[IFComp2013] Coloratura
Coloratura, by Lynnea Glasser, is a parser-based game. You can play it online here or download it from the Comp website. I played it offline, using the file I downloaded at the start of the comp. (I see from the changelog that the author fixed a runtime error on Oct. 6, but I don't think I encountered that error in playing anyway.)
In Coloratura, the player is an ancient, watery creature with the ability to sense and control emotions telepathically. It has been forcibly taken from its proper place and must interact with its captors and their vessel to return home.
One of the things I admired most about the game was how Glasser created the experience of being a very alien creature. The setting turns out to be a fairly familiar one to human players, but as it is not familiar to the creature, rooms and objects are described through a lens of strangeness. As the creature learns more about its surroundings through the minds of the people in it, the descriptions and room names start to use standard terms - for example, the "Secretion Room" becomes renamed the "Lavatory." These revelations were gradual, not sudden, so felt realistic to me. I wish I had not opened the map that came with the game before starting to play it, so I could have been as truly unaware of nature of my surroundings as the character was.
The other highly effective aspect to the experience of being the creature was the tension in its predicament. I sympathized strongly with the character and its quest to get home, but simultaneously was horrified by it and the consequences of its actions. The game dropped me right into that - I actually thought that my first action was[Spoiler (click to open)]killing a lot of people, though it turned out later that I had simply made them fall asleep. I wrestled with the ethics of my choices, and felt the creature's frustration at being so unable to communicate with its captors to resolve the situation peaceably.
The creature was unable to manipulate objects much, which meant that this game had no inventory to manage. Instead, it affected the world by manipulating state. Sometimes it used its body (these puzzles were nicely scaffolded, I found, helping me figure out what to do while still letting me feel clever for figuring it out), while other times it manipulated people's emotions as colors. I had to keep referring to the list of color-emotion pairings, which pulled me out of the character just a little, but overall I liked this mechanic.
There's little I have to criticize about this game. The writing was immersive, the code was virtually bug-free, and the hint system was well-structured. After settling on my score for the game, I read the author's design thoughts on her blog. These confirmed my suspicions of how much research and care went into the creation of the game.
The one part I felt could use some improving was at almost the very end, when[Spoiler (click to open)]the PC and the Mercy are in the sub and the Captain is attacking. The uses of the sub's controls were not apparent to me, though I should have had the Mercy's knowledge to help me understand them. I lost and had to UNDO many times during that sequence. Adding to my troubles was the fact that examining things took time when time was limited.
That's a fairly minor complaint, however, compared with the rest of the game. This was a great experience. It's discovering games like this that gets me impatient for the Comp every September, and why I keep coming back.
Oh, and the title? Fantastic.
A side note: I cannot be 100% sure that I finished the game in under two hours. I had a tiring week and kept trying to play when I was exhausted, only to suddenly start back into consciousness and realize I'd been dozing with my hands on the keyboard. I restarted the game once because I couldn't remember much about what I'd played while half-asleep. I do not mean this as a reflection on the game at all - I just need to learn that if I'm already sleepy, perhaps I should just go to bed!
In Coloratura, the player is an ancient, watery creature with the ability to sense and control emotions telepathically. It has been forcibly taken from its proper place and must interact with its captors and their vessel to return home.
One of the things I admired most about the game was how Glasser created the experience of being a very alien creature. The setting turns out to be a fairly familiar one to human players, but as it is not familiar to the creature, rooms and objects are described through a lens of strangeness. As the creature learns more about its surroundings through the minds of the people in it, the descriptions and room names start to use standard terms - for example, the "Secretion Room" becomes renamed the "Lavatory." These revelations were gradual, not sudden, so felt realistic to me. I wish I had not opened the map that came with the game before starting to play it, so I could have been as truly unaware of nature of my surroundings as the character was.
The other highly effective aspect to the experience of being the creature was the tension in its predicament. I sympathized strongly with the character and its quest to get home, but simultaneously was horrified by it and the consequences of its actions. The game dropped me right into that - I actually thought that my first action was[Spoiler (click to open)]killing a lot of people, though it turned out later that I had simply made them fall asleep. I wrestled with the ethics of my choices, and felt the creature's frustration at being so unable to communicate with its captors to resolve the situation peaceably.
The creature was unable to manipulate objects much, which meant that this game had no inventory to manage. Instead, it affected the world by manipulating state. Sometimes it used its body (these puzzles were nicely scaffolded, I found, helping me figure out what to do while still letting me feel clever for figuring it out), while other times it manipulated people's emotions as colors. I had to keep referring to the list of color-emotion pairings, which pulled me out of the character just a little, but overall I liked this mechanic.
There's little I have to criticize about this game. The writing was immersive, the code was virtually bug-free, and the hint system was well-structured. After settling on my score for the game, I read the author's design thoughts on her blog. These confirmed my suspicions of how much research and care went into the creation of the game.
The one part I felt could use some improving was at almost the very end, when[Spoiler (click to open)]the PC and the Mercy are in the sub and the Captain is attacking. The uses of the sub's controls were not apparent to me, though I should have had the Mercy's knowledge to help me understand them. I lost and had to UNDO many times during that sequence. Adding to my troubles was the fact that examining things took time when time was limited.
That's a fairly minor complaint, however, compared with the rest of the game. This was a great experience. It's discovering games like this that gets me impatient for the Comp every September, and why I keep coming back.
Oh, and the title? Fantastic.
A side note: I cannot be 100% sure that I finished the game in under two hours. I had a tiring week and kept trying to play when I was exhausted, only to suddenly start back into consciousness and realize I'd been dozing with my hands on the keyboard. I restarted the game once because I couldn't remember much about what I'd played while half-asleep. I do not mean this as a reflection on the game at all - I just need to learn that if I'm already sleepy, perhaps I should just go to bed!