Elizabeth Smyth and Ian Michael Waddell have been reviewing games of the 2019 IFComp in their audio podcast series VERB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Elizabeth's Bogeyman and Ian's Animalia shared the Best Writing XYZZY award for 2018. They pair respectively in episode 4 with fellow XYZZY nominees Ed Sibley (Dead Man’s Fiesta) and Katherine Morayati (Human Errors) to evaluate a new crop of entries. Elizabeth and Ed are currently narrative designers for Fusebox Games and thus know quite a bit about designing AI personalities in the context of dating sims, discussing robotsexpartymurder at generous length! Check out all four episodes for more IFComp reviews. 

Also please join the community at intfiction.org to discuss robotsexpartymurder and everything else that's happening in IF.

(Note that Verb Your Enthusiasm episodes are hosted on Patreon, but they are neither running a campaign nor asking for pledges.)

Verb Your Enthusiasm: Episode 4

Warning for spoilers and strong language. You might also want to check out the content warnings for some of these games, particularly The Mysterious Stories of Caroline, robotsexpartymurder and Turandot.

Games covered by Elizabeth and Ed:

- Night Guard / Morning Star by Astrid Dalmady (2:10) - The Mysterious Stories of Caroline by Soham S (9:40) - Dull Grey by Provodnik Games (19:17) - Let's Play: Ancient Greek Punishment: The Text Adventure by Pippin Barr (30:00) - robotsexpartymurder by Hanon Ondricek (35:12)

Games covered by Ian and Katherine:

- Turandot by Victor Gijsbers (1:01:30) - Iamb(ici) by Jo Lourdez (1:15:25) - Truck Quest by Donald Conrad and Peter M.J. Gross (1:16:03)