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Switcheroo

by The Marino Family

Episode 3 of Mrs. Wobbles
2015

(based on 8 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

When Derik went to sleep, he was a boy who could not walk, but today he awoke to find more than one thing had changed. Will he be able to find his way in the world as a girl? Will he be able to go back to who he was? Who does he want to be after all?

Switcheroo is the 3rd installment of "Mrs. Wobbles and the Tangerine House," a series of choice-based stories about a magical foster care home run by the mysterious Mrs. Wobbles and narrated by a living book. Due to its subject matter, this installment, which is meant to stand on its own, is aimed at a slightly older demographic than the others (10+ yrs old). I've composed this story with my two children, and our goal is to help increase awareness about foster care and adoption while creating storygames for kids and adults to enjoy together. (Illustrated by Brian Gallagher, feat. poem by Ryka Aoki)


Game Details


Awards

25th Place - 21st Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2015)

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Number of Reviews: 2
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A great game for all ages, November 19, 2015
by Felicity Banks (Canberra, Australia)
Related reviews: IFComp 2015

Decent writing, interesting story.

I thought going straight into peeing might not be a great narrative choice, but it depends on the reader. The stuff about gender is either fantastic or terrible (is it exploring ideas of gender, gender vs identity, etc..... or is it ignoring the complexities to have a male character who must therefore innately hate dolls etc?) The final choice was very interesting.

One of the stat boxes blocked my view of the text, which drove me bonkers. It only has that flaw in Internet Explorer.

The end was bittersweet, which was the right choice even though it's unusual for a children's story.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A family-written Undum story about a kid who changes overnight, February 3, 2016
by MathBrush
Related reviews: IF Comp 2015

Switcheroo is part of a family-friendly series of stories about a witch who runs a foster home. All parts of the story involve a certain writing style, where the narrator is a magic book that coughs up 'pageballs' from time to time.

In this tale, the focus is on Derik, who goes to sleep as a boy in a wheelchair and wakes up as a girl.

Later, some good things start happening in their life due to the switch. And they have to decide whether to keep their new body and identity, or go back to their old.

This game has affected a lot of different people in different ways. There is an obvious interest from the transgender community to see how this story is represented, and those who have experience adoption have responded to it as well. My family includes some who are permanently disable and use wheelchairs, so it was very interesting for me to think about this game.

Overall, I had fun playing through the first time, but I didn't look forward to replaying this game for the review. I would recommend this game to those looking for a family-friendly game or for a game that examines social issues in detail.

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Switcheroo on IFDB

Polls

The following polls include votes for Switcheroo:

Child-friendly CYOA (or other interface that's not traditional parser) by blue/green
Most of the games I see on the "appropriate for children" lists are pure parser IF. Are there kid friendly games that have a more accessible interface? CYOA, hyperlink, hybrid parser--any interface that offers some help in figuring out...




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