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A jam submission

Text Adventure CollectorView game page

Text Adventure about Collecting Text Adventures. Made for Treasure Hunt Jam 2020
Submitted by Rex Mundane (@RexMundane) — 8 days, 16 hours before the deadline
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Text Adventure Collector's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Quality of Inbuilt Tutorial#23.3333.333
Humour#53.8333.833
Scope#63.6673.667
Overall Enjoyment (Used to determine winner)#63.6673.667
Response Completeness#83.8333.833
Innovation#83.6673.667
Atmosphere#93.6673.667
Fairness#113.6673.667
Puzzles#123.5003.500
Minimalism#143.6673.667
Story#143.3333.333

Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

  • Even if I failed to find The Quill or the GAC as I did not fulfil my wish in sufficient time this was an original approach with plenty of other references like the magnetized scroll to immerse you in the search!
  • I loved playing this one. So many great references to the golden age of text adventures. One can see that the author has deep knowledge of the history of adventure games. And how the names were altered... kudos!
  • Nailed the tone of old school text adventures! Love the theme. The music was a great touch. Wonderfully witty writing. The addition of the new location later in the game was a cool twist. Terrific variety of puzzles, but some were a bit too diabolical for me :). Overall fantastic job!
  • Large map, some interesting interaction with NPG and funny puzzles. Many uncommon English terms are used, I appreciated that, even if it makes the game a little more difficult for non native English speakers.
  • Very well put-together, and a lot of it - this is a pretty hefty game! I did find it a little difficult to figure out some of the puzzles, though, and a lot of the time this was due to not being able to figure out the right vocabulary to use. The hints were very useful, but I think I'd have preferred them to be a bit more obscure and less "here's the answer". Perhaps a combination of a more cryptic hint and a nudge towards the vocabulary to use would have been better? Excellent work, though, and a solid game!

Development Time (Hours) (Optional)
60

Game Solution (Optional)
General Notes:

You will need to "Search" certain objects to progress, different from "Examining" or "Looking."

Typing "Hint" will give location/context specific clues in-game.

Without spoiling, only one of the "Treasure" items is used in the solution to a puzzle. They're not all just there to look pretty.

A basic (though by no means complete) Map of the game is also provided here: https://imgur.com/a/2BG045n



Walkthrough:

"Zurk"
Get Lantern from Cabinets in Beige House.
Light Lantern, and explore Dark Woods.
You'll find it lying on the ground.

"Wishgetter"
Get Satchel from Mountain Pass.
Empty Satchel to receive Package Slip.
In Post Office, Join the Queue and Wait to Speak to the Clerk.
Give Package Slip, and Open Package.

"Textventure Toolkit"
With WishGetter in inventory, go to Game Shoppe.
Clerk keeps saying "You Wish!, right?
So, Wish Toolkit.

"Softpron Adventure"
Get the Crowbar and Bolt Cutters from the Caves.
Pry Sewer Cover up in Town Square.
In Sewers, use Bolt Cutters to break chain on Valve.
Turn Valve, emptying Hot Tub in Adventurer's Guild.
Return to Hot Tub, Search Empty Tub to find Game.

"Shamus"
In the Groo Den, near the Dark Woods.
Search Groo Dung to find Filthy Coin.
Rinse Coin in Water (Sink at Home, etc.)
Use coin to buy Hintbook from Game Shoppe.
In Adventurer's Guild, Read the Office Supply Account Number when the clerk is asleep.
Get Highlighter from Office Supply Store.
Highlight Hintbook to reveal Clues.
Give Hintbook to Detective in Town Square.

"The Rook"
In sewer, slide Magnetized Scroll under Iron Door.
With Pen from Office Supply store, poke key out through the keyhole to land on the scroll.
Retrieved, but now the key is stuck to the scroll.
Take scroll to office supply store to shred paper, leaving key.
Use key in door to enter Thieves Guild.
Search Treasure Horde to find The Rook.

"Wompus Hunt"
In Adventurers Guild, read Wompus Plaque for direction.
Load Crossbow from Thieves Guild with Bolt from Adventurers' Guild.
In Dark Forest, Turn Off Lantern to tempt Wompus.
Then Smell for Wompus Musk.
Fire Crossbow, Wompus will Flee, leaving Game.

"Zill"
Get Colorless Orb from the Deep Caverns.
Get Toner from the Office Store.
Color the orb Black.
Go to Wizard's Hut. Knock on door.
Give Orb to Wizard.
Game is inside Hut.

"Copious Caverns"
Take Spell Book from Wizard's Hut.
Return to Caves. In Cave Interior, Book will Glow.
Read the Book, and Cast Zyzzyx to Teleport.
Game is here in Hidden Cave.

"Stowaway's Manual"
Cast Zyzzyx in Wizard's Hut, where Spellbook is found.
To use Bibble Fish Machine, insert three components.
1. Junk Mail from Post Office.
2. Robe from Hot Tub.
3. Satchel from Mountain Pass.
Press Button, Receive Fish.
After Spaceship crash lands, speak to androids.
Give Marvin the Fish.
Give Lloyd the Multitool from the Beige House.
Ship will take off, leaving Game in Crater.

Number of Locations (Approx) (Optional)
25

Number of Puzzles (Approx) (Optional)
15

Twitter Handle (Optional)
http://twitter.com/RexMundane

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Comments

Submitted

Have you removed the game from itch? If you have, can you please put it back, as this is a really nice game and I'm sure others would like to play it. Fortunately, I kept a local copy.

Could you provide a mapping of the treasure names in your game to the real game names? I think I've worked them all out except for the following:

  • Textventure Toolkit (this could be any of several adventure authoring tools)
  • Shamus (possibly Deadline, Suspect, Witness or any of a myriad of detective games)
  • Zill (no idea about this one)
Developer (1 edit) (+1)

It should still be up, link still works for me (for the 0.1.0 version), as well as from my creator page.
As far as references, I tried to hint at the "real" games in the first "on pickup" messages for each game. So, for example, "Sleuth by Eric N Miller" becomes "Shamus by Erik 'Sleuth' Niller."

"Zill by Lynder and Edwyrds" is "Zyll by Linder and Edwards."

"Textventure Toolkit by Davis Mumberg" is "The Adventure Game Toolkit by David Malmberg."

"Copious Cavern Crusade by Woodther & Crows" is "Colossal Cave Adventure by Crowther and Woods."

"Hunt the Wompus by Grigori Yobb" is "Hunt the Wumpus by Gregory Yob."

"Softpron Adventure from In-Line Systems" is "Softporn Adventure from On-Line Systems."

"The Rook courtesy of Magnetized Scroll"  is "The Pawn, by Magnetic Scrolls." (The game as well is found in a Thieves' Guild, a reference to Magnetic Scrolls' followup game The Guild of Thieves, also "Rook" being another word for swindler/thief, which is a pun so weak I felt need to mention it explicitly here)

"The Galactic Stowaway's Manual by Adam Douglass" is, naturally, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams." (with special appearance by Marvin as 'Martin,' and Floyd from Planetfall as 'Lloyd.')

"Artie Bryanmorrie's Wishgetter" is "Brian Moriarty's Wishbringer."

And, of course, "Zurk: The Underground Umpire by Unfocom" is "Zork: The Great Underground Empire by Infocom."

Submitted

Great! I hadn't heard of Sleuth or Zyll.

It looks like the linking problem must have been a temporary glitch. It works now.

Host(+1)

Hello, 

Looks like a very interesting game.

Just one comment (prior to the judge starting date).

Please can you omit the "Games collected: " prefix if running on mobile? It's too big to fit in mobile.

You can do this with a statement like this in the dynamic_string you use for the top right element.

(is_mobile() ? "" : "Games Collected")
Developer

Good Evening

I've made the recommended change, the "Games Collected" text has been removed for mobile.

Host(+1)

Looks much better now on mobile.

Before:


After: