Haunted P - Chad Rocketman

Another lazy “joke” game by Chad Rocketman/Chet Rocketfrak to include in his CV. At least it was short to play. I killed Bilbert blabert whatever and couldn’t proceed in any obvious way so quit.

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Gotta say, this game has made me laugh more than any other game in the Comp so far. (Granted, I haven’t played any of the others yet.)

See also: “The Dragon Will Tell You Your Future Now”.

We discovered at the SF Bay Area IF Meetup that you can do more than kill Bilbert! (I suppose anyone could have found this by reading the source code, which is provided.)

[spoiler]You can “enter bilbert”, and then “enter” various body parts to find the “secret place” wherein you can “heal bilbert.”

… healing bilbert does nothing, of course. But it is still kinda funny in its own right.[/spoiler]

I’ve posted a review here: blog.templaro.com/review-haunted-p/

It’s a joke entry, but if you are curious about game content, see the transcript accompanying the review.

  • Jack

Translation: “GET OFF MY LAWN!”.

Maybe I should have sounded more enthusiastic about the game but sorry I could not.

My review:

[spoiler]If making horribly underimplemented parser games is an art, then this game is positively worthy of a place in the Pantheon.
If gratuitous misspelling and atrocious grammar is a sign of higher intelligence, Chad Rocketman is a genius capable of altering the destiny of the human race.

There is nothing fun in this game. It will not elevate your soul. It will not provide the slightest shred of amusement. Consider yourself lucky if anything in it provides material for a half-hearted chuckle. The dismal failure of this work of IF rings hollow with disappointment.

This year’s IFComp is bedecked with entries worthy of praise. This is not one of them.

And yet… It’s clear that every single flaw in this game is deliberate. It leads me to wonder (given last year’s equally abysmal ‘Toiletworld’) whether in fact this was actually written by someone cognizant of the rules of parser IF. Perhaps even Chad Rocketman (or Rocketfrak) is actually a talented writer who wanted to make sure that no one – NO ONE – should ever have to suffer the ignominy of placing last in the IFComp. If so, then let us rejoice, and thank our anonymous benefactor for this small blessing.

The one clue which hints at this: the fact that XYZZY was implemented. :open_mouth:[/spoiler]

[spoiler]

What’s really funny is that it didn’t even come last in the comp![/spoiler]