It’s my first time here and, first of all, I apologize for my poor English.
Last year another italian sent an entry (Roberto Marcarini) and he said that, coming from the italian IF community, the experience of the IFcomp was like jumping from a puddle to the open ocean. So I’m a bit… intimidated
A few considerations that Mathbrush’s review suggests and I want to share with you:
The author’s guidelines suggest to use the available authoring tools: I’m a fan of Inform7 and Dialog, but this time I had to create my own interface (strongly inspired by Robin Johnson’s Versificator). I hope that others will play the game even if its interface is unusual.
Navigation: The links among rooms (back, right, left) aren’t casual. The structure is similar to the Wumpus’ dodecahedron (there are 12 rooms instead of 20, but I think that 12 novels are quite enough for this game). I know it’s a frustrating choice, but there is a (well hidden) logic in the links.
However I’ve updated the walkthrough with a possible path to follow.
The slow transitions between the rooms: Another frustrating choice. The idea was to create a clear passage between rooms (no transition can be confusing). I’d better to insert a checkbox to switch off the effect because in the long run it annoys.
Anyway I hope that you all will try the game at least a little, despite its interface, and enjoy it.
As spanish citizen I like very much contributions of non english spoken people. If we add this idea plus I rather prefer parser games, you can be sure that I will send you some feedback about your game.
I often write before reading all the post I am replying. Your game has some flavours I always like. It’s now in my soon playing games list.
Ciao! I’ve updated the walkthrough and now it’s available a possible path to follow through the rooms of “The Library”. In the old walkthrough the path was left to the player, but I think it’s better to facilitate the task to those judges in a hurry
Excerpt from the walkthrough:
I was too “creative” in designing the navigation system. Moving from a room to another requires to choose among “right”, “left” and “back”, but the outcome depends on the room you come from, so it’s very confusing without drawing a map.
To figure out the connections is a puzzle per se (not very popular among modern IF gamers?), but if you are in a hurry (as probably you are if you’re reading the walkthrough), I track a possible course.
However you can visit the rooms in any order, if you like orienteering, and complete the secondary missions in the order that you prefer.
Just fixed a few minor bugs
I’m afraid to fix bugs that aren’t critical, because I’m afraid of introducing worse ones
Anyway there are no changes that deserve another play if you’ve already tried it: The Library
