Ryan Veeder's Judgment of "The Gay Science"

I will give this Entry a score lower than is merited by its quality, because it does not appeal to me personally. It is your responsibility, Reader, to laud this game in ways I cannot.

Look at this wonderful Entry. The playable game is so terse and slight. Almost meaningless.

But then the source code text tells this beautiful story. And it tells it mechanically! Possibly you don't even need the comments. The raw rules, declarations, and tables are very affecting. And in the mechanics you see how the bland sentences of the playable game are instantiations of underlying fundamental truths.

One of the videos I offered as a creative jumping-off point for Entrants in this round was the Hot Toddies song Wet Dream. I don't think Capricorn van Knapp necessarily took this song as inspiration. But this game and it source code text convey to me with procedural text generation the same sentiments that the Hot Toddies convey in their lyrics: The universality of love and suffering, the synthesis of small heartbreaks and immense tragedies in the totality of our shared human sickness.

This is a great work of art. But it is too serious for Ryan Veeder. It makes me sad. Therefore I award The Gay Science 7.3 points out of 10.