IFComp 2014: AlethiCorp   Leave a comment

Immanuel Kant taught us that it is important to obey authority, so that your actions will follow a consistent general rule. He even demonstrated that it would be wrong to lie to the police, if they want to know where your friend is hiding. Always keep that in mind, and you will have a great career at AlethiCorp :).

Simon Christiansen is the wag who last year entered a PDF gamebook into the competition, instructing judges to print it out. This year he asks us to apply for a job at Alethicorp.

TRIVIA: Did you know pictures of eyes can reduce cheating on tests, and make people contribute more to an honesty box?

Methinks the logo is not coincidence.

Methinks the logo is not coincidence.


This isn’t choice or parser-based. The main gameplay comes from reading pieces of information and flagging “suspicious” ones, but also filling out forms and doing a “course” on something called the “Haka” management style with freeform responses at the end.

In addition to the sinister corporate surveillance, there’s a mysterious group hacker group (“Don’t you realize these people are evil? Don’t feed the evil!”) intertwined in the proceedings.

Things I liked:

danger

* Typing a food to contribute to the team potluck “suggests” different specializations like “Mediterranean turkey meatballs with herbed yogurt sauce” or “During tomato season, salsa is cheap, easy, and so delicious”.

* One of the employees sends pictures of trains. Why trains? I don’t know.

* When you fill out your time card, even though there is an open space you are only allowed to state you worked 8 hours. No more, no less.

* “Alyona: You igneous geologists are all so suspicious! Don’t worry about it. I’ve known REDACTED for years and REDACTED vouched for REDACTED. Growing membership just means our ideas are beginning to take hold. Speaking of that, I’ve got a surprise tonight. Everyone, meet Cédric Kinsinger!”

What I didn’t like:

* The endings can be, hm, not exactly “unsatisfying”, but they … “lack tactile elements”? For example, if you get fingered as being a member of a hacker group, this gets reported in the daily news and angry emails, but the genuine final results are hidden. This is a side effect of restricting to the “corporate website” format.

* … that’s it, pretty much. I hope Simon Christiansen sends something equally subversive for next year’s IFComp.

Posted October 26, 2014 by Jason Dyer in Interactive Fiction

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