Afraid not, sorry.
That may have been me running into the non scrolling response text. It took me quite some time to realise that there was game response text but hidden from me.
The Sacred Shovel of Athenia by AndyG
This is a short and beginner friendly parser game, set in a quasi fantasy world, with a very cute cat that you have to get to know better. It’s really charming, and I enjoyed playing through the light puzzles. There are in game hints if you get stuck. You can get the game into an unwinnable state. I recommend saving frequently.
There are a few things that could be polished more to make the playing experience smoother. I am going to put those in a spoiler section at the end.
And make sure you read the ABOUT text info about the background to the game. It is quite charming.
spoilers
>purr
I don't know the verb "purr" .
- would be nice to code a response to this.
In the hints:
5/6: Try hiding the mouse in the basket and paying for the basket only
- should be bed not basket
>give mouse to cat
You can't to something inanimate!
- double space plus missing verb plus erm?!
>put cat on cushion
I am not sure a tin of cat food needs a pet bed.
- I had some real disambiguation issues when the tin and cat were in the same room! Ended up taking the tin to another location and dropping it.
You leave the castle and head home to tender the cat
- tender? Not sure as a verb that works here. It can be a verb, but I don’t think its meaning fits here. Maybe better to write “tend to the cat”?
Also as a P.S. the ogre fight was really hard to figure out. I needed those hints.
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I interpreted the outro as tenderise the cat.
Good eatin’ in a stew with some garlic, bacon and sweet dried apricots…
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The inspiration for my horrible joke is the stories of my grandparents about staying alive in Flanders during the German occupation in WWII. I still remember my grandmother telling me that cat tastes just like rabbit, even a bit sweeter. And with the heads removed, it’s hard to distinguish between the carcasses. She was completely serious, and seemingly unaware that a child might find this horrible.
I must have been about 7 or 8 years old when I first heard that story. I wasn’t traumatised, rather strangely mesmerised by the horribleness. Reading Roald Dahl from a young age may have helped…
4 Likes
Thanks for the Kind Review @vivdunstan and for the ‘spoiler’ section to help with fixing issues.
Good spot! - it should have been ‘tend the cat!’ (or ‘tend to the cat’) 
Although I like @rovarsson suggestion and perhaps ‘tenderise the cat’ would have been better - I am sure @jjmcc would consider that one!
I am not sure which release you played (the current comp one is 15 - the original one was 12) - Some of the cat v cat food issues have been fixed (although I am still working through a few more for a ‘post comp’ release).
Regards - AG
3 Likes
I can’t speak for Viv of course, but personally I collect all the downloadable games in a SpringThing folder on the first day of the comp. That means I play the first version available. I don’t go looking for updated versions for downloadables, except if the author reports fixing a game-breaking bug.
I know there are other people who, like me, play the larger parsers first. I expect that a few of them approach the downloads in the same way.
2 Likes
Yes - That’s what I assumed most would do (although I tend to play them ‘on-line’ 
) - @mathbrush did encourage updates throughout the comp so I have sent those as and when I deemed it necessary. The only ‘major’ bug in my game was actually one caused by an update I sent !!! : There was also an issue were the shop keeper threw you out of the shop if you had the ‘cat food’ but the cat was not following due to an incorrect setting of a flag - that is also now fixed. AG
2 Likes
Yeah. I just dropped the tin outside the shop for that one.It didn’t really hinder my enjoyment of the game.
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I downloaded it fresh from the website before playing just a little while ago. That was the one I had disambiguation issues with. I’m sorry but I don’t have a transcript. Just checked my game file. Yes it’s version 15.
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I used to do that, but now I tend to download them afresh as I get to them. Or play things online that have to be played that way. But if something can be played offline without losing out too much I will usually go for that, in Lectrote on my Mac.
1 Like
- I just tried it on my version (now version 16 which was going to be my post release version) and the disambiguation of the cat / cat food seems to be okay in that - so maybe I fixed inadvertently while fixing other issues (I like those sort of fixes 
)
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The Mamertine by K Vella
This is a Twine piece where you try to escape from a cult. It feels more like a parser game than Twine generally does, with geographical locations, and objects that you can manipulate, and verb and noun pairings. Plus inventory management. Oh and it’s partially point and click. It’s an intriguing combination, and works well with the puzzles of the game.
However I found quite a lot of problems. There are a number of typos, and also I ran into a runtime error. I replayed several times, but couldn’t get past the room below the swaying cultists. I had pulled the lever 4 times, rating “Psychopath”! Also I am very much not a fan of slow timed text, which happened in the opening of this game. I read very very quickly. I do not like text playing out very very slowly.
However the story and puzzles were intriguing, and fun, and I’d be interested in seeing more works using the game engine.
For the author I’m going to include details of typos and that runtime bug.
notes for author
Typos:
typo near start: “You are don’t think” (in Ante Chamber)
Old Man: “his face an expression a mild annoyance” (should be “of” not “a”)
discussing elevator: “to get this elevator workking”; and “It’s the key to is all” - should be “it all”; and “After a hesitating a moment” - lose the first “a”.
Draughty Cave: “shimmy you way” should be your not you; also “able clamber out of hole” should have word to after able.
Shrine: “it’s multi-hued light” - should be its
Bug:
use compass in hedge maze or later
An error has occurred. You may be able to continue, but some parts may not work properly.
Error: <<run>>: bad evaluation: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'rule[verbKey]').
Stack Trace:
value@https://www.springthing.net/2023/play_online/TheMamertine/index.html:6643:146774
@https://www.springthing.net/2023/play_online/TheMamertine/index.html:6643:198711
@https://www.springthing.net/2023/play_online/TheMamertine/index.html:6643:45639
dispatch@https://www.springthing.net/2023/play_online/TheMamertine/index.html:57:43069
8 Likes
Mirror by (or organised/collected by?) Ondrej Odokienko
This is a set of 4 game books by students in a creative writing event in Slovakia. In this quick review I’m treating each one separately, as well as giving overall thoughts at the end.
Lilian Lalonder
This starts compellingly with a strange mirror, and then takes you into another place, and some really bizarre and creatively written outcomes. It’s good. And the English is strong. I did notice some typos so will note those for the author below. I played all the endings, and was glad I could see them all. This was probably my favourite of all the pieces.
Typos
ecceptionally - should be exceptionally
I wait a a few seconds - remove duplicate a
comming out of the display - should be coming
crashed into eachother - need space in each other
litarally disappeared - literally
apocalypse happenning - happening
passangers door - passenger’s (or passenger)
Note: this looks like a lot, but you wrote a lot of interesting text! And as I said the English was strong.
Mihi
This doesn’t use the theme “mirror” so immediately, and it comes later, and is used in a very clever way. It’s rather a neat tale of how you handle unexpected news. However it resists the player following certain paths through, which left me feeling a bit cheated. I wanted to see the outcomes of those decisions, even the ones I doubted were wise. I replayed several times to try to explore different routes. The core idea is really strong, well done to the author, but let us play through things. Don’t steamroller.
I did spot a few typos, though again the English was very good.
Typos
clerc - should be clerk
promissed - should be promised
And thanks God - should be thank
There´s alwas a bright side - should be always not alwas
James
This is a multi part story, and feels more like a Twine version of a parser game than the others, which are more traditional Twine interactive stories. You start in a room with various objects you can examine, quite minimally described. And then see where you can get to. It’s quite a short piece, multiple branching narratives, but a quick fun explore, and an intriguing world. It also left me pondering at the end, which is good! And I was keen to replay, and explore different choices. Original use of mirror. Thanks!
Typos
find dead body - add word “a” after find so it reads better
typo in the continue text after the phone call from the police, reads “Contitnue” should be “Continue”
Dr John
This one starts in all capitals, which was a bit of a shock to me. A mix of lower and upper case is generally friendlier for readers to read. It seems to be set in a strange world of reflections and observers, and stuff that is hidden. However I struggled to get a good outcome. At one point the game suggests you click randomly on every bit of blue text. I was exploring lots of options for ages, then suddenly had an idea of something to try. And got to a good outcome! So phew. It was very hard though. The scifi like setting was a nice contrast with the other three works.
Typos
untill your device - should be until
It seems the player failed to look into the GLASS WALL propperly - should be properly
Final thoughts
This was an interesting set of micro short Twine stories. Each was unique in its approach, and together they showed a variety of ways the system can be used. Two of the games included input boxes asking you to type text in, and this was nicely used, especially in one of the games. And I liked the different approaches and genres e.g. fantasy, real world, slice of life, horror, sci-fi and also branching narrative versus geographical world model versus philosophical puzzle. So thank you all! I hope that there might be more from Senica Thing in the 2024 Spring Thing. New voices in IF are always welcome!
7 Likes
Thanks for the review! The generally undertested and incomplete nature of this short game is why I put it in the Back Garden, which was definately the right choice I think.
Spoiler
You didn’t get stuck in the storage room, that is actually the end of the demo. Perhaps I should have titled it ‘The Mamertine Part 1’, although I don’t think I will go back to this setting and expand it into a complete peice of IF as it’s not a game I intentionally set out to write but rather it was made to test the engine itself. The game I intend to make with VIBAE will be coming eventually but realistically it is going to take some time (IF comp '24 maybe???).
Did you get the compass to work at all? I designed the engine to handle relative navigation, ie; room descriptions and descriptions of entrances and exits can change depending on where you entered the room from. The compass item was intended as a way for the player to get absolute direction for making a map that made narrative sense outside the established IF trope of the PC having a sort of internal compass working for them at all times.
If you don’t get the compass from talking to the Old Man at the beginning then you can get it by searching his skeleton at the end but by then it is useless. That error should not occur though! oops
2 Likes
Re Mamertime @kVella: Yes I did get the compass to work earlier. Was happily using it to get a sense of direction! Glad that I got to the end, though yes it would be better to make that clear to the player. It is a neat demo. All the best with further development!
3 Likes
Repeat the Ending by Drew Cook
Wow. I’m not quite sure what to say about this. It’s a parser piece, which can be played to an extent as a traditional parser game, episodic in this case. But it’s also metatextual, highly experimental, and in places for me was profoundly affecting.
The metatextual side is perhaps the least spoilery I can go into. It adds a guide you can interact with, that expands, and provides hints. You can also read in game footnotes. This is reminiscent of some discussion on this forum a while back about how old games could be effectively bundled up in a wider package, providing extra contextualisation etc. It’s really neatly done here.
The traditional parser/puzzle side is arguably the least interesting element. But it’s well done. And uses a neat mechanism throughout, that I won’t spoil.
There is also something very interesting about the narrative structure that the game does. But again I don’t want to spoil it!
But it was how the game affected me that I found most impactful. This relates to something that happened in my own life almost a year ago (spoiler: my dad died). And I feel quite shocked after playing the game to be honest. But in a good way.
Kudos to the author for a powerful and innovative piece.
14 Likes
Thanks so much for spending time with my game! I really value your feedback on the metatext, since I think it was the hardest to write (except for the ending).
I’m grateful for your review; thanks again.
8 Likes
One more comment re Repeat the Ending. As I said to Drew elsewhere I could have written so much more about this in my review. I sort of wish I had. But I feel very strongly that this is a game best discovered by each player afresh. And I absolutely didn’t want to spoil things. If anything my review underplays how good it was. There are many more things I could have acknowledged. But that way lies spoilers. And I wanted to avoid them! Try it out anyway folks!
12 Likes