by Timothy Peers

I beta-tested this game prior to the comp. Some comments originally posted at https://www.bradleycbuchanan.com/b/ifcomp-postmortem/:

“Heated” I don’t want to talk about too much, as I’m not sure what Peers would like to share himself. Let’s just say that the version I tested was a much longer, more difficult game. There was a lot of work to be done to really polish it, and it seems Peers carefully shortened the game rather than release a longer, less polished work into the comp. I applaud the decision (see the overwhelmingly negative reaction to unfinished work year after year), but it doesn’t seem to have done him any favors in the rankings; the cut has caused reviewers to point out an abrupt ending, and to place the game in the unfortunate “my apartment” category that it may have escaped otherwise. I advised such a cut at one point in my notes, and feel a little guilty about it; Timothy, I’m sorry if I advised you poorly. We’ll never know how the longer version would have ranked, but I hope you release a director’s cut so that the community can see the huge amount of work that didn’t get released in the comp.

My beta-testing report: heated_20100828_annotated.pdf