The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)

[Daggio]

well, salads over here are totally meat-free. The standard is lettuce, tomato, and corn mixed together with dressings, but I like mine with pieces of bread

[Anarchy]

I have a... technical question, I guess, about For Stellie and Outlook of Spirit Commission. For some reason, I can't see the spirit's sprite in either of them (well, except for the kissing scene in the latter). Is there anything I can do to fix this?

[Funnyguts]

I guess the next writing contest will be about the Spirit of Meat-Based Salads.

Anarchy, I had no problem seeing the sprite in either game. Have you tried deleting persistent data?

[Anarchy]

I guess the next writing contest will be about the Spirit of Meat-Based Salads.

Anarchy, I had no problem seeing the sprite in either game. Have you tried deleting persistent data?

No, how do I do that?

[Funnyguts]

Select AdComp as your active Ren'py project in the launcher. One of the launcher options will say 'delete persistent', click it and all your persistent data will disappear. (Your saves will be intact, though.)

[Anarchy]

Select AdComp as your active Ren'py project in the launcher. One of the launcher options will say 'delete persistent', click it and all your persistent data will disappear. (Your saves will be intact, though.)

Hurr? I'm playing it directly as an .exe file called AdversityComp though? Sorry, I'm confused. Does this mean I should be playing it through the launcher? Hurrrr?

[Funnyguts]

You don't have to play it through the launcher, but you can still select the folder with the .exe to be your project and mess with things through the launcher.

[Anarchy]

You don't have to play it through the launcher, but you can still select the folder with the .exe to be your project and mess with things through the launcher.

Okay... I did that, but I'm still not seeing the sprites in those two games. O_o

[LieselSolo]

Okay, here's the first game I played.

The Golden Hound

I really like how this game incorporated Greek mythology into its story - it was a clever use of the prompt. The spirit's anagram name was also clever. I also like the wry humor (the spirit's poker game). The job descriptions were hilarious, though I wish there had been more of them. I would have liked to "rise through the ranks" instead of just having two of them.

The flashes at the beginning of the game were well-used. They helped to set a mood of urgency, although I much prefer games with music to games that just play in silence. Given that the contest supplied music, I wonder why the person who made the game didn't take advantage of it. Music helps enhance the mood.

Also, the game's frequent spelling and grammar errors were very distracting. There were quite a few run-on sentences (such as "Why are you wearing a suit are you trying to make me look bad?") and misspelled words ("your" was used where "you're" should go frequently). When the errors are so frequent, the writing looks sloppy and it drives me out of the story's world.

In addition, although the game used menus, none of the choices seemed to make any difference in which way the story went. I tried several combinations of choices and always got the same storyline and the same ending. At the very end the player has to make an important decision, but every time I played each option led to the exact same scene. It makes me wonder why the menus even exist if they're not going to have any impact. (Of course, it's possible that there's some point system I missed.)

Overall, while the concept, the use of mythology, and the humor are appealing, the spelling and grammar errors and the lack of influence you have over the outcome hinder my enjoyment of the game.

[Funnyguts]

You don't have to play it through the launcher, but you can still select the folder with the .exe to be your project and mess with things through the launcher.

Okay... I did that, but I'm still not seeing the sprites in those two games. O_o

Are you sure you have the newest version? I haven't had this problem in any of the versions I've played (and so far I've played four of them), but I can't think of anything else that would cause this for you but not me.

[Anarchy]

You don't have to play it through the launcher, but you can still select the folder with the .exe to be your project and mess with things through the launcher.

Okay... I did that, but I'm still not seeing the sprites in those two games. O_o

Are you sure you have the newest version? I haven't had this problem in any of the versions I've played (and so far I've played four of them), but I can't think of anything else that would cause this for you but not me.

Yup, just downloaded the newest version and tried it. Still can't see the sprites. But I can see sprites in other games just fine. O_O

Oh well, it's all right. It's not going to hinder my evaluation much anyway.

[Sapphi]

You don't have to play it through the launcher, but you can still select the folder with the .exe to be your project and mess with things through the launcher.

Okay... I did that, but I'm still not seeing the sprites in those two games. O_o

I have a sneaking suspicion your computer may not like the image operations going on in those two games... are those the only ones not working out of all of them?

[Anarchy]

You don't have to play it through the launcher, but you can still select the folder with the .exe to be your project and mess with things through the launcher.

Okay... I did that, but I'm still not seeing the sprites in those two games. O_o

I have a sneaking suspicion your computer may not like the image operations going on in those two games... are those the only ones not working out of all of them?

Yup, I've played all the games (well, I didn't finish a single route of Dusted Star cause it failed to hold my attention, but I played a good chunk of the beginning/early middle?) and those two are the only ones not working. At least, I assume that Outlook of Spirit Commission wasn't supposed to have its spirit sprite missing... I mean, that kinda undermines the whole joke about the protagonist not having a sprite...

[Carassaurat]

Disaster Reborn

Which one was that again: the one in which Cassandra meets a ditzy spirit of disaster and is asked to take her place for 150 years.

Let's get the nitpick out of the way first: it could've done with a proofread, even just by the author, since Reborn contains a number of simple typing errors. It's needlessly distracting and sloppy. On the other hand, I'd totally be in favour of actually adopting the verb “forze”. It has a nice ring to it. I also agree that it would have been nice to have the Spirit sprite on the screen more often, especially during the final moments in which the characters are supposed to be eye-to-eye.

Sapphi and Daggio have already mentioned the burnt college. I thought it was a nice, realistic detail (just like the elaborate forest trail), to really get the point across that Cassandra was a real person living in a real world, but the detail on the college dragged on and, like the others, it did give me the impression that this was going to be significant. I don't mind that it wasn't the first thing we thought, that the Spirit would be one of the victims. Rather, I applaud that... But I can't escape the feeling that it would have been easy to connect the fire to the Spirit's weakening grasp of her powers just by setting the disaster a while after the 150 years, rather than before it. Maybe I don't quite grasp the significance of how it works right now, but it seems like a missed opportunity. Alternatively, of course, the detailed background could be scrapped entirely. Reborn spends a bit of time explaining why Cassandra takes the route she does this time and a history of the bus problem (the work of our spirit?), how the roads were created, and the aforementioned college, none of which actually affect the story. It wouldn't have made a difference it that were Cassandra's regular route. Again, I appreciate the detail that makes it come alive, but it's a bit too much for that little gain here.

Similarly, Cassandra herself is worked out pretty consistently throughout Disaster Reborn. It's not particularly in-depth and she is, to quote Sapphi “one of the most boring, unadventurous people on the face of the earth,” but that's a personality regardless. Maybe she wasn't written to be quite that boring, but we've had murderous psychopaths and terminal ill people and 2D characters come by, so we have some more extravagant characters clouding our judgment. For all the looks we get into Cassandra's life and the way she responds to different situations, however, that's irrelevant for the final, dramatic moments; or perhaps it just isn't made relevant. It's easy to imagine the conflict between her somewhat boring personality and the exciting but uncertain nature of the job prospect of being a spirit of disaster. Is she afraid to abandon all she worked for? Is it a welcome fresh start without having to please anyone?
It feels like I should write something about the personality of Regina here, but there's really not that much to say. It has moments in which it's pretty outspoken (such as the classroom scene), but it's never really developed. I don't lament that the tragic backstory she gives isn't longwinded, mind! She's fine as long as the focus is on Cassandra, but that changes in the last few minutes, when the focus shifts to the spirit. At that point, nothing of what came before really matters; the events that lead up to it aren't specifically significant, other than to illustrate that the spirit's disaster powers are failing, and Reborn isn't very effective at communicating that. The prior events, then, never foreshadow or hint at this later revelation either. Cassandra's developed personality stops mattering here, and the Regina's undeveloped personality comes to the foreground. The 'two parts' aren't more than the sum of their total, so to speak.

One thing I don't get: in all endings, Cassandra is shown to be a burnt corpse, so I suppose that everything past the forest fire is actually an illusion or a spiritual journey or whatever and her body is dead all along? If that's so, the examples of Regina's power failing are all... fake?

I like the idea of a position in the spirit world for keeping tabs on disasters, and I like the idea of there having to be a successor. But I want to know more about what that position is like.[...] I feel like it ended as soon as it started getting interesting.

That could have been an interesting story, if done properly, but I don't know if that would work to the strengths of this particular author. He or she seems to be more at ease writing mundane things realistically; both the locations and Cassandra's personality aren't particularly exciting, but they're written with a feeling for detail that makes them feel naturalistic, at least in my opinion.

Also, Cassandra. The person in Greek mythology who can (fore)see disaster, but nobody would believe her. Clever.

[Hiddlestoners]

Right. Time to get down and crack on with this. Will be editing this post again once I get the first one down...