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Savoir Faire: An Old-School Reunion.
Savoir-Faire, by Emily Short claims to have been published under the aegis of Textfire, which arose five years ago as part of a middle-scale April Fools' Day hoax. The first public announcement of Savoir-Faire was also made on April First, and its inclusion of some rather suspect feelie packages (including a Babbage-esque non-virtual Z machine) led many (myself included) to believe that the game was a joke. Obviously, it was not, and a few weeks later, the game emerged, with a not-so-extravagant feelie package.
But Short draws on the Textfire name for something other than a cheap gag. Since the death of Infocom, there have been a few scattered groups on the rec.*.int-fiction newsgroups and similar venues who try to launch a glorious new fleet of commercial IF. They don't, really, and many become jokes in the process. Textfire, starting as a joke, made outlandish promises and gained a certain cachet among those following IF as the most respected nonexistent Interactive Fiction company around.
That ironic respect is critical to creating the atmosphere of the game. Infocom games are usually referred to as such, not as Meretzky games or Lebling games. As a "Textfire Classic" title, Savoir-Faire is distanced slightly from Short, known for simulationism and complex character interaction, and is situated more closely with what it wants to be: a text adventure (not so much a "work of Interactive Fiction"), generic in structure but engaging in execution, where the story, though interesting, is secondary to solving the puzzles that are present throughout. "Old-school," as Short says.
The game takes place in a mysteriously empty manse in an era similar to late-eighteenth-century France. The player steps into the role of Pierre, low-born but high-living, who, as is often the case in French melodramas such as these, has fallen into Debt to rival, undoubtedly as dastardly as Pierre is debonair. Hoping to receive a loan with better terms (i.e., anything without the threat of grievous bodily harm), our dubious hero has returned to the home of his childhood to petition the Count, his sometime guardian. But the Count is absent, and so is his daughter, Marie, with whom you were raised. With the creditor fast on his heels, Pierre has no choice but to grab a sack with an illogically large capacity and look for valuables.
Soon, the player learns that the game's late-eighteenth-century France is not precisely the late-eighteenth-century France of our world. Most notable is the presence of a arcane magic system known as the lavori d'Aracne. (The details of this magic will be obscured for the sake of this review. Be warned, however; the text provided by typing "INFO" will reveal all rather bluntly.) It is this inventive system of magic that allows the game to be "Old School." Among the traditional IF puzzles that Short packs into the game are mazes, locked doors, codes, and light sources. (Side note: Although there are many intricate contraptions in the game, Short does not have any puzzles involving an unlabeled machine whose workings must be divined by trial and error). These types of puzzles normally get slammed by players and reviewers, rightfully so, since most instances are simply parroting nearly identical implementations in previous works. But while nobody wants to see yet another maze of rooms all the same, auguring a long time of tedious mapping, many would be more interested to solve a logic maze, a term coined by Robert Abbott to describe mazes with accompanying rules that can make even a simple layout engaging and unpredictable. (Of course, there are some who wouldn't even be interested in that, but then why are they playing a puzzle game anyway?). Short's maze is small and relatively easy to navigate, but it is still quite a puzzler and very satisfying. (To borrow the words of Andrew Plotkin, talking about a logic maze of Abbott's: "The consequences take some time to work out, and then there's a new shape in your head. That's what puzzles are for." The full essay, about standard mazes as well, provides reasons and advice for how mazes can be not boring.) All of the puzzles display similar cleverness and surprise, making the experience enjoyable, filled with Aha!s.
Even an "Old School" game can have a story, but, keeping to the style, Short doesn't let it drive the game. Instead, it runs parallel, in the same way that many graphic video games tout a tangential story through the cut-scenes that are interspersed between the running around and killing people. Solving puzzles opens new areas that contain puzzles, along with residual evidence of the history of the house and the House. Short seems to know the secret, though, that many emulators of the "Old School" forget: a tangential story must be as well thought-out as one that exists in the foreground. The history of the Pierre, Marie, the Count, the Countess and the house itself may be immaterial to the solving of the puzzles, but the vibrancy of those characters' remembered lives has its impact on the player. At most, it elevates the game to premiere status among recent games (a status supported by its superb XYZZY-award showing); at least, it gives the player something to look at and mull over while waiting for insight on the puzzles.
Savoir-Faire doesn't miss a trick and stays enjoyable from beginning to end. Driven by creative puzzles with memorable puzzles. Just as memorable is the story arc, which has, at its centerpiece, two vivid reimaginings of common IF tropes, the acquisitive rogue and the absent inventor. Pierre's sense of entitlement blossoms effortlessly from troubled class issues of his background. Glimpses of Marie's meticulous creation of magical clockwork add a further patina of loneliness to the already abandoned building. And for me, perhaps, both characters live so delightfully because they seem to reflect so strongly the personality of their creatrix, Ms. Short, who roguishly wrote a game containing many of the aspects of IF that many commentators have declared as dead and who meticulously toils over each period-accurate, wax-sealed letter sent out as a feelie. (Also, she wears dashing hats, when available.)
SPAG information:
TITLE: Savoir-Faire
AUTHOR: Emily Short
EMAIL: emshort@mindspring.com
DATE: April 2002 (original)
PARSER: Inform
SUPPORTS: Zcode interpreters
AVAILABILITY: IF Archive
URL: http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/savoirfaire.htm;
http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/Savoir.z8
VERSION: 2, 6
But Short draws on the Textfire name for something other than a cheap gag. Since the death of Infocom, there have been a few scattered groups on the rec.*.int-fiction newsgroups and similar venues who try to launch a glorious new fleet of commercial IF. They don't, really, and many become jokes in the process. Textfire, starting as a joke, made outlandish promises and gained a certain cachet among those following IF as the most respected nonexistent Interactive Fiction company around.
That ironic respect is critical to creating the atmosphere of the game. Infocom games are usually referred to as such, not as Meretzky games or Lebling games. As a "Textfire Classic" title, Savoir-Faire is distanced slightly from Short, known for simulationism and complex character interaction, and is situated more closely with what it wants to be: a text adventure (not so much a "work of Interactive Fiction"), generic in structure but engaging in execution, where the story, though interesting, is secondary to solving the puzzles that are present throughout. "Old-school," as Short says.
The game takes place in a mysteriously empty manse in an era similar to late-eighteenth-century France. The player steps into the role of Pierre, low-born but high-living, who, as is often the case in French melodramas such as these, has fallen into Debt to rival, undoubtedly as dastardly as Pierre is debonair. Hoping to receive a loan with better terms (i.e., anything without the threat of grievous bodily harm), our dubious hero has returned to the home of his childhood to petition the Count, his sometime guardian. But the Count is absent, and so is his daughter, Marie, with whom you were raised. With the creditor fast on his heels, Pierre has no choice but to grab a sack with an illogically large capacity and look for valuables.
Soon, the player learns that the game's late-eighteenth-century France is not precisely the late-eighteenth-century France of our world. Most notable is the presence of a arcane magic system known as the lavori d'Aracne. (The details of this magic will be obscured for the sake of this review. Be warned, however; the text provided by typing "INFO" will reveal all rather bluntly.) It is this inventive system of magic that allows the game to be "Old School." Among the traditional IF puzzles that Short packs into the game are mazes, locked doors, codes, and light sources. (Side note: Although there are many intricate contraptions in the game, Short does not have any puzzles involving an unlabeled machine whose workings must be divined by trial and error). These types of puzzles normally get slammed by players and reviewers, rightfully so, since most instances are simply parroting nearly identical implementations in previous works. But while nobody wants to see yet another maze of rooms all the same, auguring a long time of tedious mapping, many would be more interested to solve a logic maze, a term coined by Robert Abbott to describe mazes with accompanying rules that can make even a simple layout engaging and unpredictable. (Of course, there are some who wouldn't even be interested in that, but then why are they playing a puzzle game anyway?). Short's maze is small and relatively easy to navigate, but it is still quite a puzzler and very satisfying. (To borrow the words of Andrew Plotkin, talking about a logic maze of Abbott's: "The consequences take some time to work out, and then there's a new shape in your head. That's what puzzles are for." The full essay, about standard mazes as well, provides reasons and advice for how mazes can be not boring.) All of the puzzles display similar cleverness and surprise, making the experience enjoyable, filled with Aha!s.
Even an "Old School" game can have a story, but, keeping to the style, Short doesn't let it drive the game. Instead, it runs parallel, in the same way that many graphic video games tout a tangential story through the cut-scenes that are interspersed between the running around and killing people. Solving puzzles opens new areas that contain puzzles, along with residual evidence of the history of the house and the House. Short seems to know the secret, though, that many emulators of the "Old School" forget: a tangential story must be as well thought-out as one that exists in the foreground. The history of the Pierre, Marie, the Count, the Countess and the house itself may be immaterial to the solving of the puzzles, but the vibrancy of those characters' remembered lives has its impact on the player. At most, it elevates the game to premiere status among recent games (a status supported by its superb XYZZY-award showing); at least, it gives the player something to look at and mull over while waiting for insight on the puzzles.
Savoir-Faire doesn't miss a trick and stays enjoyable from beginning to end. Driven by creative puzzles with memorable puzzles. Just as memorable is the story arc, which has, at its centerpiece, two vivid reimaginings of common IF tropes, the acquisitive rogue and the absent inventor. Pierre's sense of entitlement blossoms effortlessly from troubled class issues of his background. Glimpses of Marie's meticulous creation of magical clockwork add a further patina of loneliness to the already abandoned building. And for me, perhaps, both characters live so delightfully because they seem to reflect so strongly the personality of their creatrix, Ms. Short, who roguishly wrote a game containing many of the aspects of IF that many commentators have declared as dead and who meticulously toils over each period-accurate, wax-sealed letter sent out as a feelie. (Also, she wears dashing hats, when available.)
SPAG information:
TITLE: Savoir-Faire
AUTHOR: Emily Short
EMAIL: emshort@mindspring.com
DATE: April 2002 (original)
PARSER: Inform
SUPPORTS: Zcode interpreters
AVAILABILITY: IF Archive
URL: http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/savoirfaire.htm;
http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/Savoir.z8
VERSION: 2, 6