Game Profile

Author Esa Peuha Idiom English Authoring System Inform6 Release Year 2002 IFR Overall Rating

Hmm... Initially, I wrote this one off with a rating of ‘1,’ because it started with a programming error before I even received a prompt. I decided to revisit this game, and used an older version of WinFrotz rather than the new version that installed with the comp games, and found that the error lies in the interpreter, not the game.

So, on closer review I decided to keep that rating of ‘1.’ Koan has all the telltale signs of a coding exercise, and should have remained such; coding exercises should not be turned into comp entries. Had it been a well implemented, flushed-out coding exercise, with pleasant writing and items of interest rather than simply being one puzzle with uninteresting (standard) parser responses, I might have felt differently. At one point, upon typing >SCORE, I was told "You have so far scored 0 out of a possible 0." I wish I could have rated Koan similarly.