I downloaded the latest version, and after unzipping the file the application opens a small black box that immediately closes. i downloaded the win 64 ver if that helps.

Have you tried win32 version? Do you by chance use some old graphics card?

I have tried the win32 version and it did the same thing. Yes my graphics card is fairly old, but haven't had problems running other games i would assume are more demanding than this.

Its probably Godot engine requiring a minimum graphic card configuration.. never looked into it but the engine can do 3D so maybe it needs something bigger than usual for text based games..

It could be something to do with the engine, i've never used it before. My pc can run fairly current AAA games though like skyrim, so i don't think its my graphics card that is the issue.

Afaik, godot engine requires graphics card to support certain  Open GL version which is not supported on some of older GPUs. You could try web version, which might allow to run it anyway, but it's a bit outdated. 

The web version works well, i guess that will have to do for now. thanks.