dead like ants was written by c.e.j. pacian, the author of gun mute - one of the games that inspired calamity annie. the interesting thing about gun mute, other than that it’s about a man who loves another man in the radioactive wild west of the future - is that although it’s type-a-command interactive fiction, where any word could conceivably be a game verb, there’s a clear effort on the author’s part to establish “shoot!” and “duck!” as primary verbs. i think that’s a compelling case for a constrained vocabulary in games, for the sake of better rapport between game and player.

anyway, dead like ants does a kind of thing i’ve talked a lot about, but divorced from the kind of play where dexterity is involved, which is where i’ve usually encountered it (because it is type-a-command interactive fiction). it’s a short play, so go on and play it. you’ll know what i’m talking about.