This is the first of a couple of making-of posts about Counterfeit Monkey, in case people are interested: these are a bit like some of the making-of material I’ve published about Bronze and other games, but I’m splitting it up between story discussion and puzzle discussion.
We’ll start with puzzles. This is going to be spoilery, so if you’re still planning to play, I recommend finishing the game first.
Shuffling Around is a surreal wordplay puzzle game. As usual, the jump will be followed by non-spoilery comments; then if I have anything spoilery to say, there will be spoiler space. The fact that I am reviewing it at all indicates that there are beta-testers.
Lunar Base 1 is near-future parser-based science fiction, with light puzzle content. As usual, the jump will be followed by non-spoilery comments; then if I have anything spoilery to say, there will be spoiler space. The fact that I am reviewing it at all indicates that there are beta-testers.
Playing Games is a very short, story-light puzzler focusing on spatial memory and reasoning. More details follow the jump.
PataNoir is a detective noir-themed wordplay game in which the player is able to manipulate the objects that appear in similes (so “His teeth are like a row of tombstones” would make “tombstones” an interactive object). It’s probably most appealing to players who enjoyed Puddles on the Path or Earl Grey.
More detail follows the jump, though no specific spoilers.
From Introcomp 2011, “Chunky Blues” is a noir mystery set in the town of Bleakton, MA, with some pleasingly innovative puzzle mechanics.
The first part of my feedback is not spoilery, and talks about the puzzle mechanics in general. Then there’s a spoiler space, followed by some more specific discussion of what I think does and doesn’t work.
