So I Was Short Of Cash And Took On A Quest, by Anssi Raisanen
Adventure games, including puzzle parser games, have a tendency to the ridiculous. You need to get the banana from the monkey because it’s the item that the sleazy film director needs before he allows you onto the set, but the monkey will only let go of it if you first let loose the tiger… well, we all know the deal. One way to handle this is by carefully crafting your puzzles so that they make sense in the environment of the game. The other way to handle it is what Anssi Raisanen does in So I Was Short Of Cash And Took On A Quest: make it clear from the beginning that we are involved in some ridiculous test. The oven mitt hanging in a place we cannot reach is simply inspired.
So I Was Short Of Cash And Took On A Quest is a short puzzle game. As the first paragraph of this review indicated, I enjoyed how it leaned into the weirdness of the premise. (Another high point is certainly the ability of the protagonist to recognise bird song in terms of musical notes!) It seemed solidly implemented. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely well done. One little note: the tile on the floor should certainly not be described as “fixed in place” when the player tries to press or pull it.