Academy of Disaster
By Maxine Janerka
I fumbled mentally for a metaphor about information and cakes but gave up after a few moments. I would find it eventually, if it was important.
School is a pretty common theme in a lot of interactive fiction. It’s understandable, it works. Being a new student basically lets you start with a clean slate, few attachments, and no preconceived notions about goings-on. Mixing themes with school is even more common. Magic, supernatural…. I can think of at least 5 ChoiceScript games alone that use these mixed themes.
What generally makes all of those popular, however, is the amount of variability and ownership you have in a character you make. It’s perfect for self-inserts… the school experience, no matter how fantastical, is almost universal. So, it seems strange when this is the setting without the ability to self-insert.
General Story:
You are a genius, recruited by a mysterious and menacing benefactor to attend an influential academy under the guise of a student. But your real purpose is to act as eyes and ears within those high walls. A murder mystery and some minor psychological horror await.
Being upfront, this is a short story interrupted occasionally by choices. There is something to like here, especially if you are a fan of prim and proper dialogue that fools you into thinking everyone is smarter and better at holding a cup of tea than you are. Simultaneously, the read also almost evokes that feeling of children existing in a world without grown ups (to a certain point). If the story had stuck with it, it would have felt much closer to Oliver Twist or Annie where the only adults are villains or saints.
Format and Typos:
A few errors that tended to be related to coding issues. Line breaks where variables were supposed to be, that sort of thing.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Opposing personality pairs that enable or disable dialogue options depending on the level, and make some alterations in the text, such as reacting shyly when spoken to if your Shy is higher than your Brash, for example. A few hidden stats did this as well, but were hard to follow and comprehend without the code open.
Replayability:
Almost none. Choosing to play male or female is essentially setting the names of other characters and some minor descriptions. There are no real personal choices you make up until the very end of the title (within one to two pages at the end). This is also the only real branch in the story.
Dislikes:
- So many options blocked behind stats, and often being forced into picking only one option. Illusion of choice, but not really holding up the illusion.
- You can choose your name, and influence a personality, but that is about the extent of your impact on the story.
- Wide swaths of text without interaction.
Likes:
- This is a short story that artfully mixes a twist and a compelling unknown backstory.
- Some of the mental descriptions of anguish and confusion work fairly well.
- Characters that were important to the story were written to be fairly three-dimensional, allowing for opinions to change and morph throughout.