"Violet" by Jeremy Freese

This review contains spoilers for the interactive fiction "Violet," an IFComp 2008 entry.

The work begins in media res, disorienting the player. The unconventional narration further disorients us. Freese, through the narrator, prods us to "write," to overcome the player-character's writing block. Freese cuts through the disorientation with this direct order, but the blunt-force trauma of having the narration tell us so directly to do something compels us to do the opposite. I spent my first several turns of "Violet" avoiding the command "write."

Unwittingly, I had put myself in the PC's shoes, and when I entered a game-ending command, I realized how high the stakes were. This IF isn't about writer's block; this is about a decisive moment in the PC's life, in which circumstances challenge him to face and overcome a major flaw in his personality. If he can commit to his thesis, then he can commit to Violet.

From that moment, I was committed to the task at hand. The PC, however, was not as willing and able; constant distractions thwart him. The object of the game, then, is to block out those distractions one by one. In this way, this one-room adventure breaks no new ground, but is fashioned intuitively and intriguingly. The narrator applauds our inventive solutions, even if they fail, even when they succeed at a cost.

Violet, our narrator, is a vivid character. I found her a bit controlling and overbearing at times, especially when she would FEED COMMANDS directly to me, but this is at the least better than playing guess-the-verb. It also makes sense that a PC with so little direction and ambition would seek a partner with more gumption and verve. That aside, the character of Violet has been fashioned such that the player wants the relationship to survive this trial. Indeed, she has invested so much time and effort into the various gifts around the PC's office that we feel guiltily obligated to write the thesis; it is the least we can do.

I was baffled by the slingshot/sprinkler/pen puzzle, especially after finding the old tater tot. I think that particular puzzle could have used one fewer red herring. I enjoyed other red herrings, though. I felt so proud when I realized I could just slide the key underneath the door -- until someone pushed it back. Then I tried to swallow it (and got a laugh out of that attempt's failure).

There are lots of laughs to be had in this game, despite the high stakes. I especially liked: "Warren is playing 'Your Cult Sounds Pretty Cool,' his last known recording."

There are still a few bugs floating around this IF which should be cleared up in the next release, most notably that we seem to be able to take the pen's cap without having removed it from the sprinkler. (I realized this while trying to remove the bottle cap as a bullet for my slingshot, which begs the question: where's the bottle cap? The game tells me I can open and close the bottle. How am I accomplishing this without a cap?) There are also some synonyms for objects which need to be implemented. I wanted to call the photograph a "flier" and a "laminate", words which were both in descriptions of the photograph. Similarly, the itinerary should have as synonyms "receipt" and "printout". Lastly, there's a typo in the error message "[I am squinting at you right now. I feel like you are testing me. I don't like it," which needs either a close bracket at the end or no open bracket at all.

Though the nature of the IF's puzzles remind me too much of the babel fish puzzle from THGttG, I do appreciate that they lead to the destruction of beloved artifacts of the relationship, and once I'd reached the ending, it made sense that I was destroying the past -- because the PC knew, in his heart of hearts, that Violet had left hours ago, that she was gone whether or not he finished his thesis.

The twist ending, then, felt tacked on to me. I mean, I like happy endings as much as anybody else, but the bitter ending felt more artistically justified, given the destruction of all those gifts. Perhaps there is a way for this author to rewrite the happy ending so that it doesn't feel so "easy," so that it feels justified by what has come before it. I hope so, because I found this entry endearing, challenging, and well-written.