The Untold Story
An Interactive Fiction by Michael Pavano
The Untold Story is somewhat peculiar. With a touch of nature, some wizardry, a bit of classic symbolism and a protagonist dealing with loss, it builds on several familiar tropes, some of which they don’t feel like they belong together at all, not in the way they are mixed here. On top of that, the protagonist is extremely religious (which doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the story as a whole) and several actions are assessed morally out of the blue:
Spoiler here
>bash falcon with shield
(You bash the shield right into the skull of the falcon. The falcon drops the chess piece.)
The bird falls to the ground and dies. You look at your brother's bow struggling with what you've just done. "You did the right thing," You hear a voice say. "It was too violent. It had to be put down." You nod wiping away the tears.
Taken.
Congratulations! You found a chess piece.
[Your score has just gone up by five points.]
The main problem, however, is that the game is severely underimplemented and quite bug-ridden. It is functional enough to finish, but I had to resort to parser-aware methods (such as dropping an item in one place in order to pick up another item in another place) to progress, and repeatedly got stuck trying to perform an action that was hinted at being possible but the parser wouldn’t allow.
As a light puzzle driven IF, The Untold Story has it’s good parts too. The setting was rather nice, and many of the descriptions were good. In general I would regard it as a very easy game, as the solutions to most puzzles were rather obviously hinted at. If the game receives a significant update that fixes the implementation issues, I would recommend that the hinting be toned down a bit as well. I’m sure it can be turned into a decent game, but it’s just not there yet.
transcript.txt (191.4 KB)
Bugs and notes for the author (contains spoilers)
After the dwarf drops the chess piece, I should be able to take it with just “take piece”:
>take piece
You can't see any such thing.
>take chess piece
Taken
I hadn’t found the bow yet at this point and don’t think I should be informed of its existence like this:
>x door
It's a very large and very heavy door. On the door is a bullseye.
>x bullseye
It's a magic bullseye. It's attached to the door. Perhaps if you shoot the bullseye something with happen.
>shoot bullseye
You have to shoot something with the bow.
The response when I try putting the found pieces on the set doesn’t make sense:
>put rook on set
(Rook on the chess set)
No, only the chess pieces should go on there. It's too precious.
>put pawn on set
(the pawn on the chess set)
No, only the chess pieces should go on there. It's too precious.
There’s a disambiguation problem with the books. I don’t know that the intriguing book can be referred to with “tome” before I have examined it:
>x desk
The desk has a purple tablecloth wrapped over its entire surface. On the desk is an intriguing book.
>x book
(the Untold Story)
The book has very special meaning for you. The title, no longer visible due to the dust covering it's once beautiful cover image is simply, "The Untold Story." A story that will forever remained untold. Your brother desired nothing more than to write a book of his own. Nearly a year ago, he finally began to craft his story...... He never had a chance to finish it.
>x intriguing
You can't see any such thing.
>x intriguing book
You can't see any such thing.
The coin is part of the description after having been put in the wall, but cannot be referred to any more:
>x wall
The coin remains in the wall, but the wall is now closed shut. There will most likely be no getting the Dwarf out of there for awhile.
>x coin
You can't see any such thing.
Many actions that are wrong for various reasons give the response “You can’t see any such thing”, even when that makes no sense:
>x potion
This looks to be a rare and magical potion. The potion is bright red and has a potent smell. It seems to have important qualities that may come in handy on your journey. The only problem is you don't know what it's used for. There must be a way to find out.
>x caterpillar
The caterpillar waits. It looks and stares at you. You're not sure what to make of the creature, but you feel it's fury. You remember playing up in the trees with your brother when you were younger.
>pour potion on caterpillar
You can't see any such thing.
It’s possible to take the indentation:
>take all
small circular indentation: Taken.
Another disambiguation problem is with the bottles. The non-magical bottle should probably have an adjective as well:
>break bottle
Which do you mean, the magical bottle or the bottle?
>the bottle
Which do you mean, the magical bottle or the bottle?
The door to the tower is described as blocking the entrance even after it has been opened:
>open door
You open the large iron door.
>l
Cliff
From the Cliff you can make out mountains and a river surrounding your forest. It's so beautiful. You would love to travel there if only you had the courage. In the cliff stands the Wizard's Tower. The entrance to the tower is blocked by a door with a peculiar object on it.
The bullseye is described also on the inside with the door closed:
>in
Entrance room
There are some large stairs here. They must lead to the top of the tower.
You can see a large iron door here.
>x door
It's a very large and very heavy door. On the door is a bullseye.
>close door
You close the large iron door.
>x door
It's a very large and very heavy door. On the door is a bullseye.
And lastly, the dwarf can be found in Under the Forest even after he supposedly has locked himself inside the wall.