5 Minutes to Burn Something!

We've accidentally set off the fire alarm, and what follows is a comedy of escalation as we first try to create a real fire in order to avoid a fine for the false alarm, and then try to fob off responsibility for the act of arson. It's the sort of thing sitcoms are made of.

So this thing already has a madcap sort of premise going for it. The narrative voice is well characterised, and suits the story. The story manages to pack a fair bit of puzzling into a very compact little map, and some of it is pretty neat. The game could be a really excellent piece of work. There's a bit of guess-the-syntax going on, however, and that gets in the way of my enjoyment; most notable of these was the puzzle surrounding the battery and the steel wool. It's all very well to tell me that I know how to do something, but that means nothing if I am not given the necessary verb to go with it.

The second part involves some highly unethical motivation on the part of the protagonist. The fact that it works, that it works in a straightforward fashion, and that it results in further reward for her, makes it all less funny, at least for me. Part of the formula for comedies of this sort is that the escalating stakes result in a greater pratfall in the end. The audience is sitting there going "ooh, this cannot end well" and the reward for them is really the look on the protagonist's face when she realises that everything is about to explode in it. Also, getting someone charged with a serious crime that they didn't commit doesn't strike me as very funny.

It's baked beans on toast. Theoretically delicious, but it can get a bit messy ... and surprise, underneath the beans, the toast is burnt. The malted chocolate Milo takes some of the burnt edge off, fortunately.