The 12:54 to Asgard by J. Robinson Wheeler
[spoiler]This game started out well. It progressed from good, to great, proceeded towards astounding, then suddenly crashed into mediocrity and failure. Yet again I find myself praying to pagan goddesses for a fixed-up post-comp release.
The introduction was flavorful. Walking around the studio picking things up had a nice old-school feel to it. Lots of good descriptions. Although it certainly didn’t seem to be required, I enjoyed cleaning up the maintenance closet and putting everything in the proper places. The tag on the suitcase hinted at things to come. So did “an open suitcase (which is open)”, but I didn’t realize it at the time.
Up on the catwalk, I spent far too much time trying to make the tree house safer by attempting to clean it with the mop and the sponge. Repairing the snake was more fruitful (although seemingly pointless in the scheme of things). My thought that I would need the tar paper, the rubber sheet, and the tile to repair the leak was quickly dispelled, and I proceeded to nail the tile on.
I knew what the game was setting me up for, but was determined to avoid my fate. First I tried to manufacture a safety harness from the feather boa. Then I tried for many minutes to use the drill and screws rather than the hammer and nails; that should at least have been implemented better but at the time I was still to enamored of the game to care.
Finally, I turned around and took that fateful swing with the hammer. Still trying to save myself, I grabbed at the snake, but it didn’t hold.
Ok, so I’m dead. I knew all along this was coming, but was still surprised at how well it was done. I take stock of myself and my surroundings. The units of currency are obviously a reference to something, but I don’t get the joke. Oh well. At this point I’m regretting my grab for the snake, so a stack of UNDOs later I’ve grabbed the suitcase instead. I’m a little worried that I should have stocked it better with some of the things I left in the maintenance closet, but trust that the game would have let me know if I were in an unwinnable state.
Across the water, I have a hard time figuring out that up is the correct direction to go in. No worries, I got it after a few tries. Then I meet Polly, and things take a turn for the worse.
>talk to polly
Polly doesn't even seem to hear your question, which is probably her way of politely refusing to talk about anything she's not interested in.
>ask polly about herself
Polly doesn't even seem to hear your question, which is probably her way of politely refusing to talk about anything she's not interested in.
>ask polly about me
You ask Polly about yourself.
Polly doesn't even seem to hear your question, which is probably her way of politely refusing to talk about anything she's not interested in.
>ask polly about death
Polly doesn't even seem to hear your question, which is probably her way of politely refusing to talk about anything she's not interested in.
>ask polly about turnstiles
(the turnstiles)
You ask Polly about the turnstiles.
Polly doesn't even seem to hear your question, which is probably her way of politely refusing to talk about anything she's not interested in.
>ask polly about boat
Polly doesn't even seem to hear your question, which is probably her way of politely refusing to talk about anything she's not interested in.
Ugh.
So I take a look at the turnstiles. Clued by Polly, I try turning each of them. One glides, one grinds, one stops and one goes backwards. Being a contrary type of person, I select the quartz turnstile which goes backwards… back to the studio!
So… there is no body in evidence, and all the flavortext seems to be the same as the first time around. Object status and location have NOT reset, but I find the suitcase with most of my belongings in the lost and found area. Notably missing are the hammer and nails, which seem to have disappeared at the time of my unfortunate accident.
I wander around the studio for quite a while. There is nothing left to do. I can’t leave. I can’t even re-create my accident and die again because I don’t have the hammer and nails. I have a save point before giving the coins to death, but I’m low on time (yes, I play slowly) and this situation has taken away my will to continue playing.
Maybe there is a way to continue from this point… I’m kind of bad at puzzles a lot of the time. But if there is a way to continue, it’s not covered by the walkthrough. So I quit.
Up until the point where it started sucking, this game rocked.[/spoiler]
I am thinking of a new scoring policy. If a game seems to have been completed and tested before the competition deadline, I will give it a 10. Otherwise, I will give it a 1. That way if an unfinished or untested game wins the competition, at least I will not be to blame. Does anyone have thoughts on this?