It was getting late, and I thought I'd take a couple of minutes to play through a few commands of "Sigmund's Quest", just to get an idea of what it was like. So I did that, and, quite unexpectedly, reached the end. I don't mean that it gripped me for longer than I intended. I mean that it finished within the time I'd allotted for a preview.
It's really fantastically short. At least the colours were pretty.
I understand, a game with graphics and a fresh new user interface takes up considerably more time to put together than a game built with the existing IF-writing tools. Time spent on developing the interface is time not spent on developing the story. Which in my opinion means "start earlier or enter next year instead". The game, as it stands now, is incomplete: what we have been given is barely the first chapter; it might more appropriately be called the prologue. While we do end at a natural break, it is with the sense that we have only just begun with some set-up, and the story itself has yet to actually happen. We never actually got to even begin on the quest promised by the title!
There's really not enough story for me to comment about anything. For the user interface, I found the need to summon up the diary (the panel where all the story actually happens) at every new screen to be a little annoying, especially as the diary is so neatly tucked away as to be too easily missed.
It's a little more substantial than last year's "The Challenge", at least. It's not just the coffee that the waitress brings you while you read the menu, it's a complimentary bagel as well.