What remains of me by Jovial Ron
Had a few issues getting this to run on my Mac, but all good now. It’s a home brewed retro styled parser game that runs in the browser. It’s based on the author’s old home, with a goal of getting on a train, but then that’s just for starters …
First comment is that the retro styled font is quite tricky to read, but it’s only a short game, and I adapted pretty ok. The user interface is a mix of text appearing on screen and a web based GUI where you can click on verbs at the bottom of the screens. I found this pretty intuitive to use, although there was one puzzle where I had to click on USE when other things might have been more obvious to me.
On the downside the implementation is extremely sparse. As you move between rooms the rooms are referred to by numbers, e.g. “You moved from room 5 to room 4”. Likewise in the bathroom when you try to use the soap you get "You don’t know how to use the soap here.” Mmmm. State changes are also not handled well, e.g. when you take something away it can still be referred to in the room description. Or even where you totally change something it’s still described in its original sense after.
However there was much I liked. The game is a simple puzzle game based around using the right objects in the right places in the right ways. And the effects are quite charming. I found it a very mellow experience playing through, and I was smiling throughout, and very happy with the ultimate ending I achieved. I also liked the end message a lot.
The under implementation is an issue still, but given its retro style approach I’m prepared to cut it quite a lot of slack. It is evoking a particular old style of adventure game. And I like much that it does other than this. Thanks to the author!