Wednesday 22 January 2014

Overlooked AIF Games 1

by BBBen

In the past I used to do the occasional brief article highlighting a few (generally small) AIF games that most players have probably overlooked, but which can give you a fun diversion for a while. In that spirit, here's three for you now. These are all from the 2006 AIF mini-comp (it was a good year), though none of these won the competition. Links to the games are included.

Shamelessly Slutty: Teacher by Rip CPU

This was a mini-comp entry that suffered from the issue many such good entries do: it didn't actually win its year and thus got largely forgotten. I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoys the scenario of a sexy high school teacher seducing one of her students. In this game you play as one such teacher. You don't have to be looking for a female POV game to enjoy this one, either. I was a little disappointed we never saw a sequel like, "Shamelessly Slutty: Nurse", or "Shamelessly Slutty: Babysitter".

The Clairvoyant by Priapus Rex

Another mini-comp entry suffering from the "didn't win, thus forgotten" syndrome, this was (when it came out) a bit of an old style mini-comp game, in that it didn't try to reinvent the wheel and push the rules to the absolute limit. Instead this has a small, fun, erotic scenario in which you go with a hot girl to a clairvoyant and try to use the situation to your advantage.

A Dream Come True by Purple Dragon

My third honourable mention from the 2006 mini-comp should go to Purple Dragon's A Dream Come True - Purple Dragon's stuff doesn't usually feature in my "overlooked" category because he was so prominent in the community for quite a while, but he never really got all that much formal recognition so perhaps this is appropriate. This game sees a young couple trying to get together on a school trip. I kind of felt that the scenario for this game put the guy and girl together a bit too easily, but it's a Purple Dragon game so I had high expectations. It's well written and the staging of the first scene on the bus is was an innovative scenario for its time, breaking away from more conventional, full-sex-scene staging.

A point of academic interest, the winner of the comp that year was A. Bomire's WWE – RAW’s New GM which is included in the link with the rest of the comp. There are a few others in there you might check out as well.

What do you think of these selections? Did you enjoy them? Do you have any other suggestions for overlooked AIF that I could feature in the future? Let me know in the comments below.

17 comments:

  1. It's always great to get new suggestions. Sometimes I think I've played every AIF worth playing, and then I discover something from 5 or 10 years ago that is wonderful. Excited to try these out.

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  2. The Minicomp has an unfortunate tendency to create overlooked games. Even after the restrictions on discussion were relaxed, the audience tends to focus on 2-3 games, leaving the rest to get by on scraps.

    My own favourite overlooked Minicomp game is The Princess and the Dragon by Rogue AI from the 2011 Minicomp. It had everything you'd hope for in a first game. A well-designed puzzle with multiple solutions, a refreshingly atypical PC (Action Man rather than Everyman), a well implemented NPC, some neat technical trickery, plus graphics. All of which was enough to earn 3rd place in a comparatively strong field. And yet there was a grand total of one post talking about it, and that was the last we heard of Rogue AI (at the time of writing, anyway).

    Outside of the Minicomp, I'd go with Aquila Station by Portmanteau. It's a well-made game, but what makes it especially memorable to me is that it contains AIF's only real 'Floyd' moment (ie. getting the player to like a character and then killing them off). Sure, it's a cheap trick in some ways, but despite that I found it to be a genuinely dramatic moment as well as a surprising plot twist. Given that AIF is primarily focused on human relationships, it's astounding that dramatic moments of that kind are so rare. The only comparable example I can think of is the ending of In Darkness, but that feels much more contrived to me. Anyhow, Portmanteau would have gotten my vote for Best New Author if the Erins had been held that year.

    My third choice wasn't really overlooked, but because it had the misfortune to be released in AIF's strongest year ever it never really got the recognition it deserved in my opinion. That game is of course The Sex Artist by A.Ninny. For starters, it has an exceptionally strong female lead in Claire. She and the PC get a lot of scenes together to build the player's anticipation (and the final scene delivers on that build up). But more than that, they're portrayed as a real couple with shared interests, and you can see why they're in a relationship. Although it could have done with some editing here and there, the writing is very effective at making you feel like it's describing real things (I'm especially fond of the foodporn). Between his games and everything else he did for the community (beta testing, editing Inside Erin, etc), A.Ninny should really be in the Hall of Fame in my opinion.

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    1. Possibly A. Ninny's entire catalogue deserves the title "overlooked", as he never really got much recognition. I plan to feature one of his games down the line.

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    2. He got eleven second places in the Erins, which must be something of a record. Unfortunately there were a lot of already established authors when he was getting started, and then the newsletter diverted his energies.

      HORSE from the 2007 Minicomp is another favourite of mine. It's quite similar to RAW's New GM in a lot of ways. Both use the same three Act structure of intro/obstacle/reward (as did a lot of the early Minicomp games). Both have a sporting contest as the obstacle. RAW's New GM has the more impressive obstacle, but I actually prefer the obstacle in HORSE because it furthers the relationship between Ana and the PC.

      Despite that, due to the misfortune of appearing in a particularly strong Minicomp field, it only came third. Bizarrely it picked up an Erin for best sex scene (despite only getting 3rd in that category in the Minicomp) and a second place for best NPC (where it placed 6th in the Minicomp).

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    3. HORSE was a good one, definitely. In fact, that's probably the game I'll feature in this series. A. Ninny did at least win a few Erins - another quirk was that Parlour came second in the 2004 mini-comp to Normville High yet won the equivalent award in the subsequent Erin Awards. Not that I begrudged that at all - I think the mini-comp vote was actually very tight (I might have only won by one vote).

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  3. I played a bit of Shamelessly Slutty Teacher. It's actually pretty good, though I feel like an idiot because I can't get Mike to answer the right question right. I thought it might involve pointing at my tits or something.

    Anyways, I'll make my way down this list in a slovenly fashion.

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    1. I tried the exact same thing! I eventually resorted to a walkthrough, and then I felt even more like an idiot.

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    2. One thing you'll probably notice in my overlooked series is a bit of guess-the-word or poor implementation of game structure. They're usually rough diamonds of one kind or another, because the games that aren't already have their defenders. I think the key is that you might not be sure whether it's worth sticking with a game despite those issues; hopefully I'll point out some where it will be.

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  4. One lesser-known AIF title that I enjoy is Academy of Spies. Nobody ever seems to talk about it.

    I find that most "diamond in the rough" type games that I discover are ones with some issues early on that ALMOST turn me off the game (usually spelling/grammar mistakes). But if if I'm able to push through, I end up really enjoying myself.

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  5. I don't think I ever actually played Academy of Spies. Probably worth a look sometime.

    And I agree with your appraisal of diamond in the rough games, although for me it's more like technical or game design issues (like guess the word or illogical puzzles) that almost turn me off. The point is that with some games it's worth pushing through.

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  6. I actually planned to make other "Shamelessly Slutty" games, but I ended up not mainly due to the fact that I abandoned ADRIFT after that one. It was the first AIF game I ever made and honestly I'm a bit embarrassed by the simplicity of the puzzles and the actual encounter itself.

    I stopped for about a year or so and eventually started learning INFORM, coming up with other games that are a bit more technically complex and mechanically sound (I hope, anyway!) that I pushed out for minicomps over the years.

    And then of course I stopped for a few more years and now I forgot how to code in INFORM all together. When I do start writing again I'll probably stick with TWINE mostly to avoid having to relearn how to code in a system.

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    1. I still think the scene works. You're allowed to have a process of development as an author, after all. Getting too ambitious in the first outing tends to kill off future efforts.

      While we're on the subject, I'm not sure if I ever published it, but I did mean to add something in the newsletter for the 2011 mini-comp about how I found Ashley's Story to be a refreshing entry that year, too. I felt at the time the smaller scope might lead people to overlook the game, even though it's well worth playing.

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    2. I really dug Ashley's Story and I hope you do a follow-up one day or even a spiritual successor using the same sort of framework.

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    3. I'll third that. I loved Ashley as a character because her personality leapt off the screen. It made a refreshing change, especially given how bland and forgettable a lot of male PCs are.

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    4. The game I was working on for last year's minicomp was intended to be a pseudo-sequel to Ashley's Story. The premise was that the PC would be Ashley's unnamed friend, and the two of them head out for an evening of drunken debauchery at a nightclub.

      The main thing I wanted to try to do was to have a robust clothing system. Prior to going out clubbing the PC could pick from a variety of clothes from the closet to wear, mix and match to create an outfit ranging from dull to downright slutty. Interactions and scenes in the club would vary depending on the choice of clothes.

      The game ultimately collapsed under its own weight. I got all the different outfits written out but stalled when I got to the part where I need to write every single possible encounter with a different description for each clothing item.

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    5. It sounds good, though. Maybe consider streamlining it a bit and getting back to work on it? You seem to have interested fans on this blog at least!

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    6. Without going so far with the added complexity, I think an evolved version of Ashley's Story that was a bit longer, with a few more locations and characters would be more than enough to get the community excited.

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