DELETE AFTER READING

평범하지 않은 세 인물들과 함께 위험한 미션을 떠나는 단편 텍스트 어드벤처 Delete After Reading 은 지금까지 살면서 겪을 수 있는 최악의 날을 겪은 한 아이가, “읽은 뒤 꼭 삭제해 !” 라는 문서가 담긴 기기를 주운 뒤 기묘한 작전에 휘말리게 되는 이야기이다. 알고 보니 주인공이 주운 기기는 그냥 기계가 아니라 유령 탐지기였고, 이 기기에 받은 메시지를 읽고 집 안 숨겨진 공간을 찾아낸 뒤 세 명의 친구들을 만나게 된다. 이 세 명의 친구는 보통의 사람들이 아니었는데, 유령 여자아이 Nina, 고블린 래퍼 Cinco, 그리고 말하는 토끼 Tomate 까지 전혀 일상 생활에서 볼 수 없는 인물들이다. 심지어 이들은 “운명 그 자체의 화신인 인물이, 자신의 흥미만을 위해 세상의 몇 가지 사건들의 흐름을 자기 마음대로 휘젓는 걸 막고 지금까지 기다려온 물건을 손에 넣기 위해 비밀 작전을 수행한다” 라는 파격적인 목표를 이야기해 준다. 그렇게 손에 넣고 싶은 물건은 세계정복 같은 게 아니라 “펭귄 섬의 저주” 라는 갓겜 시리즈의 최근작이며, 운명의 조작으로 인해 한 억만장자가 본인의 금고 안에 세상에 존재하는 단 한 패키지를 봉인해 두는 걸로 세상이 쓰여졌고, 이렇게 부당한 대우를 받는 갓겜을 우리들도 좀 하자 ! 라는 목표 하에 게임을 훔치는 미션을 수행하며 운명에게 엿을 먹이는 걸로 게임의 중후반부 스토리가 진행 및 마무리된다. 확실히 스토리의 경우 같은 개발자의 전작이었던 Unmemory 와 비교하면 매우 가벼워졌는데, 이 때문에 전체적인 스토리의 분위기가 경쾌하거나 유치하게 느껴질 수 있어도 부정적으로 느껴질 만큼은 아니라고 생각한다. 다만, 스토리가 빌드업을 한 것 치고는 중간에 끝나 버린 듯한 기분이 든 건 아쉬웠다. 정확히 말하자면, 게임 시작에는 뭔가 운명에 직접 맞서 싸울 듯한 큰 전개가 있나? 라는 기대를 가지게 하다가 결말 가서는 그 정도까지 광대한 스토리를 그리기에는 힘이 딸렸나 그런가 소규모 스케일의 엔딩을 맞이하였다. 뭔가 게임 내 퍼즐의 수를 증가하고 분량에 알맞게 가격을 올렸다면 좀 더 만족스러운 게임이 되었을 수도 있겠지만, 그래도 게임의 스토리가 이상한 방향으로 흘러가지는 않았으니 이에 대해 너무 비난할 마음은 들지 않았다. 실제 게임플레이의 경우는, 위에서 말한 Unmemory 와 똑같은 구조로 진행된다. 해당 게임을 안 해본 사람들을 위해 설명하자면, 일반적인 텍스트 어드벤처와는 다르게 단순히 텍스트만 읽으며 게임이 진행되지는 않는다. 텍스트를 읽다 보면 그림 – 텍스트에 설명하는 배경이나, 이러한 배경에 존재하는 오브젝트들 등등 – 이 텍스트 중간중간 나오며, 이렇게 나오는 텍스트와 그림과 직접적으로 상호작용을 하면서 퍼즐을 풀고 게임을 진행해야 한다. 이러한 구조 때문에 독특한 상호작용이 가능한데, 화면에 보이는 텍스트를 끝까지 읽고 위로 다시 스크롤을 하면서 퍼즐을 풀어야 한다던가, 아니면 위의 그림에서 상호작용을 한 뒤 이를 아래로 스크롤하면서 텍스트를 읽다 보면 무언가 변화가 생긴다던가 등등의 점 때문에 역동적인 그림책을 읽는 듯한 느낌을 준다. 이로 인해 게임의 몰입감이나 다양성은 이러한 게임플레이 구조 때문에 플레이어의 집중을 끌기 괜찮았다. 퍼즐의 난이도는 적당한 수준이다. 전작에서 후반부 퍼즐 난이도에 데인 기억이 있어서 좀 걱정했는데, 여기는 진행이 막힐 정도의 난이도를 지닌 퍼즐은 전혀 없었다. 오히려 약간 당황했던 부분은 마지막 챕터였는데, 마지막 챕터의 경우 퍼즐이 아니라 QTE 의 연속으로 이루어져 있다. Unmemory 의 경우도 QTE 챕터가 있었지만, 이 게임의 QTE 난이도가 그 게임보다 더 강하다. 한 7 ~ 8 번 시도하다 보면 깨지는 난이도이긴 한데, 몇몇 경우에는 클릭이 제대로 안 먹히는 경우가 있어서 억지로 게임 오버가 당하는 게 두 세번 있었고, 난이도 외적으로는 해당 구간을 하다 보면 나오는 음악이 귀에 거슬릴 수 있다. 그래도, 전체적으로 가벼운 난이도 때문에 단편 코믹 퍼즐 게임을 원한다면 플레이하기 알맞다고 생각한다. 결론적으로, 텍스트 어드벤처와 퍼즐을 적절히 섞어 놓으면서 이러한 장르를 표현한 방식이 의외로 역동적이며, 난이도 또한 그렇게 어렵지 않아서 가볍게 해 볼 만한 퍼즐 게임이라 생각해 추천. 플레이타임의 경우 약 1시간 정도로 그리 긴 게임은 아니니, 가격 대비 분량을 고려하는 사람이라면 이를 고려해서 구매를 결정하는 걸 권장한다. 여담) 만약 이러한 게임의 플레이 방식이 마음에 들었다면, 전작도 한 번 확인해 보는 걸 추천. 가끔 가다 높은 비율의 할인도 하는 편이라, 할인할 때 사면 값싼 가격에 꽤 난이도와 퀄리티 있는 퍼즐 게임을 해볼 수 있기 때문이다.

Family-friendly, cute puzzle game with unique style when it comes to everything – from gameplay to graphics. Lovely and short. Read/click/observe/figure out how to trick Destiny (that dude that makes your day EXTRA miserable sometimes – you know the guy) and change his plans to cruelly leave the most anticipated game in history (The Curse of Penguin Island) in the hands of a super-rich brat instead of sharing it with the world. In this IF/text-based puzzle adventure all the solutions are hidden in text or pictures you scroll through, as if you’d browse an interactive graphic novel. Some are easy, and some require out-of-the-box thinking that can stump you, but not for long – ultimately making it a nicely balanced (veering toward light) experience. Here are a few things that stood out for me: What worked: - Adorable story inspired by the best middle-grade fiction novels for kids. Part naïve, part adventurous, part crazy and funny. After long string of adventures that go between “dark -> extra dark -> so dark that you feel depression setting in” this is a welcome respite (and I love dark stuff, I just feel like “family-friendly” is an underrated category). - Puzzle element. Everything is hidden in text and pictures, but it involves more than just finding the right spot, but also “decoding” and solving rebus puzzles, which I always enjoy. - Graphics – brightly-colored, comic book-like 2D backgrounds and characters were a fantastic choice to carry this story. - The entire format of storytelling (and also a main gameplay mechanic) – scrolling through an interactive novel finding puzzles and clues – was a refreshing move amongst its more traditional adventure peers. What was “meh”: - The game autosaves in the end of each chapter (there are 5), so no manual saves. Again and again, I’m wondering why this is still in practice. Unless it’s survival horror – players should be able to save at any point. Especially in adventure game. What didn’t work: - There’s this song that’s a part of soundtrack of this game (I’ve heard it playing softly in the beginning – and it was fine, although not my kinda thing), but then it actually plays full on AS A TIMER for a puzzle that needs to be completed in 2 minutes. Literally - there’s no timer, so they offer you this song to make sure you’ll get done in time. The puzzle isn’t hard but requires timing/reflexes, and it’s built in a manner that you’d have to replay it several times to get everything right… Man, that song on repeat was something else! Although it was a part of the puzzle, I had to turn it off, otherwise my blood pressure would rise so high – I’d have to throw something at my computer, so I preferred no timer at all. This was a personal nitpick though, so if you’re a fan of this song – more power to you. I just couldn’t. - Really tempted to put “too short” in this category. But this would mean an oxymoronic “positive negative”. I liked the game enough to want to enjoy it a little longer. But you can finish it under 3 hours, no problem. Overall, short, sweet and entertaining. Good for a few hours of fun.

BEWARE, For those expecting a relaxing interactive fiction puzzle game, there is an infuriating and drawn out timed reflex event (with no way to skip) that will have you throwing your mouse against the wall.

[URL=https://steamcommunity.com/id/CharlieLima79/recommended/1388860]After reading/playing Patrones & Escondites’ pulpy [I]Unmemory[/I][/URL], I was excited to see them release another interactive fiction. I thought that if [I]Unmemory[/I] was any indication of the developers’ craft, [I]Delete After Reading[/I] would be a fun puzzle game at the very least. [I]Delete After Reading[/I] pretty much follows [I]Unmemory[/I]’s formula and structure. It’s a short story with interactive text and pictures that function as puzzles. While the story of [I]Unmemory[/I] is a thriller with a mature audience in mind, that of [I]Delete After Reading[/I] is a wish-fulfillment children’s fantasy that seems to aim toward early- to mid-teens as well. The cute, brightly coloured, minimalist/mid-century modern art illustrations that accompany the story really bring out the whimsy and childlike wonder of [I]Delete After Reading[/I]. For the most part, the puzzles aren’t difficult, though there tends to be one or two in each of the first 4 chapters that will make you scratch your head a bit more. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3027978055 [I]Delete After Reading[/I] is delightful and fun – that is until the fifth and final chapter. The entire chapter, be warned, is filled with quick-time events that require you to read and respond within time limit. This gauntlet of QTEs was set to a two-minute charming song that serves as a timer for the series of tasks. No, it’s not [I]Song 2[/I] by Blur, though it would have been a sonically better choice to match the tension. Can this gauntlet of QTEs be conquered within two minutes? Yes, after some trial and error. Was it fun? No. Did the song get annoying by the end? Of course. Why not a real timer that you can see? Who knows? A major part of the frustration stemmed from needing to repeat the gauntlet from the very beginning upon failing a task. Fail enough times and any joy that you might have had initially from the challenge will inevitably evolve to annoyance, then aggravation, and finally dissatisfaction with the gameplay. Adding to the sour note that the gauntlet left on, the ending was also somewhat anti-climactic. I thought that there would be a bigger confrontation at the end. There wasn’t any. The protagonist also learned and earned nothing significant that would dramatically alter his life as one would expect from a wish-fulfillment fantasy story. It seemed like there was a hidden ending to be found. At the time of this review, I couldn’t find any, nor were there any secrets to be uncovered like in [I]Unmemory[/I] to enrich the experience. For the most part, [I]Delete After Reading[/I] is a decent piece of entertainment that offers mildly to moderately challenging puzzles to be solved. It’s just a shame that, given the quality of storytelling that the developers had demonstrated before, this interactive fiction didn’t end on a strong note. While [I]Delete After Reading[/I] is good, it’s hard for me to enthusiastically recommend. It may be worth checking out if it goes on sale or if you need something quick to pass time. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3027977996

Neat short interactive fiction puzzle game, all the clues you need can require a bit of backtracking, either within the same page or other pages but none of them are permanently missable. HOWEVER: The game has accessibility issues, most notably the audio-only cues which lack captions, and the final chapter, which features unskippable QTEs and a time based puzzle which may prove challenging to those with a poor sense of time, where if you fail any of them you need to restart the chapter. (At least said chapter is relatively short, especially compared to chapter 4) ALSO: There is no save system within a chapter, you need to play a chapter in its entirety in one sitting to progress. Overall, still positive, but keep those drawbacks in mind, especially if QTEs or lack of captions bother you

ESP: Grata sorpresa me lleve con este juego, es un PDF jugable con puzzles difíciles y actuación de voz. La historia si bien un tanto infantil, es interesante y esta bien pulido. El único punto negativo es que hay que scrollear mucho con la rueda del mouse y se me cansaba el dedo. En la parte de guías hay un walkthrough por si se traban. Lo recomiendo mucho, encima [b] esta en español. [/b] ENG: I was pleasantly surprised with this game, it is a playable PDF with difficult puzzles and voice acting. The story, although a bit childish, is interesting and well polished. The only negative point is that you have to scroll a lot with the mouse wheel and my finger got tired. In the guides section there is a walkthrough in case you get stuck. Highly recommended.

[h1]Delete After Reading[/h1] Después de casi 3 años desde que Patrones y Escondites publicasen Unmemory, vuelven con otro libro juego. Esta vez un poquito enfocado al público infantil – juvenil: Delete After Reading. Su historia comienza con un día horrible, espantoso, horroroso… El peor de nuestra vida. En el cole nos han mandado un mogollón de ejercicios, nos han dado de comer el plato más horrible y el que más odiamos… y para colmo casi perdemos el bus. Pero, hemos encontrado un extraño aparatillo en el bus. Una especie de radio, o walkie para buscar y detectar fantasmas. Bah, un juguete seguro. Cuando de repente: BIIIIIIIIIN BIIIIIIN El aparato empieza a pitar para que lea un mensaje. [b] Lee y toma nota[/b] Al poco de empezar a jugar, leer en este caso, ya nos daremos cuenta de que necesitamos cerca una libreta y un boli para tomar notas. De hecho, se nos avisa de ello en el menú del juego. Cuando no llevemos ni dos párrafos de lectura, nos aparecerá el primer puzle. Un puzle enrevesado y de prestar mucha atención. Con este puzle ya te das cuenta de que va en serio la historia y te quiere con el cerebro en funcionamiento. Después de unos cuantos puzles más y una lectura que engancha, conoceremos a nuestros compañeros de aventuras: Nina, un fantasma cambia formas, Cinco, un duende rapero y Tomate, un conejo que odia a los perros y canta como Frank Sinatra. Ellos nos darán nuestra misión principal: recuperar la única copia del mejor videojuego de todos los tiempos: Penguin Island. Esta copia fue comprada por un coleccionista rancio y usurero, que únicamente quiere los juegos dentro de sus cajas. Sin jugarlos, abrirlos ni disfrutarlos. [b]El Destino y jugar con él[/b] En todo el libro se nos nombra varias veces a Destino y su libro. Un ente malvado que le gusta hacer sufrir a las personas extraordinarias o con capacidades especiales. Quizás, nuestro día no hubiera sido tan espantoso de no andar Destino por medio. Destino, no nos pondrá las cosas muy fáciles. Los acertijos se irán complicando cada vez más a medida que avancemos. Pero resulta que, nuestros avispados compañeros, se dedican a cambiar el libro de Destino, para conseguir resultados más favorables para todo el mundo. En este caso, sospechan que el multimillonario que ha conseguido Penguin Island en la subasta mundial, lo hizo de forma fraudulenta. Necesitamos reunir pruebas de ese fraude, recuperar el juego y que no nos pille Destino en nuestra labor. [b] Un juego que se lee, un libro que se juega[/b] Para las personas que no conozcan este estilo de juegos, debo decir que son más cómodos de jugar en tablet o móviles. Unmemory en la tablet era una delicia. Como un ebook interactivo en el que podías hacer casi de todo. Lamentablemente con Delete After Reading no es el caso. En esta ocasión, el juego para Android no está muy bien optimizado y tiene pequeños fallos que no le hacen sobresalir e incluso dificultan el disfrute. En cambio, su versión para Steam es maravillosa. Es de lectura muy ágil y no se te cansa la vista. Utilizando ÚNICAMENTE el ratón, que es de lo más cómodo para avanzar a base de clics. El doblaje que tiene es sobresaliente, jugado con cascos hace que tu lectura sea de lo más inmersiva. Posee párrafos cortos, de lectura sencilla para que sea fácil para todas las edades. Contando además con imágenes muy coloridas y divertidas de cada escenario y personaje. También con algunas partes frenéticas de estilo comic. [b] Conclusiones[/b] Delete After Reading, es un juego muy corto, de apenas 3h de duración. De lectura sencilla y divertida enfocada a un público juvenil. Posee unas ideas muy buenas, pero, tiene pequeños “peros” que no le hacen sobresalir. El detector de fantasmas está muy mal aprovechado para todo lo que trae. Así como la riqueza de personajes e historia que te plantean al inicio y no se llegan a aprovechar. (¿Quizás para nuevas aventuras o juegos?). A mitad del relato todo se acelera y parece que importan más las prisas que lo que te están contando. La historia se divide en 5 capítulos, siendo el 5º el más desesperante y rápido de todos. La fuga se hace muy pesada, puesto que son diferentes fases consecutivas, una detrás de otra, a contrarreloj y un pequeño fallo en una de ellas, te hará comenzar de nuevo el capítulo. (Por no decir, que la canción de Tomate ayuda poco) El juego no tiene guardado, tan solo puedes elegir capítulo, pero bueno, tampoco se ve necesario, puesto que en 3 horitas te lo terminas. En definitiva, para juego de una tarde está fenomenal, es cortito, divertido y desafiante en sus puzles, pero si venís de UNMEMORY, os parecerá extremadamente corto y apresurado en comparación y que no han sabido aprovecharse de sus personajes. Reseña completa en [url=https://www.devuego.es/blog/2023/03/30/delete-after-reading-jugando-a-leer/] [b]DeVuego[/b][/url]

Really enjoyed this one! It's like it combines everything I love about gamebooks, point-and-click adventures, and text-based adventures all into a single game. I also like the references both to the Monkey island series and to other games of my childhood. Tbh, Chapter 5 is a real doozy but I finally made it. If you need some help there (or in any of the previous chapters), feel free to check out my guide :) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2950434477 Note that, as the other reviewer has pointed out, you can complete the game within 2-3 hours. I took a lot longer because I was busy compiling my guide.

I love the music and art style, and how different the interaction of a point and click this is. This can be played in one sitting even though some of the puzzles are a head-scratcher, there are hints available. Family-friendly all around, could be played couch co-op style. The audio clips from the ghost box could use some captions for accessibility purposes. There are a few typos but nothing game-breaking. Could be more optimized for streaming.

Este juego ha sorprendido gratamente. Me ha encantado su humor y tono, me ha transportado a los juegos que inventaba con amigos en mi infancia. Los personajes son muy carismáticos, en especial Tomate que me ha encantado. Las pruebas me han parecido que escalaban muy bien en dificultad, el tipo de estas era variado pero sin despistar o abrumar. Me ha encantado el estilo de interacción que proporcionaba el juego y, sobre todo, lo he disfrutado mucho. Definitivamente lo recomiendo, sobre todo para jugarlo en familia e introducir los juegos de puzles y acertijos a los pequeños.