What is The Commune?
We're a group of gamers, and we're always looking for new gamers to join us. Every month or so, we pick a game to play. We chat about the game together, and we record podcasts, record videos, and write essays. You can reach The Commune in the following ways: As for me, I'm Greg Livingston, but I go by Golem. I organize things around here.

Counterfeit Monkey

Started on Feb 1, 2014
Ended on Mar 15, 2014
View this game's forum
This is a text adventure where the main puzzle solving mechanics involve wordplay and word modification.

On an island where wordplay counts as cutting-edge technology, you're a spy smuggling a letter remover.

Also note that we have an interview with Emily Short, the writer and developer of Counterfeit Monkey.

Tags: Linux Mac Windows adventure puzzle text
 

Podcasts

Feb 10, 2014
What steps do we take to solve puzzles? What tactics lead to success, and what tactics frustrate the player?
Mar 17, 2014
How does Counterfeit Monkey pull together a sequence of puzzles into one unit? Let's look at repairing a car and the puzzles within.

Posts

Mar 24, 2014
Fox takes the space of Counterfeit Monkey and maps it to a grid.
Mar 24, 2014
Yourself reflects on the use of puzzles as a method of world-building in Counterfeit Monkey.
 

Interviews

Mar 26, 2014
Emily Short discusses how she constructed Counterfeit Monkey, both in terms of individual puzzle logic and the overall rhythm of the game.

External Resources

Mar 24, 2014
A flow chart of Counterfeit Monkey's puzzles. Useful for considering the number of solutions to a puzzle and sorting out the flow of the game!
Mar 24, 2014
Emily Short's site for Counterfeit Monkey. You can download it here. Be sure to check out the source text, which contains plenty of notes from Emily Short.