Assessment
I played the game "Horse Master" by Tom McHenry.
I think the game is very well constructed and it's great how interactive it is. You really feel when you play it that your choices within in the game will effect what path you end up on. The author clearly has a good grasp on how to construct storytelling through a game. However, I didn't really like the story itself. The choice of words and the actions the storyteller is describing wasn't very compelling to me. It felt too grotesque at parts and not very interesting to follow.
I didn't really connect with the game on any level. I feel that the way that things were phrased were too complicated and high strung. It made me loose interest very quickly and made me feel detached from the story. I also felt that it was very repetitive, the way that you had to take care of the horse for many days doing the same tasks over and over again with no other options. It didn't succeed in making me care about my actions within the game.
If I had to adapt this story into another medium I would choose 2D Animation. I think that if the water horse, caretaker and the world they come form had very unique and interesting visual designs and color palettes, it could become a compelling story. Bright and vivid color palettes would capture the attention of the viewer and a good musical score as well. The Animation style could bring it to a new level that would make the viewer feel involved and invested in the story and the life of the little water horse. The repetitive issue that I faced in the game could be fixed with this medium by making the time it takes for the water horse to grow up into a fun and unique montage, condensing the time and making it less repetitive.
I think the game is very well constructed and it's great how interactive it is. You really feel when you play it that your choices within in the game will effect what path you end up on. The author clearly has a good grasp on how to construct storytelling through a game. However, I didn't really like the story itself. The choice of words and the actions the storyteller is describing wasn't very compelling to me. It felt too grotesque at parts and not very interesting to follow.
I didn't really connect with the game on any level. I feel that the way that things were phrased were too complicated and high strung. It made me loose interest very quickly and made me feel detached from the story. I also felt that it was very repetitive, the way that you had to take care of the horse for many days doing the same tasks over and over again with no other options. It didn't succeed in making me care about my actions within the game.
If I had to adapt this story into another medium I would choose 2D Animation. I think that if the water horse, caretaker and the world they come form had very unique and interesting visual designs and color palettes, it could become a compelling story. Bright and vivid color palettes would capture the attention of the viewer and a good musical score as well. The Animation style could bring it to a new level that would make the viewer feel involved and invested in the story and the life of the little water horse. The repetitive issue that I faced in the game could be fixed with this medium by making the time it takes for the water horse to grow up into a fun and unique montage, condensing the time and making it less repetitive.
Hello! I played your game on the Intergalactic Pintrest. I enjoyed the setting, though I would have liked to see more of the beautiful landscape that was talked about. There were a number of typos, and I know that twine doesn't have a spell checker but you can copy what you wrote and paste it into a google doc to check your work (that's what I do!). Also on the final passage it is good to have an option to return to the start.
ReplyDeleteA fun thing to try in the future when you have a choice between a number of things (such as which refreshment you want) you can use the "cycling link" tool and bind it to a variable. It gives you one clickable object and will cycle through as you click it and whatever it currently shows will be the variable, and then in the next page you can call that variable and it will display it. It would greatly streamline the process!
Hi! I played your game and love how you described your planet. The visuals you created were beautiful and very clear.
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