IFComp Awards - Results Livestream:
Ürs mention @1:01:53

The Slime Machine on Twitter:

The Slime Machine on Twitter: 8. Urs (or, uh, Uers?) - YA fantasy about a warren of rabbits threatened by a mysterious THUMP. Reminiscent of Watership Down, lots of weird science & fantasy elements, dream-like atmosphere makes it endlessly fascinating​. https://twitter.com/bitterkarella/status/1055933891456856064

The Short Game: 166: IFComp

166: IFComp 2018 part 3b – The Short Game
IFComp 2018 is nearing its conclusion, so it's time for a few last games! On this episode we discussed: 00:46:40 Urs by Christopher Hayes and Daniel Talsky.
https://www.theshortgame.net/166-ifcomp-2018-part-3b/

These Heterogenous Tasks

Ürs: 'It's Watership Down but in the ruins of an ancient space civilization.' Well, OK, it's a whole lot less brutal than Watership Down, and has more mysterious-machine buttons to press. Gorgeous art – some of the best I've seen in any IF – lifts the whole thing. Play if: you're the kind of jerk who bothers your friends and family by waving illustrated books at them and saying 'just fucking look at this, it is fucking unreal how good this is.' Doom rating: 2/10 extinction-level events. https://heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com

Urs Review - ricordius.com

Urs. We're a rabbit, and immediately I start thinking "Watership Down". I assume the illustrations are meant to be more figurative than directly representational (they're cartoons, after all) but it seems we're represented as a black rabbit with red eyes. Oooh, so we're the Black Rabbit of Inlé, the very personification of death itself? Cool

Well, no. As the story progresses, it looks as though we're actually part of a barbaric society left over from the fall of a great space-faring civilisation, the "Ur-rabbits" or "Urs" of the title. The ground-shaking "thuds" that begin the story (not, after all, the pile-driver of a construction site) represent a threat that must be dealt with, and we will have to find the Urs to do so.

The diction here seems to be simplistic, almost childish, by design. Our protagonist is, after all, only a rabbit. There's the wonder and curiosity as we wander the halls of the Urs, trying to express with our limited understanding and vocabulary the things that we discover. I thought there was a sense of folk legend about it, though your mileage may vary. I rather liked it.

Towards the end, though, the game seems to be pushing rather heavily on the temptation to give up and go home. It seems to be going for a moral about doing what's right and necessary to preserve society and/or save the world. I don't know, but it felt a bit as though that moral were shoe-horned into a story whose themes of discovery seem quite adequate without it.

As a breakfast, I think this might be a simple French omelette with a side of home fries and fried mushrooms, accompanied by a glass of orange juice and a cup of herbal tea. Well, a "simple" French omelette ... that's never as simple as it looks.
http://www.ricordius.com/intfic/ifcomp18/urs.htm

Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling

If you want evocative, illustrated story:

Ürs is an illustrated hypertext piece about a rabbit who has to learn to manipulate the technology of the ancients in order to save their warren. The art is really good: beautiful, stylish illustrations for every location that manage to communicate the functionality of the technology, the wonder of the setting, and the viewpoint of the rabbit (along with a little Watership Downflavor) all at once. It's very mildly puzzle-y in a way that I think most people will find easy to solve, but that component gives the story a bit of body and some agency for the player.

IF Comp Roundup | Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling
IF Comp is now over for the year! Here are a few recommendations for different audiences, depending on what you're looking for.   If you want serious story: Bogeyman (hypertext) is a story of children who have been taken away by the eponymous character as punishment for behaving badly. It's a little simplistic to describe… https://emshort.blog/2018/11/16/if-comp-roundup/

Emily Short on Twitter:
.@ifcomp game Ürs is a gorgeously illustrated, somewhat puzzly hypertext game about saving your warren of rabbits. The art for this is some of the best I've seen in free IF -- evocative and with a strong sense of style that supports the story.​https://twitter.com/emshort/status/1050416485519245318

xyzzysqrl: IFCOMP - FIRST 5 GAMES COMPLETE

GAME 4: Ürs, A rabbit odyssey by Christopher Hayes and Daniel Talsky of [[Rabbit, Rabbit]]

Game Description from the IFComp Site: You're a regular rabbit who's lived in the same warren your entire life. You have no reason to leave, but the THUD threatens to destroy all the baby kittens. Maybe something in the ancient places of the Ürs could help. A lushly illustrated adventure about rabbits, inspired by Watership Down, City of Ember, Skyrim, Caves of Qud, Super Mario Brothers, and Apocolypse now.

Well there's a fricking pedigree, now isn't it? Also I'm sorry, Urs, I'm not umlatting you every time I type that title.

All right, having just finished Urs, here's a list of everything wrong with it:

- Some typos and awkward grammar.
- The ending text made reference to some events I never saw on my first play-through because I was not quite thorough.
- The ending puzzle is perhaps a BIT learn-by-failing if you don't pick up on the contextual cues.

Aside from those things, I'm prepared to call this the first jewel of the Comp (that I've played). The writing here is vigorously rabbitesqe, the game text stays strongly in character at all times, the reveals aren't exactly surprising but were well-executed, and there was a heartfelt coda that gave me a warm feeling. This one is absolutely in my "yes, play this" pocket for introducing people to web-based/choice-based IF now.

That said, the typos and grammar mistakes were kind of really distracting. It wasn't a perfect game, and I feel like I should hedge my bets a little. I'm going to give this a score of 8 because scores of 9 and 10 ideally belong to even stronger games. 

It's got a strong furry appeal. I know that was probably unintended, but it's right there.

Why the "Urs", anyway? https://xyzzysqrl.dreamwidth.org/851288.html

catacalypto: IF Comp ’18 Recommendations Roundup

"Urs: This is the opposite of Master of the Land: I'm not personally interested in rabbit adventure stories (blame Watership Down), but I can recognize the quality of story, execution, and visuals. (The visuals in particular do a great deal to flesh out the world vividly.) The character voices are particularly strong, and the puzzles aren't difficult, but neither do they feel tacked on or an afterthought. The sort of game I'd absolutely recommend to a kid getting into IF. (I get this question a surprising amount, and Birdland and Ryan Veeder's games are my current automatic pulls.)" https://catacalypto.wordpress.com/2018/11/01/if-comp-18-recommendations-roundup/

IFComprehensive: Ürs, by Christopher Hayes and Daniel Talsky

Ürs is a choice-based story about a rabbit who appeals to aliens (or some variety of advanced being) to save the warren from its imminent destruction. Comparisons to "Watership Down" are inevitable, but this work has an original tone and art style.

Gameplay: Although the game is choice-based, gameplay varies from puzzles to conversation trees to exploration. None of the puzzles are particularly elaborate, though, and the game is mostly about just wandering around the environment. It's a very diverse environment with many compelling areas, though, so the exploration doesn't feel like a chore. 7/10.

Mechanics: The different areas of the game are seamlessly put together, and exploration was smooth throughout. The world was smaller than I first expected, though, and more puzzles, conversations, or locations to visit would have made it a more memorable experience and improved its pacing. 6/10.

Presentation: The art in the game is excellent, and it complements the text rather than being a distraction or pointless embellishment. Both the illustrations and text remind me of a children's book. Aside from a few minor mistakes in spelling and punctuation, the text was solid. The tone might have grated a bit in a longer work (e.g., "Without the Warrenherd rabbits might not do anything other than scuffle, dig and sleep the rest of their time away in the fluffle huddle."), but it was fine for a game of this scope. 8/10.

You might be interested in this game if: You like children's books about rabbits.

Score: 7 https://ifcomprehensive.com/2018/10/27/urs-by-christopher-hayes-and-daniel-talsky/

McT's Interactive Fiction Reviews

I am extremely curious as to why this game is advertised as Leprophilia – which, from a quick google, means : a strong abnormal attraction to people with leprosy. That's ..interesting… in a game about rabbits. Only joking. I'm assuming it's meant to be from the Latin for rabbit, Leporidae, and means someone who really likes rabbits? Or worse! No! I'm not going down that rabbit hole. See what I did there? (Technically, appending the philia, to denote strong attraction, to a latin noun, one would keep the whole of the first bit so it would be Leporiphilia. Probably.)

Anyway.

A mid-length choice game, Urs is a strong contender for 'most beautifully illustrated game in the IFcomp of all time ever.' The THUD is getting worse, and beginning to destroy the warren you have lived in you whole life. The elders don't seem to realize the extent of the threat, so you take it upon yourself to investigate.

The world presented here does a good job of creating a mythology – the illustrations work wonderfully to complement the text and give a flavor to this world. The viewpoint is consistent – we are looking at the world through a rabbit's eyes. Had I a criticism, the third main area – the City – could have been fleshed out more – as it stands, we are presented with three rooms, each of which has a job to do as regards progressing the game. It would have been nice had this been a larger area to explore and had more branching conversation options that gave a lot more info about the Ur.

The game does a good job of mixing it up a bit around interaction mechanism. There is an interesting part in the middle of the game where you are given a graphical navigation mode – all arrows and boxes. This part of the game is quite puzzle oriented, with various mechanisms that can be interacted with and affect one another. However, this can't be done until you progress further into the game – which does a pretty good job of cuing you on what you need to do to finish.

I wish the text were a little stronger – it needs a final sweep through for typo's and grammar. It's the sort of stuff a strong proof-reader would pick up 'tails' for 'tales', 'cieling ' – that sort of thing. Also, there are a couple of issues with game state – for example, visiting the monolith, doesn't remember that I actually dug yesterday – so still sends me back to sleep – there are a few of these 'state remembering' issues – especially in the machine rooms. Nothing huge, but really need fixing.

It's not a long game, this. I finished it in about 45 minutes or so, but those illustrations are super pretty – I would put those pictures on my walls. The main 'game' element I found to be strong, and, had the text been a little more polished and some aspects given a little more history, this would have been right up there. 8/10. https://mctreviews.video.blog/2018/10/15/urs/

IFComp 2018 Round-up : Games – McT's Interactive Fiction Reviews

"The following are my personal pick of the games this year. This isn't in any way a 'prediction' of where they'll place, and I'm most definitely not saying these are the 'best' games in the competition. These are the games I most enjoyed."

"... Urs – probably the most beautifully illustrated game in the competition. It's also a compelling World – this world of rabbits, and the puzzle systems are well done."

https://mctreviews.video.blog/2018/11/06/ifcomp-2018-round-up-part-1-games/

Ürs - intfiction.org

My favourite Richard Adams book will always be Shardik, but I have a soft spot for Watership Down: 'All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies...' This also raises my expectations of the writing quality, perhaps unfairly high. That Richard Adams, he could burrow a line right through your ventricles.

First of all, 'lushly illustrated' is an honest description: the art is luminously sweet, with a mystical 90's vibe. To contrast with this imagery, Ürs is set in one of those familiar semi-dystopias where life is actually not too bad at this very moment, but everything feels Ominous. It's my tendency to feel flat terror whenever people are trying to sound reassuring about random loud noises...but I go against my instincts, and try to agree with our wise leader that it will All Be Fine.

OK, scratch that. Quest time. I get a piece of rather dry starting advice from an old guardian rabbit who hears out my fears for our warren:
If you think more rabbits need to be born then I guess you can try and do something about it.

Old timer, are you telling me I need to quit philosophising and...ahem...be a bit more rabbit? This line made me chuckle, and I really hope it was deliberate. The old timer doesn't rise to such witticisms again, sadly, and instead lapses into Rabbit Yoda:

Ye go seek out thee places of the Ürs? That much I will advise deeply against young one.

It's never very clear why he's so against it: eventually, I meet the Ürs, and their main danger is that like a lot of people into Higher Things, they are boring. This is where I'm going to get unfairly critical, because a lot of work has clearly gone into this game and it deserves better than a wow-so-pretty on the illustrations: I'm in the sanctum sanctorum of ancient rabbit technology. I don't require mind-blowing verbal descriptions (thought I like them. Pedal to the Black Rabbit Metal, if possible). But each the chamber of each Old One needs to be distinctive and give me a sense of their personality before they became an Ascended Rabbit Master; the more personal, humble, or surprising, the better.

It just feels like a missed opportunity, because these beings were clearly, at some point, creatures somewhat like the player – and the minimum-entry price for becoming a god is your former identity. I want to know more about them. Much more. What they can recall of themselves, and what they've forgotten.

Overall, Ürs is a charming game with a few highly soluble puzzles and lovely art. The tone of the player/narrator is consistent, and my only criticism here is that the location descriptions need filling out in a few places, notably the Ürs citadel and the (small and easily navigated) semi-maze. I get the feeling that this patchiness was due to time constraints. As an enthusiast for extremely obscure words, I'd also like to take a moment to note the title.

Prize: a pitted ingot in the form of a rabbit gazing skywards. Left on a shelf overnight, it will be found pointing towards Alpha Leporis.

Author: emshort [ Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:02 pm ]
Ordinarily, I am also in favor of text descriptions being rich and nuanced. Here, though, I felt like the illustrations were so gorgeous — stylish, evocative, communicative — that it worked as a narrator-characterization choice to make the protagonist's descriptions a little simpler and more mundane, for contrast. In particular, the narrator's concerns are often either physical with lots of references to its own rabbit body, or else about how it would explain things in the terms other rabbits would understand. Both the high technology of the Urs and the rabbit perspective of the warren are alien to me in some fashion, but the pair of alien viewpoints made for an experience that was fairly novel. At any rate, I wasn't bored, but I did sketch in a lot of my impression of the world from the illustrations as well as the text.

Author: tmack [ Sat Oct 27, 2018 5:47 pm ]
A medium-length game with cool art. I've posted a review on my blog here: https://ifcomprehensive.com/2018/10/27/urs-by-christopher-hayes-and-daniel-talsky/

Author: The0didactus [ Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:33 am ]
I'm a designer in this year's competition, but I have now played more than half of the games entered. For what it's worth, I thought I'd take a moment to designate a favorite. It is this one. This is an incredible game, and I wouldn't be inclined to think so, as I usually prefer text games and don't have a strong reaction to images...but the artwork in this game...it's incredible! Also: I will confess that my love of watership down lead me to play this game before many others. I was worried it would be a ripoff or a variation...but it is something else entirely. Something very, very good.

Author: HanonO [ Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:05 pm ]
The art made me nostalgic for the blacklight posters in my room in high school!

Author: Sobol [ Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:29 pm ]
A strong candidate for Best Setting and Best Use of Multimedia XYZZYs.

https://intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=26705

IFComp 2018 Review – Datalexic

Ürs is a gorgeously illustrated game about a rabbit who lives in a warren that appears idyllic on the surface, but which opens up into a larger extraterrestrial world with signs of an older civilization whose technology may be able to help prevent a looming disaster.
 

The gameplay of the story is focused on navigating through the world of the rabbits, including the warren, the tunnel system leading to the surface, and finally a set of ancient ruins. The detailed illustrations help visually orient the reader as to the current physical location in the story, and there is an interesting input mechanism at one point in the story that highlights links within a text-based map, allowing easy hops to adjacent rooms within a multi-room building.

While navigating through the space is delightful, the story struggles a bit to keep up. The focus from passage to passage rests strongly on exploration, but progress is ultimately very linear. A compelling narrative could pick up the slack, but the story doesn't deliver on initial promises of tension, character development, or momentum. There are some welcome opportunities to engage in dialogue with key characters, but these dialogues don't lead to impactful choices, and much of this dialogue ends up functioning as exposition or instruction for how to complete the main puzzle. And while the world building is generally intriguing, it remains more of a sketch than a realization.

The overarching puzzle in the game is executed very cleanly and beautifully, but is also fairly straightforward. And because of the lack of dramatic tension throughout, the feeling of success at the end is somewhat tempered by the sense that there's not quite enough meat on this beautifully carved set of bones. https://datalexic.com/ifcomp-2018-reviews/

Rating: 7/10