Little Girl in Underland

[Akatosh]

The game itself was nice already, but the unlockable bonus? Motherfucking Karl Marx on a bicycle!  :o

That said, well done. 

[miguel]

well done!
this would have been very controversial if it was made in the 80s.
I remember a game named Spitting Images being talked all over the gaming scene, due to its political figures (Reagan, the Ayatolah, Tatcher, etc...)  and that was at the end of the 80s.
Very funny and enjoyable to play.

[Zyargeikunn]

The game itself was nice already, but the unlockable bonus? Motherfucking Karl Marx on a bicycle!  :o

That said, well done. 

How much did you have to drink?

[kaputtnik]

The game itself was nice already, but the unlockable bonus? Motherfucking Karl Marx on a bicycle!  :o

That said, well done. 

Yeah, that was a really successful allusion to the good old kolkhoz joke:

"Did you see that functionary on his brand new bicycle?"
- "No, I only saw the skidmarx."

[robvalue]

Very funny game, I enjoyed playing it, thank you

[Layabout]

I must say it is somewhat daring to draw the Evil Queen like that.

Ivy is now in Guantanamo Bay. She suffers for her art.

[Dualnames]

The game itself was nice already, but the unlockable bonus? Motherfucking Karl Marx on a bicycle!  :o

That said, well done. 

That sounds FUNNN!!!

[The Ivy]

Thanks everybodeeee.

AGA, Heh, next time I go insane and decide to make a game at Mittens (possibly next year) I'll be sure to cast you. You might have been spared the experience of faking an accent this time around, but I'll see what I can come up with in the next few months. Also, AGA and FSi, thanks very much for figuring out that translation for me. I was relieved that it was positive. When I saw my game surrounded by Russian text I had a small heart attack.

DutchMarco, heh, well, I suppose we'll have to disagree. I don't think there's anything really offensive about the game; it's just making fun of everyone, and it's so absurd I don't think anyone would take it seriously. Besides, I can't really insult a nation that doesn't exist any more, right? ...Right?

Ali, wow, thank you so much, that's really sweet of you to say. I did have a lot of fun drawing them, and I'm glad you liked the style (and that means a lot coming from you ). And yeah, Mittens is a week of solid fun, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to go.

Akatosh, thank you greatly, I really like that expression you used. I wanted to play your demake game but it seems to have...vanished from the face of the earth? Anyway, I hope it sees the light of day again some time, it looked like you guys put a lot of work into it.

miguel, heh, I just hope my name isn't on some list now...

Zyargeikunn & kaputtnik, those comments both made me smile. More Marx jokes, I say!

robvalue, you're quite welcome, sir!

Lay(about), I told you that was classified! Er, all right. Look. I *was* at Guatanamo Bay, but they locked me in this cell with only a pen and a newspaper, and I realized that if I looked through the keyhole...

Dualnames, how much have you had to drink?

Edit: Whoa, another Russian review! Thankfully positive...and masterfully translated.

Edit edit: Um...does anyone here speak Czech? This is a longer review of the game than I would have thought possible.

Edit edit edit: Yay, Little Girl is on internet TV!

[Dualnames]

Dualnames, how much have you had to drink?

A quite interesting amount I'd say.. anyways, got to love this game(not talking about basketball)

[kaputtnik]

Edit edit: Um...does anyone here speak Czech? This is a longer review of the game than I would have thought possible.

Yeah, these guys from plné hry always write escalating reviews. It will definitely take me longer to translate it than it took me to play it (no offense, my Czech has been going up-around-the-bend since I've not been using it much lately), but I'll try to give you the gist:

The article starts by explaining that it was a reference to American McGee's Alice but notices that this time the original tale of Alice in Wonderland had been twisted even more. Oh, and that the Soviet hymn was playing in the main menu. It then goes on telling the story quite depletively ("Little Girl was a normal girl, but one morning she awakes and receives bad news from the mouth of a coarse man and shortly thereafter starts to fall down and lands on both feet in Underland.") 

Well, then it says that there were practically no puzzles, but it was fun nevertheless because of the good story. The dialogs were also very well thought-out, the jokes will make you smile etc, etc. The author (a girl, by the way) then compares the characters to their role models quite elaborately (white rabbit, statue of liberty), devotes some extra space to the "magic stick" and discovers that it was actually a "rapid fire gun" ("rychlopalná střelná zbraň", what a nice long word).

And now the downside: It was too short. And the action player-wise consists mainly of hewing foes. If it wouldn't have, the game would have been rated with an 8 at least *honk, honk*

[Sythe]

Why was the final boss the statue of liberty whilst also being an advocate of state socialism? That doesn't make any sense at all.

[The Ivy]

Hey kaputtnik, thank you so much for going through the trouble of reading that. 

Wow, that sounds like an awfully complicated account of the game. They probably put more thought into the characters than I did! I was a little worried they'd start looking for political messages or something, but I'm glad they seem to have limited their analysis to the game itself. And I'm glad they seemed to enjoy it.

Also, I'm not gonna lie, I'm quite happy that I now know how to say "rapid fire gun" in Czech.

Sythe, there is actually some method to my madness. The Queen, feeling cornered, decides to offer a compromise to Little Girl so that they can "rule Underland together." So she describes what is actually a very fair system of government (federal laissez-faire, with the exception of some social services). But you know, as a faithful daughter of the republic, Little Girl can't allow that to happen.

[Sythe]

Sythe, there is actually some method to my madness. The Queen, feeling cornered, decides to offer a compromise to Little Girl so that they can "rule Underland together." So she describes what is actually a very fair system of government (federal laissez-faire, with the exception of some social services). But you know, as a faithful daughter of the republic, Little Girl can't allow that to happen.

I don't mean to be rude, but the system described is in no way fair.

A controlled highly regulated market in medicine, healthcare, and education pushes up prices astronomically by imposing state limits on supply meaning the poor cannot afford to purchase these services, as otherwise they might.

Once the price of these goods and services in the controlled market is astronomically high the state calls for their complete (or nearly complete) nationalization, which is then implemented and results in an expanded bloated socialist state.

The state is then unable and unwilling to meet its socialist promises of free services and a blackmarket for those services develops. At this point the government either gives up and re-opens the markets or passes new legislation to try blot out the blackmarket, at which point the state becomes authoritarian with military police controlling all economic transactions and meetings between people.

So really the economic system you have described is an unstable precursor to an authoritarian state socialism (communism), or a reduction of government. Either way it is not a stable system, nor fair system. And this is further evidenced by the fact that 10% of the American population pays 90% of the taxes.

Socialism, even market capitalism with socialist restrictions, is based on theft -- the violation of the right of private property. Being as this game is a joke about communism -- which is the complete abolition of private property -- it would be appropriate at the end to advocate a system of inviolable private property such as voluntarism. Rather than a violent system which has a considerable chance of becoming the very system you are laughing at. 

[Akatosh]

So forcing medication to have a reasonable maximum price (which appearantly is always at least 4000% of what it would be in a deregulated environment) always results in a 1984-esque facist state? Wow, I didn't know that. :

But let's discuss that elsewhere, this game is too awesome for us to allow its thread to turn into a political flamefest.

[ciborium]

Why was the final boss the statue of liberty whilst also being an advocate of state socialism? That doesn't make any sense at all.

It sounded like a perfect description of Amerika as it currently exists.  Perhaps if we could go back to being the United States again...

I enjoyed the game, but like the Chech site, wished there was a little more actual gameplay.  It didn't matter which item I used, it still killed the baddie after a few hits.

[Squinky]

OMG I need a walkthru!!!

Very cool, very fun little bit of entertainment. Thank you.

[Miez]

Whee! 4th place out of 60+ games. Well done, and congrats Ivy!

[Dualnames]

Congrats Ivy!!!

[Ghost]

Ivy, humble thanks for a good laugh! And just guess, Nanobots was on the cover DVD of a quite popular german magazine (PC Action) this month.

I am quite proud that, when me and my mates gather down at our watering hole, I can always lean back and say, "You know, I knew her when she was already famous."

[Thaatiba]

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