The Sword of Voldiir by Bottlecap Rabbit Games
An independent release, recently completed, with a free demo. The full game is $2.
Iāve only played the demo. Made in Twine
The Sword of Voldiir is a D&D inspired text adventure made in Twine, where you play as a mercenary with the task of recovering the eponymous sword for riches and reputation. Like in true D&D fashion, your quest is not without trials and tribulations: what seems to be a quick and easy task turns into an ambush that almost leaves you in your breaches, and a series of fights to recover what was stolen. And this is where the demo ends (about halfway through the story, looking at the word count - which is also where I stopped).
The D&D influences are obvious in this one, from how you create your character, to the turn-based combat, and the general flow of the story (aka get together, agree on a plan, try to execute it, something goes wrong, and repeat until you succeed). Though it streamlines the more obtuse rules of the game: you donāt need to worry about your walking abilities, or spell slots. Which is awesome, because D&D combat can be pretty tedious.
However, it might be a bit too simplistic: at the start of a fight, you only pick your weapon and hope for the best. Even though the fight itself is turn-based, and you see the health bar tick away as you hit your enemies, you canāt change your weapon or develop a strategy between turn. I think itās a bit of a shame, because variety in actions make combat fun! Even if you end up only smashing your sword, the option to have a choice is what makes it interesting.Story-wise, it also felt a bit rushed at times, especially outside of the ābeatā moments (going from one scene to the next). I think it makes sense when playing a campaign when playing with other people because scenes can drag on and on and on, and you donāt want to linger on the side of the road when the big baddie still need to be defeated (and weāre already 5 sessions in and nothing of note has happened). But in this context, I think it removed a bit of the charm of the adventure.
What about an encounter on your way to the city after being robbed for a meal and a listening ear? Maybe even letting you borrow their rusty sword because the forest you need to cross can be treacherous (and BAM tiny combat)?
Or between Act II and Act III, during the week before getting the sword back, why not getting your affairs in order, maybe buying equipment or scouting the building? Similarly to getting information around the city when tracking the woman who robbed you.While it wasnāt really my cup of tea, I can see some solid bones inside. I think it needs a bit more muscles on it, like adding more player agency (in the combat, during the story), so the player isnāt just strung along, but an active participant of the story, or fleshing out some ādownā moments, to make the combat/action/exploration more energetic (like the meal scene in the inn). Dare I sayā¦ maybe a puzzle?
Just a final point for dark mode users, the palette is not super accessible.
Sorry, but I couldnāt take the name Edmond Francais seriously 
it looked like a typo for FranƧais and I couldnāt read it any other way lol
Some typos/bugs/formatting issue I collected along the way
Some accessibility points seen in the demo (assuming itās also applicable to the full game, bc of the screenshots on the game page):
- red/dark-red on dark grey is very hard to see (<2, when WCAG recommends +4.50)
- same with light-blue on cream/beige for the sidebar
- you also may want to add the darkmode to the sidebar, so itās more consistent
I think the formatting for the buttons in the popups is neat! I think it would work very well for the in-game choices, give it a little humph.
Also formatting: around conditional statement, and interactive elements that are not links, there are often large empty space on the page
Passage: Enter The City
Aenwyn? Aenwyn is standing between the two, clutching his robes away from $ahimself due to the heat. Even he succumbed to the heat, finally.
For some reason, the variable didnāt have a value
Passage: Iāve Been Here Before
There's a decent in that I have enough coin left for from the stash in my boot.
in ā inn
"Yeah, lets," ā letās
Passage: Antigone Inn
Are you look for four rooms? ā looking
Passage: A platter of vegetableā¦
Dinner is a quiet fair. ā did you mean maybe affair?
Fight against the Chimera
Why does Cassian manage to deal damage, but the health doesnāt change here?
You canāt really get into the negative, even in DND, you might want to have the variable return to 0 if it goes in the negative, and have it so that party members canāt deal damage as well, when the monster is off.