{"id":189,"date":"2016-04-17T10:45:57","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T18:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ice-bound.com\/news\/?p=189"},"modified":"2016-04-17T10:45:57","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T18:45:57","slug":"marchapril-ice-bound-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ice-bound.com\/news\/marchapril-ice-bound-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"March\/April Ice-Bound Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last month and a half, we’ve had some more great review coverage of The Ice-Bound Concordance<\/em><\/a>, presented it at GDC, and have even seen some fan-inspired creations.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

“We were collaborators. One of us was a ghost.”<\/h3>\n

Jack de Quidt did an Ice-Bound ‘Wot I Think’ for Rock Paper Shotgun<\/a>, which does some great summarizing of the complicated project:<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s where you come in. Descending through Carina Station, yes, but not as a scientist or researcher \u2013 you\u2019re instead something like a co-writer, trying to make sense of various fragments of plot as their long-dead creator politely talks you through them. \u201cWhat did you think I was going for here?\u201d he\u2019ll ask, and you\u2019ll have the opportunity to affect the story both directly (\u201cI think the Professor should slip and fall,\u201d) and thematically (\u201cI feel this is a chapter concerned with spiral imagery\u201d.) As you and KRIS mirror the character\u2019s explorations deeper into the station, you gradually refine the story more and more into what you feel it should always have been about.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

de Quidt writes quite a bit about the feel of the possibilities opened up by our combinatorial narrative system<\/a>: we were really glad to see a reviewer dig into this aspect of the game.<\/p>\n

The deeper we travelled, the more the scope of the game impressed me. …The more I pressed for the story to contain elements of the fantastic, the more KRIS seeded fragments with impossible stairways, twisting libraries, figures made from icicles. A love triangle I\u2019d accidentally wrangled from the light permutations was forgotten about for three layers then re-appeared suddenly further down. When I realised quite the extent to which the story was procedural and responsive, it felt like a dizzying pit had opened up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

“Spidering Complexity…”<\/h3>\n

We also saw a great, meaty review on Gamasutra by Katherine Cross<\/a>, who calls it “a masterfully layered game about the significance of both writing and editing.” Cross digs into the themes and meta-themes of Ice-Bound<\/em> (AIs without rights, the interplay between physical and digital) but ultimately keeps returning to the relationship between writers,\u00a0their output, and their readers that was so central to our original thinking about the project:<\/p>\n

Those of us who write, fiction or non, are always lurking between our words. We spell out our DNA on the page, and traces linger after even the most antiseptic of editing.<\/p>\n

Ice-Bound<\/em> is about discovering what remains of the author between his words and pulling him free from them. In the process, whether you and KRIS finish Ice-Bound<\/em> or not, the sweep of the book comes to tell an unexpected story that evokes postmodern and magical realist fiction, with resonances of Borges, Joanna Russ or David Mitchell.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cross has some good critique about characterization and how smoothly everything comes together, but ultimately concludes that Ice-Bound Concordance<\/em> is\u00a0“a magisterial game…\u00a0the book leaves a glitchy, pixelated impression on one\u2019s mind long after one is done playing\/reading, and that\u2019s no small triumph.”<\/p>\n

\"icebound_shimmer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Other Appearances<\/h3>\n

We’ve cropped up a few other places recently, too.<\/p>\n