Sniffing Wizards
That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.
Stephen King once said: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” So, while writing and discussing one another’s work is a huge part of what Hello Words does, sometimes we like to read and learn from someone else’s writing. And what better choice than this year’s IF Comp winner, The Wizard Sniffer, by Buster Hudson?
You take the role of the titular Wizard Sniffer, a talented pig able to sniff out shape-shifting wizards with your discerning snout. This is a wonderful, comedic game in the vein of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. We were particularly impressed by the characterisation of the player-character’s companions, knight Ser Leonhart and trusty squire Tuck. Their bumbling idiocy serves a dual purpose — not only are they very funny, but it also means that any frustrations due to player or parser inadequacy is instead directed at them, rather than the game itself. Oddly, this also helps put you in the shoes (trotters?) of the player-character — never have I felt more like a pig struggling to communicate with obtuse humans!
Such frustrations were few and far between, though, because the game’s simplicity of commands and clarity of description means you are rarely at a loss as to what to do next. This is no mean feat in a parser game and is often the downfall of otherwise ingenious and well-written IFcomp parser entries.
Even the hint system is ingeniously gamified in a way which fits the tone of the game and offers clues for struggling players without making things too easy for those more adept but in a need of a nudge. All in all, we were thoroughly inspired bythe way character, mechanics and story slotted together and agreed this was something we’d attempt to bring to our own work.
In fact, we enjoyed learning from a completed, polished game so much, we agreed we’ll do the same again for the next few sessions with a range of types of game. Hello Words will be on a brief hiatus for a couple of months, but will return fighting fit in March 2018 with the following program:
March 8th — Play Session of “Screw You Bear Dad!” by Xalavier Nelson (Twine) followed by discussion.
April 12th — Play session of “Creatures Such As We” by Lynnea Glasser (ChoiceScript) followed by discussion.
May 10th — Play session of “The Intercept” by Inkle Studios (Ink/Inky) followed by discussion
We hope to see you at some or all of those! (Let us know you’re coming here.)
