Re: [ANNOUNCE] New Inform Game - The Awakening

[wosam@avalonSPAMBLOCK.net (M. Wesley Osam)]

In article <6pm5ks$hsr@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, dbs@sol20.cs.wisc.edu (Dan
Shiovitz) wrote:

> In article <6pl4sd$364$1@hubble.csuchico.edu>,
> Brian 'Beej' Hall <beej@ecst.csuchico.edu> wrote:
> >Awakening (serious) spoilers...




























> I was vaguely curious how much of this game was purposely reffing
> other games and how much was coincidence. For instance, this is kind of
> similar to Babel. And the beginning scenes are *very* reminiscent of
> Losing Your Grip.  

I think the author was actually reffing H. P. Lovecraft. 
He's stated as much himself somewhere. The similarities 
to "Babel" show up mostly because "Babel" has some similarities 
to the Lovecraft story "The Outsider," in which the narrator 
discovers that he is a monster after seeing a mirror for the 
first time in his life.

The bottles were a reference to "The Terrible Old Man."

> >The holes in the portrait's eyes were cool, but I didn't quite
> >understand the purpose.  

I think the portrait was just to create a creepy atmosphere, 
and the eyeholes were probably added to explain why it was 
so spooky.

> Well, the broken bottle in the fireplace was obviously the same sort
> of trap-the-soul devices that appear later on (which you can read
> about by looking at the book behind the bookcase). 

Huh. I never found that.

> They
> also killed you (who had been incidentally transformed into something
> funny-looking by metaphysical resonance with the old man's evil
> deeds), 

I'm not sure there was any need for that; I think the 
protagonist just looked so awful because he'd been severely 
injured in the attack, died (well, as much as he could 
with his soul trapped), been buried, and decomposed 
partially.

> >And most importantly, I don't understand why the old man didn't get
> >upset when I got the green bottle.  I mean, at that point I was only one
> >step away from hosing him, and he wasn't even concerned.
> [..]
> Well, he was crazy. Yeah, that's it.

This was the one thing that bothered me. It could have been 
explained with some extra responses, though. Maybe the man 
is actually afraid of you--you are, after all, a monster.

Or it could have been made into a puzzle.

-- 
Wesley Osam             "I'm sorry. I thought you were all timeless
wosam@avalon.net         beings of unlimited evil, and I'd come here 
                         to defeat you."
http://www.avalon.net/~wosam        --Lawrence Miles, _Alien Bodies_