4/1/2023

11/3/2025 3:44 AM

444

2

1 win / 2 losses

Architect

“This is the ending all stories must eventually reach:
silence around an empty stage.”

—Unknown

Lazarus Cage

They want to keep you bound in the dark, but you won't let them. You will get out, fight and flee, fail and die, then try again and again...

Nautilus

Grudges must always be the first to die when a storm arrives.

After years away you return home to your dying father, but will you be able to get your brother to forgive you for leaving? And will you step up to the challenge to inherit your father's most prized possession?

Written as part of the 2023 Spring/Summer Contest: Gone Fishin' it is a game with a much bigger focus on story than gameplay, but still there is a decent amount of endings and variation for something this short.

I mean getting the highest possible score should be something special. It's not really on me that we've started following the IGN school of reviewing where anything that can be called a storygame is at least a 6 or a 7 because somewhere out there in the world exist incoherent 500 word ramblings and those deserve 1-2 ratings. I am kind of hoping Eyes on a moon of blandness was just an outlier I stumbled on, but the odds of Bill getting an 8 aren't that high. Sherb is a different matter of course given the only thing that bumped As Ink down to a 7 aside from character nitpicks was the rather messy spread of content.

I feel like the main problem I had with it in terms of enjoyment is that I went in expecting something completely different. It wouldn't affect the final score if I was aware what the actual premise is, but I did need to put it aside and come back a few days later to actually complete it fully with a proper mindset. Overall I also think this shorter and more unique type of story works better with End's style than a much larger epic like Rogues.

I did consider Reborn for October, but the main reason I didn't is it would be the 4th Sherb game and I wanted to try something else plus I felt like having an opinion about End's work while having read only one of his games was somewhat unfair, even if as it slowly turns out his games are pretty close to being all the same. For November I was planning to go with Mizal's recommendation since it's also on theme of me giving second chances, but I might read Reborn for December as finale to this series of reviews since I also believe there is a chance for it to get an 8 based on what I've seen from Sherb (As Ink was the second closest to it so far after all).

Happy Halloween everybody. Given I post these reviews on the last day of the month and that this month it meant doing so on Halloween I wanted to do something suitable for the occasion and review a horror game. Unfortunately (for me) I decided I wasn't going to take the easy path and pick something from Sherb who's a safe bet to me at this point, and instead I reached for another of Endmaster's stories with the dart landing on Alpha Wolf. Did I hate it? No. Did I love it? Also no. Did it make me change my mind about End's writing? Also (unsurprisingly) no. But I will give End props for being only the second person I encountered that didn't forget Frankenstein made two monsters in the original so that's something I guess.

It wasn't a thing when I was a kid because of how religious the older generations are, but today and especially in cities it's more normal. There's even a few houses that get decorated for the ocassion in my neighborhood.

I'm doing pretty much the same thing I've done all week which is struggling to not die of boredom at work till 10PM. At least is saves me from having to chase kids off my front door this time around. I do need to finalize a review for this month so I'll probably do that as well.

That also works I guess. But also taking a DELETE FROM ... WHERE ... engraved axe to over half the database entries would be more in style for at least some people in power here. Still a thread feels like the most reasonable, if boring approach.

Assuming the site tracks data like when the game was last accessed, or maybe just using the author's last active timestamp one could write a script that automatically purges unpublished games that weren't touched in the last 3-5 years. Considering how old the site is I doubt there'd be more to it than some basic SQL, but that's just me making an educated guess.

I might at some point need to inquire about someone checking who's hogging a title I had in mind for a story, but that one's on pause because of this contest. Still it might at some point be a good idea to either do a purge of old unpublished storygames hogging up titles, or open up a "Who stole my title?" thread.

Congrats Stargirl. Great story and it certainly makes me feel better about getting my ass whooped.