefit from a more cut-and-dried presentation. It's a bit rambly at the moment: for instance how to decide what to address, in play, is kinda meandry and, ironically, I would really appreciate a bullet point style presentation.
I'm not sure I would be able to play the game, because I would get self-conscious about addressing the world that openly, but before my next move I will definitely give it a try. Please do release a version with the game-chef-cruft cut out ... I'd rather not have to track down a lantern, for instance.
In all, I'm interested to see what you do with this. I hope that it's nature as an instructional game and the shortness of the text don't make you see this as a "fire and forget" affair: I think it could really benefit from some rules revision, testing, and a hard look at how the text is structured.
To start we will do 34 because it's short and written by a friend of mine. Hey +Joel Shempert I'm reviewing your game.
The game starts off with some poetry, which is fine, and then a really unfortunate paen to rule zero (the old-fashioned rule zero where you get to make up new rules whenever you want.) Given that most of the rest of the rules of the game are about what rules to change, what rules not to change, and how to make those decisions, it is particularly galling to have this in front of the text.
This is absolutely the worst decision of the game. You do not need to worry about the adaptability: you have provided in the rest of your rules excellent adaptation guidelines. Pre-obviating them before you even start is just a slap in the face of not only the players, but of your good design work in providing a robust, adaptable game which is deeply personal for both you, the designer, and also for the players.
The rest of the game is good. It's clearly in the "instructional art" category of game design, which makes it somewhat hard to review. A lot of this category is more about the text than the play, although in this case the game does seem legitimately playable. In terms of construction, I think it seems pretty much sound. I worry about the pressures of having to speak for natural phenomena... I feel like, with myself in that place, I would have a hard time not being clever or interesting. Perhaps if there was more framing around the actual play (the text is framed quite well, but play is pretty non-framed other than the flashlight bit) it would help with both the self-consciousness and the ability to speak for unconscious forces.
I feel that the game might benefit from a more cut-and-dried presentation. It's a bit rambly at the moment: for instance how to decide what to address, in play, is kinda meandry and, ironically, I would really appreciate a bullet point style presentation.
I'm not sure I would be able to play the game, because I would get self-conscious about addressing the world that openly, but before my next move I will definitely give it a try. Please do release a version with the game-chef-cruft cut out ... I'd rather not have to track down a lantern, for instance.
In all, I'm interested to see what you do with this. I hope that it's nature as an instructional game and the shortness of the text don't make you see this as a "fire and forget" affair: I think it could really benefit from some rules revision, testing, and a hard look at how the text is structured.
