Just Because I'm at Work Doesn't Mean I'm Working
I had a good Thursday.
In one of those fantastically international moments, I had a long discussion about Spanish culture and language with one of my Japanese co-workers that went about 75% Japanese and 25% English and involved air-drawing to demonstrate the use of diacretics. Much love was given to the umlaut, which she's familiar with from having once dabbled in German. Yesteray also featured a cookie and a total lack of my most persistently disruptive student. April 14th gets full marks in my date gradebook.
Other things that get full marks are text games, 'cause I can play them at work. Here, have a rec list of things I've either played or replayed this week:
9:05 (Inform): Very short and easy to complete. Saying much more would spoil it, but you'll want to go through it twice.
Christminster (Inform): Features neat puzzles, a fun plot, and a miserably parrot-deprived NPC. I encountered this game as part of a bundle of Mac freeware, and we've been happy together ever since.
A Day for Soft Food (Inform): This remains the only IF I've played in which the PC is motivated entirely by the desire for canned giblets.
For a Change (Inform): Opens with "The sun is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock." Quickly becomes an exercise in language-play and lateral thinking. I dig it.
Lock and Key (Glulx): This is a "single-puzzle" game that I'd hate to spoil, so I won't. Requires a lot of trial-and-error, but the results of the errors are funny and generally instructive, and the system is set up to streamline how much actual re-typing you have to do.
Slouching Towards Bedlam (Inform): This one's a steampunk mystery with a hearty dose of meta. Multiple endings, lots of stuff to poke at, and freaky machines.
Theatre (Inform): Someone forgot to wipe the excess melodrama off the prose, but the game itself has a lot of good puzzles in it. Also, you get to carry around a dead body. Nothing brings the party like a dead body.
Zero Sum Game (TADS): Very funny, with a creative premise and abusable NPCs. There are multiple ways to lock yourself out of winning, but the game is short enough that restarting isn't much of a problem.
In one of those fantastically international moments, I had a long discussion about Spanish culture and language with one of my Japanese co-workers that went about 75% Japanese and 25% English and involved air-drawing to demonstrate the use of diacretics. Much love was given to the umlaut, which she's familiar with from having once dabbled in German. Yesteray also featured a cookie and a total lack of my most persistently disruptive student. April 14th gets full marks in my date gradebook.
Other things that get full marks are text games, 'cause I can play them at work. Here, have a rec list of things I've either played or replayed this week:
9:05 (Inform): Very short and easy to complete. Saying much more would spoil it, but you'll want to go through it twice.
Christminster (Inform): Features neat puzzles, a fun plot, and a miserably parrot-deprived NPC. I encountered this game as part of a bundle of Mac freeware, and we've been happy together ever since.
A Day for Soft Food (Inform): This remains the only IF I've played in which the PC is motivated entirely by the desire for canned giblets.
For a Change (Inform): Opens with "The sun is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock." Quickly becomes an exercise in language-play and lateral thinking. I dig it.
Lock and Key (Glulx): This is a "single-puzzle" game that I'd hate to spoil, so I won't. Requires a lot of trial-and-error, but the results of the errors are funny and generally instructive, and the system is set up to streamline how much actual re-typing you have to do.
Slouching Towards Bedlam (Inform): This one's a steampunk mystery with a hearty dose of meta. Multiple endings, lots of stuff to poke at, and freaky machines.
Theatre (Inform): Someone forgot to wipe the excess melodrama off the prose, but the game itself has a lot of good puzzles in it. Also, you get to carry around a dead body. Nothing brings the party like a dead body.
Zero Sum Game (TADS): Very funny, with a creative premise and abusable NPCs. There are multiple ways to lock yourself out of winning, but the game is short enough that restarting isn't much of a problem.