The House on Sycamore Lane

The House on Sycamore Lane
by Paul Michael Winters profile

Mystery
2019

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A long, ghostly mystery parser game with some cleanup issues, October 2, 2019

by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 1 hour

I give stars based on five criteria: being polished, being descriptive, emotional impact, interactivity, and if I would play again.

Polish: This game is severely lacking in this area. There are numerous typos (such as 'wet' for 'west' in one room), synonyms aren't implemented, disambiguation needs work (like trying to look at the books in the library while holding the textbooks).

Descriptiveness: This certainly isn't a lushly described game, but some of the images were vivid, especially the doll room. The author did a great job of ambiance, in my opinion.

Emotional impact: I felt the eeriness of the house a bit, and the sadness of the story, but I think both needed more work.

Interactivity: The differences in functionality between trowel, pliers, and mallet were hard for me to grasp. Alternate solutions often didn't work (for instance, why don't (Spoiler - click to show)the shears work for cutting after you weaken the vines?).

Playing again: This game doesn't draw me back in for replay.

So that's a 2/5. I think that all of my concerns could have been resolved by having several playtesters, including ones experienced in playtesting games. I'd love to see a more polished game by this author, and would volunteer for playtesting it!

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paulseawa, October 20, 2019 - Reply
Thanks for feedback. All your points are totally valid and constructive. This was my first attempt at interactive fiction, and I agree I would have liked more time to polish, develop the story more and fix a few inconsistencies. I will fully admit that this was rushed to try to make the IFComp deadline, which is absolutely not and excuse, and I take the blame. :)

I'll contact you for play testing for my next one, which I will start sooner than 4 weeks before the deadline.

MathBrush, October 20, 2019 - Reply
Ah, this is a very good game for 4 weeks work! A lot of the winners are games that took a year to make (but not all of them; some were written in just a month). Good luck with your next game, and I look forward to seeing it!

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