June Project.

Recently, I've found myself in the position of advocating Interactive Fiction (IF) to friends and coworkers not familiar with it. However, recently, my own IF-playing rate has dropped to near nil. This year's IF Competition is approaching, and I still haven't played a single game from last year's. So, I've decided to force myself to play some more, get back into the habit, by dedicating myself to writing a few reviews. (This commitment was much more spur-of-the-moment than it seems. See below.) I don't really have any goals except to play some games that I'd really like to play and that I can finish quickly enough to write five before the month is out. Along those lines, my selections will probably be rather (ahem) "unadventurous," as I suspect I'll be reviewing games I played and liked but never got around to finishing.

This is the case for Review #1: Savoir Faire. I played it furiously when it was released last year, but got stuck on a puzzle, set it down, and never picked it up again. I didn't get horribly stuck, if I recall; stopping the game had more to do with having to sleep than being particularly frustrated by the block. If you don't believe it, read my journal entries from that time. Subsequent journal entries seem to indicate that I was distracted from finishing by a date to see Enigma and some time to complete The Enigma. So, today, I played through the game. All of this is background that I wanted to vent before I wrote the review, which I will now write, and which will be posted in a bit.

Update: The review is now available for review.

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.

( Old School Is in Session... )

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.)

( Game Specifications, a la SPAG )