Convey, Or: The Countdown

Bob Clark is like Chris Crawford chased with Red Bull, he's got a simple yet elegant approach into interactive dialogue that we first reviewed as feature of his femicide game. Always willing to explore the plight of others through a Question, Yes, No, Answer dialogue system, Bob sort-of outdoes himself this time around. What sort is this of? You control a red robot in a factory full of spikes and coneyors, you press a single button (this was originally made for the Gamma IV competition) to channel the robot's face into a focused grimace, Hiro Nakamura style, and either reverse the flow of the conveyors or to charge up an answer to a bit of a dialogue. Ok, two dimensions to this dialogue game, the conversation puzzles and the conveyor puzzles. The plot thickens.

You're part of an experiment, finding this out on the first screen where a female scientist (effectively balancing out any theory that the designer is a misogynist) describes your role and function. In this first encounter your dialogue options are limited, with the Question being the most remote, the longest in terms of charging time, and therefore the most risky in the time-limited game you are ostenibly playing. You're told that if you find other robots and complete a conversation with them, you'll earn a check-point. Thus your sequential gamer brain is set to optmize the length of button-presses required to get as far as possible in a limited amount of time and earn those checkpoints.

The game then proceeds to fuck with you quite exquisitely. I could go into more detail but that might ruin it for you. Try it, be the robot. Another button to button.