Grue. - Charles Mangin

Hi - I’ve posted a review and transcript here:

blog.templaro.com/review-grue/

  • Jack

Thank you for your thorough and honest review. I appreciate any feedback, even critical, as this is my first IF game.

I’ll mention this, though, there is a hint system in the game. You actually used it at one point. “help” and “hint” trigger a series of clues, some location-based. “Look for an adventurer to eat, but don’t use your eyes.”

There is a way to win, and you have got very close. Very, very close at the end.

I’ll probably publish a walkthrough at some point, but I’m hoping for more feedback first.

option8, hi.
I posted a review at IFDB:
ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=ji9b06p3iyhcyf8y

Some things that could be improved:

[spoiler]“Lair” starts with a capital “L”, but other room names - with a lowercase letter, which looks rather ugly.

When trying to kill the adventurer in the pit, I got this:
“Your stomach rumbles from hunger, and you hear a small gasp nearby, followed by the scuffle of leather boots on stone, retreating into the distance.”
But how did he/she manage to climb out of the pit so quickly?

JUMPing works in the Lair - a place where, according to the description, you can’t jump.

ASK/TELL ADVENTURER ABOUT ME, HUG/KISS ADVENTURER result in “You can only do that to something animate.”

ATTACK ADVENTURER WITH CLAWS gives you this:
“Are you sure you want to do that? Adventurers are tasty, but occasionally they fight back. Plus, you enjoy your meals fresh and, preferably, still kicking.
You lash out with your your claws at the adventurer.”

So, did I attack him/her or not? It’s unclear. Also, “your your”.

Having a hint system in your game should be mentioned at the beginning - or in the ABOUT text.[/spoiler]

I too am stuck in the pit. There really needs to be a walkthrough for this game … Or perhaps someone can give me a hint?

I’ve updated the entry for Grue with a walkthrough. ifcomp.org/1704/walkthrough/gru … hrough.txt

Thanks. I would never managed to figure out the final verb without the walkthrough!

A few comments on the game: I really liked the minimalism and that we experienced everything from the grue’s perspective, especially that we had to use (all) other senses than sight.

That said, for such a small game, the the implementation could have been better. There were too many nouns that were not implemented. When a (room) description mentions a thing, this thing needs to be implemented. For example, one of the room descriptions is ‘The ceiling here is low, and the floor […]’. However, ‘touch ceiling’ or ‘touch floor’ both gets the response ‘There’s nothing like that here.’. (And even if the floor and ceiling were not mentioned in a room description, they should be implemented.) And in the last scene, ‘[verb] the wall’ works, but ‘[verb] the walls’ does not (even though it works in an earlier scene).

Yeah, I like the idea here, but a little more guidance on the verbs would’ve helped a lot. Maybe a commands list? Or at least make it clear there’s a hint system, I agree.