Game Chef 2012 - Batch the Second

Onto round 2, thankfully they're all small, an excellent decision by Jonathan by the way, so I should hopefully be able to go through more than I originally thought.  However, Jonathan did some changing around of the positions which means that I had to make a slight change to what you see on the screen.

Aokigahara by Julia Ellingboe

The Good: This is a beautiful game, as pretty much everything Julia does is.  It's incredibly poetic, and tragic.  A great game to play once, and just experience the story.


The Bad:  At times it can be a little too poetic.  There are references to things like your guilt and your love and hopes that aren't really explicit said that you should think about.  It probably should be mentioned that you need to think about it.

The Other: I learned stuff!  I didn't know anything about Aokigahara, and any game that teaches me stuff by making me research the title scores points.

Would I play it:  Yes, but I really would want Julia to play Aokigahara because that would very much increase the experience of playing the game.

The Coyote Lode by Troy M. Costisick

The Good: I love it when games take an idea from one genre and make it work in another.  Western style dungeon crawl with zombie miners while the flood is coming in!  Yes, very yes.

The Bad: The mechanics of the game seem a might convoluted for the sake of it.  There's a lot of fiddly bits, and some great mechanics here but it's just a little ... on the much side.

The Other: I love the idea of the Leader being the only one to communicate with the GM.  It's got that kind of finality that I think helps a game run along faster.

Would I play it: Um ... yes/no?  Yes this kind of idea, not really with the mechanics as is.

Big Chiefs by Liam Burke

The Good: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Reading this game is a riot, a straight forward laugh a minute riot.  If you don't get why this game is funny, then you're never going to get it.  It's a straight up send off on all those "thank you white hero" movies where you have the indigenous people being saved by their friendly local white dude (FLWD).  Dances with wolves, Last Samurai, Avatar are all listed right in the opening of it. Hilarity.

The Bad: The mechanics is simplified craps.  Not that this is really a bad thing, but it's kinda ... well ... craps.  Not that it's that bad but ... it's ... just ... well ... craps.

The Other: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Also, the link is broken on the site, you can find the game here.  Though when I opened the page and saw it as a blank document I thought that Liam had won the internet.

Would I play it: HAHAHAHAHA! Yes.

BRUJO by Tayler Stokes

The Good: It's got a good idea of using movement with the grid, and an interesting way to deal with performing actions (called rituals) and a pretty free narrative structure.

The Bad: I guess we could call it a structure.  It's got a memory game mixed in with ... something else.  I don't really know how to describe it.  Though the memory game part of it would drive me up the wall.

The Other: Seriously, if someone can read the game and let me know how it works and what it does I would appreciate it.  From the bottom of my heart.

Would I play it:  If someone could explain it to me.  That would be step one.

Constructs of Azazael by Kyle Willey

The Good: There is something to be said, in the way of congratulations that there are so fare three games by this individual.  There is a kudos to that.  This one is remarkably different from the other games, and the theme is kind of interesting.

The Bad: He lost me about a page in.  There is also something negative to be said about putting out three games.  They're just kind of machine gunned out and if this is the order of submission then it kinda shows a lot.

The Other: It needs a lot of work still.  I went over the character creation rules three times and couldn't actually figure out how you assign anything to anything.

Would I play it: I'm sorry, I'm busy constructing song lyrics to play the other game.  The awesome one.