A fundamental problem occurs when people cannot receive bad news, and attack the messenger. Part of the problem is how can you improve? A game built for children or introductory should be very forgiving and if the experience is bad, then a chance for inclusion is lost.
Think of how stupid the average person is. Realize that half the people are even more stupid than that.
– George Carlin
There is a rule that I follow in creating puzzles for Parser games: Don’t be clever.
There shouldn’t be any opportunity for failure. Guess the Noun violates the rule of unwinnable game, not because it is technically so, but because the instructions is lacking. This is where an experienced beta testers may yield incomplete feedback due to expert bias.
Maybe a more thorough implementation is needed. Or maybe a walkthrough suffice. The difference may be small. It may be that clues are dispensed only at certain items/location/time. “X EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE” should be a hint that maybe the game should be more accommodating to players.
To examine things in particular order or time, is just cruel, unless heavily hinted. Or have the game forcibly progressed by the narrative, yielding different endings.
Choice games may be a better alternative in such cases. And that’s an advice, not an insult, although many IF writers chose to take offense when I suggest, or even hinted, that their story may be better being implemented as Choice, instead of Parser. Why? Who knows?
Some stories are great in IF. Others may be terrible. Personally, I will never write Parser games where the player needs to be very clever. Or even as Choice games. Write the story, then choose the platform, instead of the other way around.
Here I will forward a personal belief that Choice games should be considered by everyone. If you’re the type of person who writes IF stories by first writing a walkthrough, I suggest writing it with Choice, before implementing it using Parser later. I have been promoting the process for a long time. Ever since HTML 2, in fact. You don’t need CSS or Javascript. CSS allows for compelling graphics, while Javascript allows for states. Those are optional extras.