Inevitable - Matthew Pfeiffer

ifcomp.org/ballot#entry-1640

Blurb:

The walkthrough (both in the ZIP and linked from ifcomp.org) is another copy of Inevitable.zblorb (which doesn’t obviously contain a walkthrough).

(And we’re stuck, can you tell?)

The core puzzle is simple and plausible, but the implementation is lacking.

[spoiler]You have to convince the intruder that the mannequin is you. Put your lab coat and goggles on it, drop it in the room, and hide in the closet.

My first instinct was to put the mannequin on the bed, since that seemed more likely to work. You can put the mannequin ON the bed, but not IN the bed. Unfortunately, if the mannequin’s on the bed, the intruder ignores it.

I’m also not sure how to predict when the intruder will arrive. I went into the closet and spammed WAIT without results, wandered around and toyed with objects, did it again, bla bla bla. Eventually I got the intruder to show up while the mannequin was in the room and I was inside the closet, but I don’t know if I just lucked into the right combination of factors or what.[/spoiler]

We’re actually stuck earlier than that… we figured that the next bit would be something like you say, but can’t get to that bit.

We can’t get a clear display on the screen.

Move the antenna.

Thank you. Failed to guess the verb…

I completely agree with this, and thank you so much for the hints-- I was stuck in the same place as JIN, and then the place you mentioned. Shame, because I love the writing and setup on this. I’ll probably still give it a pretty good score, because those are important to me, but that’s a pretty significant issue.

Cute, short piece. I suggest playing Dr. Horrible in the background for ambiance.

I’ve posted a review here: blog.templaro.com/review-inevitable/

The ending is ironic:

[spoiler]You hear the intruder leave your apartment. At last.

You did it.

In the darkness of your closet, you begin to laugh.[/spoiler]
Because

[spoiler]Earlier in the story, if you close the closet door, you are trapped. It is a classic no light source scenario. You may have avoided getting shot, but you will spend all eternity in that closet.

Who’s laughing now, monkey boy?[/spoiler]

This sort of makes sense. When you use the time scryer (which shows the future), it shows ‘future you’ being shot and falling to the floor. The description doesn’t explicitly state that you’re standing when you’re getting shot (and of course it’s physically possible to be shot when lying in bed in such a way that you fall to the floor), but by not mentioning your pose (lying, sitting, …), IMHO it implies that you are standing. So for the mannequin trick to work, it has to be standing too.

If you try to open the door after getting the scryer to work (the game doesn’t let you try to open the door without you first successfully testing the scryer), you hear the footsteps of the intruder.