Dungeon Detective

I loved this story! Very charming, a setting and world of the sort that I am liable to enjoy. Reminded me a bit of Lost Pig in a few ways. Good vibes in general. Great writing and tone.

Unfortunately there are some technical issues with the text at times, and a couple other minor contradictions, seemingly. As one example, choosing the comb the grass on the south side of the lake generates text saying that you did so on the north side. Some spacing problems when text is inserted. etc. But generally nothing that ruins or completely sours the experience. I have emailed the author offering my notes on this front because this story deserves it. I hope we see further adventures someday.

Author here. I’ll get right on that! It seems one can never playtest enough. Thank you for your kind words.

So I really like the premise of this game, and the writing is good so far. Unfortunately, I’ve barely entered the dungeon and I’m stuck

[spoiler]in complete darkness, staring at a table I can’t quite see (I used the torch earlier, in the dragon’s cave, so I have no light now). Immediately after examining the portcullis, I took the way back to the kitchen. From there, I had to proceed to the dining room, which gave me three options: examining the chairs, the table, and reviewing the clues. After I’ve done all this, there are no further clickable options and I can’t proceed.

(By the way, there was one more bug in the dining room - examining the chairs gave me descriptions for both “light” and “no light” situation, in one screen).

It’s a shame, because the game seems promising. Guess I’ll wait for an update, or maybe load a saved game and try proceeding through the portcullis first, instead of going to the kitchen.[/spoiler]

Edit: I loaded a save state and completed the game.

[spoiler]Turns out that if I examine the room behind the portcullis first, later in the dining room I have the option to ask the kobold for help and everything works fine.

Really enjoyed the characters and tone. I only wish the investigation was more involved - as it is, you don’t really need to pay attention to the descriptions, checking your clues is enough to solve the case - with the exception of the tuft of hair, where you need to remember what was said about the plant it smells of. The game was fairly short, it took me about half an hour to complete it. Also, it felt quite linear, but I guess it’s not completely so, given that you can enlist the help of a different person.[/spoiler]

All in all, an enjoyable experience, well-written and with likeable characters, but limited gameplay.

Yeah, I encountered that too earlier, that was one of the bugs that I believe are all fixed now.

There are some other branches that add a bit of variety:

[spoiler]If you examine the tools before the molten gold, you can potentially drop the mug into the gold, destroying it, and then you just have to rely on your memory where the culprits are from. Also responses to this action change depending on who is with you when you do it.

Also, on my first playthrough I had trouble finishing because I kept saying the portcullis explosion was mundane rather than assuming it was done by a spellcaster. It took playing through again with the necklace and no one else along to understand the clue.[/spoiler]

Hi all,

Thanks to all those who are playing! I’m a first time author and this is such a new experience for me.

I’ve done some bug fixing, so if you encountered a bug earlier, please try and start a fresh game with the latest update - I think Twine might be using old flags if you load a saved game from a previous version. Be careful out there!

Sniff is likeable; I’d wish to play a sequel and see him solve another case.

I agree; this would make a fun series.

I had a great time playing this game, and I posted a review of it at my blog.

Thank you for your review tmack! I’ve been enjoying reading your reviews for the better part of a month now. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, Wongalot! I enjoyed your game quite a bit, and I’m glad I can help draw more attention to it.

It is lovely game. I enjoyed it a lot, but unfortunately got stuck because of a bug. I’m using Safari on iPad (iOS 11.4.1). When I select “Solve the case” nothing happens. More to say after several tries Safari just crashes and reloads.

I sent a message to author but didn’t receive a reply. Any suggestions what to do? I really want to finish this game before voting deadline.

Hi PSKandid, sorry I didn’t receive your message, but a friend linked me to this post.

The part in the game that you mention, toward the end, is unfortunately a bit haphazardly coded. I’m a newcomer and an amateur, so I did what I could to make it work properly on Windows. Safari was something I never considered.

If possible, you may want to consider attempting the completion of the game on another browser. I can confirm it works, for example, on Chrome, but that is again on Windows and on a PC rather than a tablet. For me, it typically takes a bit longer to load that chapter and the choices therein, due to the length and complexity of the code.

Unfortunately, you may have to look to another browser, or another machine, due to the manner in which I coded the set of choices in that chapter. My sincere apologies. Please let me know if you have any success remedying the problem. I’m very glad you enjoyed the game thus far.

Wonaglot, thanks for your reply! Then I’ll try to play on desktop from the very beginning. Hope to make it before deadline.