Hacker News Reader

Comment by noduerme | Hacker News Reader

For anyone who hasn't read Matthew Burns's short fiction, it's as much of a treat as his writing for Eliza. I think he used to have more work online, but he's still got some short stories and interactive stuff here... https://matthewseiji.com

Full disclosure, I'm an old friend and glad to see him mentioned. I'm lucky enough to be reading an early draft of a novel he's been working on as we speak.

View on HN

Although it was never promised, I enjoyed Eliza and was hopeful of another visual novel through Zachtronics + Burns. Hopefully something in a similar spirit comes out in the future.

Wow, I just downloaded Eliza and man, it's like it was written specifically for me. So many parallels to my own life and interests, it's actually weird. I'd like to have a beer with that guy. I'll have to check out his other stuff.

That's awesome. Eliza touched me on a lot of levels as well. In fact, Matt and I used to play with the original Eliza (the therapist) together in second grade on a Mac SE, between rounds of "The Manhole" and "Glider" and trying to write our own game in Hypercard. So I'm, uh, more than slightly biased hahah. But even just explaining the premise of Eliza in a sentence or two seems to make people do a double take and a Keanu style "Whoa." It didn't even dawn on me until later how much the voice acting and production also really pays off. The game immerses you in spite of the minimalism / simplicity, the way staring at a good painting does. I think it's truly a work of art, or an attempt to break through the noise and say something about the human condition. At first blush the concept is just vicious, and pitch perfect at exploiting the zone between getting you to play along and making you feel deeply uncomfortable. And then you get drawn into the deep disillusionment with corporate culture and it's a free ride on your neurons for the game designers. It's a hell of a statement, presented immaculately. I passed your comment along.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com