Lost Pig
Encyclopedia
Lost Pig is a comedic work of interactive fiction
about an orc
retrieving a pig that escaped from a pig farm. It was written by "Admiral Jota." It took first place in the 2007 Interactive Fiction Competition
with an average score of 8.27.
Lost Pig won best game, best writing, best individual non-player character, and best individual player character in the 2007 XYZZY awards.
Lost Pig finished with 18.7% of the votes for the Audience Award in the interactive fiction category in the 2008 Jay Is Games
Best of Casual Gameplay awards, placing it second after Violet
.
The game has been described as "hilarious" by reviewers for the The Onion
A.V. Club
and Jay Is Games
. Emily Short
described it as "superbly crafted," "insanely responsive," and recommended it to new players of interactive fiction, noting, "The polish is so thorough that it avoids the sorts of parser frustrations that usually catch novice players off-guard...."
A GameSetWatch review noted that "After only a few minutes of play, however, it becomes pleasingly obvious how much effort has gone into creating Grunk’s world."
The reviewer for Jay Is Games called Lost Pig "...stuffed to the rafters with personality."
The game's protagonist is Grunk, an orc who works at a farm. A pig under his care has escaped, and the game begins with Grunk looking for the pig. Chasing the pig, Grunk soon falls into an underground complex. To win the game, the player must get Grunk to capture the pig and find a way out of the complex.
As interactive fiction, the player types English commands into the game and the game responds in English. However, the protagonist, Grunk, speaks broken English. This means that the game's responses are frequently in broken English. A reviewer for The Onion A.V. Club notes that the broken English is "clever but never too cute" and that "[Grunk's] observations make a certain sense—and his matter-of-fact reporting has an awesome clarity...."
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
about an orc
Orc
An orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
retrieving a pig that escaped from a pig farm. It was written by "Admiral Jota." It took first place in the 2007 Interactive Fiction Competition
Interactive Fiction Competition
The Interactive Fiction Competition is one of the best known of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours playing a game before deciding how many points to award it...
with an average score of 8.27.
Lost Pig won best game, best writing, best individual non-player character, and best individual player character in the 2007 XYZZY awards.
Lost Pig finished with 18.7% of the votes for the Audience Award in the interactive fiction category in the 2008 Jay Is Games
Jay Is Games
Jay Is Games is a game review website that features daily updates and links to casual games, browser games and flash games of wide interest to casual gamers...
Best of Casual Gameplay awards, placing it second after Violet
Violet (computer game)
Violet is a work of interactive fiction by Jeremy Freese. It is a one-room puzzle game. It took first place in the 2008 Interactive Fiction Competition with an average score of 8.53....
.
The game has been described as "hilarious" by reviewers for the The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
and Jay Is Games
Jay Is Games
Jay Is Games is a game review website that features daily updates and links to casual games, browser games and flash games of wide interest to casual gamers...
. Emily Short
Emily Short
Emily Short is the pseudonym of an interactive fiction writer, perhaps best known for her debut game Galatea and her use of psychologically complex NPCs, or non-player game characters...
described it as "superbly crafted," "insanely responsive," and recommended it to new players of interactive fiction, noting, "The polish is so thorough that it avoids the sorts of parser frustrations that usually catch novice players off-guard...."
A GameSetWatch review noted that "After only a few minutes of play, however, it becomes pleasingly obvious how much effort has gone into creating Grunk’s world."
The reviewer for Jay Is Games called Lost Pig "...stuffed to the rafters with personality."
The game's protagonist is Grunk, an orc who works at a farm. A pig under his care has escaped, and the game begins with Grunk looking for the pig. Chasing the pig, Grunk soon falls into an underground complex. To win the game, the player must get Grunk to capture the pig and find a way out of the complex.
As interactive fiction, the player types English commands into the game and the game responds in English. However, the protagonist, Grunk, speaks broken English. This means that the game's responses are frequently in broken English. A reviewer for The Onion A.V. Club notes that the broken English is "clever but never too cute" and that "[Grunk's] observations make a certain sense—and his matter-of-fact reporting has an awesome clarity...."
External links
- Lost Pig (And Place Under Ground) — Official site
- Lost Pig entry at the Interactive Fiction DataBase — includes link to download the game, walkthrough, and reviews
- Lost Pig — Play online at Jay Is Games (requires Adobe FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
)