Sugarlawn by Mike Spivey ended up in 4th place in the 2019 Interactive Fiction Competition. It’s a complex puzzle game, for which many players may need hints. Look no further! Though you might also be interested in the discussion among players and the high score list.
This post is work in progress!
Three layers of puzzles
Sugarlawn consists of three layers of puzzles, such that you can only really solve the next layer once you have solved the previous one(s). This walkthrough will follow the same structure, discussing, in order:
- All the ‘traditional’ puzzles, which will allow you to find out exactly how the game world works, how extra money can be earned, and how to move around efficiently.
- The ‘placement’ puzzle, which consists of finding out for each object where its target location is.
- The ‘optimisation’ puzzle, which consists in using all your knowledge to find the quickest path through the game.
LAYER 1: THE TRADITIONAL PUZZLES
Make sure you explore all accessible parts of the house. Don’t forget to read the ABOUT, COMMANDS and HINT texts. In fact, I strongly recommend picking up some treasures, trying to find the right locations for them and/or bringing them to the Foyer, and playing until the end of the 30 minutes at least once before delving further into these hints. Done that? Good.
I can’t get through any of the locked doors!
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You’ll need keys. There are six keys for opening doors: back door, north wing, south wing, pantry, storage and front door.
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The back door key is easiest. It is lying around in the garden.
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From the foyer, move east, up, down, east. Also, stop reading these hints and explore the game for yourself!
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We’ll worry about the front door key later. You don’t need it for exploring the house.
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All the other door keys can be gotten from the box in the Foyer. Of course, you need to put in another key to get anything out of it. The back door key could be use for that.
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But there’s a key closer by: in the Sitting Room.
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Sit in the rocking chair. Rock.
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“pull floorboard”. Note that you don’t need to use the rocking chair again in the future.
This chicken suit is rather bothersome
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Yes! But there are also requirements of decency, so you’ll have to find something else to wear first.
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There’s a suit in the master bedroom.
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Now to find a place where people won’t see you.
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The master bathroom, where the camera is broken.
The box with the keys is rather bothersome
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It is! Luckily, you’ll be able to find voice codes that unlock the doors, ensuring that you don’t need to bother with the keys any more. The voice code is always in some sense hidden behind the doors it opens. (But you can then use them on subsequent playthroughs.)
Where is the voice code for the back door?
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You can rather easily find it when you explore the outdoors.
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You need to get rid of the chicken costume first.
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Climb the tree.
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Turn on the device.
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The voice code is ZYDECO. You can use it by typing “say zydeco” or simply “zydeco” when standing on either side of the back door.
Where is the voice code for the storage door?
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You could start by exploring the Small Parlor
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Open the piano to reveal an electronic speaker.
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You need to play some music. But then you need to find some music first.
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It’s behind the storage door.
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You’re looking for the LP Cover in the Storage Room.
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Bring it to the piano and play the score.
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The voice code is TCHOUPITOULAS.
Where is the voice code for the pantry door?
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Your search should start in the Schoolroom.
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The message is a hint: “(1) Stay in your desk; earn high marks. (2) No Cutting Re-Marks.”
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Examine the desk.
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Read the marks to reveal: P N R D O V I E O E T U F E
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That makes no sense! Indeed, as the message suggests, you need a second set of marks.
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They are to be found in a place that has to do with cutting.
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The butcher’s block in the kitchen.
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Read the marks to reveal: A T Y O R O C C D E O F E
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Perhaps paste the two sequences below each other to see the solution to the puzzle.
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Read an alternating letter to get: PANTRYDOORVOICECODEETOUFFEE. So the voice code is ETOUFFEE.
Where is the voice code for the South wing doors?
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This one is quite a bit more involved.
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First, you need to get into the Attic. It is behind the Storage Room, and you can’t get there when you’re wearing the chicken suit.
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Examine everything in the Attic. There’s a clear hint about what you need to do.
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You must find a hat for the deer. One possibility is the fedora in the North Hall.
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But even more appropriate is the bonnet outside the cabin. (Did you already use the previous voice codes to unlock the gate in the garden?)
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Putting a hat on the deer gives you two secret messages: NOBODY PUSHES EARL AROUND and CAN YOU FIND NATCHITOCHES?
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We need the latter for the code to the south wing doors.
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Have we perhaps seen a map somewhere?
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In the Colonial Room.
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“find Natchitoches”
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The voice code for the south doors is ZWOLLE. (Which incidentally is also the 20th largest city in the Netherlands.)
Where is the voice code for the North wing doors?
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Go and solve the south wing doors first.
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Clearly, we need to use the other secret message: some earl to push around?
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Check out the mural in the Long Room.
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Push Earl. The voice code turns out to be: OUACHITA.
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With all five voice codes in your possession, you can now also get at the extremely valuable diamond ring on the Rear Balcony.
Where is the combination for the lock in the Stair Hall?
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Admittedly, this is perhaps the weakest puzzle in the game.
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You’ll just need to keep your eyes open for a 5-digit number somewhere in the game world.
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On the envelope in the study, to be precise.
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The code is 70390.
How do I unlock the front door?
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Open the safe first.
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It’s worth a cool $20.000 to get out through the front door, so nothing to sneeze at.
How do I open the safe?
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You’ll need a key.
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It’s the key you liberated from the combination lock in the Stair Hall. Or need to liberate from there, if you haven’t yet done so.
What’s the code for the keyboard in the Library?
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Check out the message in the Library: reading unlocks worlds unknown. You’ll need to read.
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But there are no books in the Library! So you need to find them in the game.
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Warning: the Bible is a red herring. It’s a book, but not part of this particular puzzle.
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You need to read five books: The Moviegoer from the Small Parlor, Evangeline in the Oak Tree, Interview with the Vampire from the Chapel, Confederacy of Dunces from the Schoolroom and The Awakening from the Jackson Bedroom.
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Each book gives you two letters.
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I spent a long time thinking that the position of the letters in the original words was relevant… but it isn’t. This is a just a Louisiana-themes anagram for you to solve.
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The code is NEWORLEANS.
Can I get rid of the protestors?
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No.
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But you can ensure that they let you through without losing any of your well-earned(?) money.
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You must do something that is really annoying.
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Using an item found somewhere in the south part of the house.
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Turn on the radio.
How do I convince the farmer to give me the shotgun?
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He wants to know he can trust you.
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You need to prove to him that you’re a card-carrying member of the NRA.
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The membership card is in the basement.
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But to get it, you’ll first have to write a 10.000 word essay proving that guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
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You can’t do that without reading the sections on causation in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason first.
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But the library is empty.
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Also, this puzzle doesn’t exist. Having hints for non-existing puzzles to reduce the spoilery nature of the headings of the hints post is a long-standing tradition in IF, and I could not resist adding to it.
How do I get into the secret room?
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What secret room?
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Of course there’s a secret room.
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While the game correctly tells you that placing things in their proper location never involves placing them in or on another object, there is one instance where doing precisely that is nevertheless important.
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The object you need to place in the exact right place is found on the ground floor of the house.
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It has to be placed in the south wing.
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The object is the peach.
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It must be placed in the peach-labelled drawer in the Study.
What do I do in the secret room?
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There’s a clock. It must be wound.
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If only you had a winding key.
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Wait. You do have a winding key. Under the floorboard in the sitting room.
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Problem solved, five minutes gained!
How do I find the secret treasure?
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Also known as: what’s the point of the basketball?
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The one that falls down when you are climbing into the attic.
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Follow it!
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If you follow it, it will reveal a secret niche in the Second Floor Stair Hall, containing the silver candelabra.
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Good news: you can just type “press knot” in the future.
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Now you also know what you need to know to find the other secret treasure/
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Read carefully about all that the basketball does.
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You want to open the rear balcony door first, then follow the basketball all the way into the iris garden.
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This reveals a golden doubloon.
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Unfortunately, this one can only be found by following the basket ball.
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Also, make sure you’ve found the recipe in the Schoolroom.
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It falls out of the book when you read it.
What about all these Mardi Gras items?
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If you’re as clueless as I was, you can read about what Mardi Gras even is on Wikipedia. It’s a type of carnival.
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Anyway, there are a lot of pieces of clothing that would fit such a celebration lying around.
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Also, the message in the Dining Room tells you to get dressed and find your place for a colourful Mardi Gras.
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There are two parts to this puzzle: finding all the items, and finding the right location.
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The items are all lying around on the ground floor: suit, fedora, cape, beads, boa and mask. Remember that you can “wear X” without picking it up first – this saves you a lot of time!
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The right location is one where you are very visible. I think? That seems to be the consensus among players trying to make sense of the puzzle.
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It’s the front balcony. Note that the mardi gras adventure will bring in $20.000, so that is serious money.
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Use the opportunity to drop some items in their target location while you’re there.
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Note that “drop fedora and mask and beads and boa and cape” is just one command taking just one turn!
I want to experiment with objects, but it’s kind of boring to do X all the time
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Read this stuff only after solving most of the puzzles mentioned above.
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Sequence to get you out of the chicken costume and into a good place for further exploration: s.zwolle.s.s.e.e.s.take suit.e.take off costume.wear suit.w.n.zwolle.n.n.zydeco
- Sequence that unlocks all doors and cases, gets you into the suit, and leaves you with 20 minutes for further exploration:
n.n.ouachita.n.n.e.ouachita.e.ouachita.s.etouffee.s.take peach.w.s.zydeco.set lock to 70390.s.pull floorboard.take winding.w.type neworleans
zwolle.s.zwolle.s.e.s.open right.put peach in right.w.wind clock with winding.e.e.take suit.e.take off costume.wear suit
w.n.zwolle.n.n.e.zydeco.zwolle.w.u.zydeco.tchoupitoulas.etouffee.zwolle.ouachita.w.u.u.w.tchoupitoulas
Will be updating the walkthrough.