A Simple Theft

Baf's Guide

Tiny fantasy game, written as a prequel to a longer game. You're apprenticed to a master who directs you to steal a jewel from a castle and report back to him. Interesting take on a fantasy world--magic is no longer under control, and your master is hoping that the jewel will give him magical powers--but too short to do much with the premise. Still, the full-length game might be intriguing.

-- Duncan Stevens

Brass Lantern
A Simple Theft has the feel of being a prologue to a longer game. The whole thing can be solved in thirty turns or so, with puzzles Thomas Covenant could count on his left hand. There are a number of interesting references to the amusing mythology of the outside world, and to the character of Apaman, the nameless protagonist's wizard employer. My main thought while playing was that I wanted to retrieve the Magic Widget and get out of the castle, so I could start playing in the real world where all of these interesting people and gods might be lurking around. But no such luck.
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SPAG
The technical aspect, while mostly good, isn't flawless: one puzzle is marred by what I consider a major design flaw (it turns on using an object that you're told you can't pick up), and a key object is rather confusingly described. Still, in a game this small, there's only so much that can go radically wrong, and on the whole the coding is fairly solid. Likewise, the writing is more than good enough to tell the story, and it's pretty funny in spots as well.
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Simple. And a theft., April 4, 2011
In my rating system, a two star rating can either mean that there is something wrong with a game, or that it is competent but without ambition. A Simple Theft falls squarely within the second category: it is a fine little diversion of the common IF-with-puzzles kind. There is nothing wrong with it, but there is also nothing to make the heart beat faster.

You get to play the apprentice of a wizard who is attempting to restore magic to the world, and who tasks you with the retrieval of a MacGuffin from a castle. The game consists of you puzzling your way through this theft. The world is small and implementation is rather sparse, though not uncommonly so for a game written in 2000. The puzzles are run-of-the-mill, involving locked doors and guards, but the implementation is solid and the inquisitive player will be rewarded with funny responses. The entire game can be played in perhaps fifteen minutes.