Bullhockey!

It looks like our girlfriend has left us and taken her revenge by scattering the clothes we need for work all over town. The quest is to retrieve the clothes, apparently, though I get the impression that there's more to it than that. It's mentioned a few times that some of what we know of what's happened doesn't seem to fit what we know of our girlfriend's behaviour, so I smell a rat.

I confess I didn't make it to the end. This is a pretty classic puzzle-quest in which we have to out-MacGyver MacGyver, using random found objects to overcome obstacles in unorthodox ways. It's the sort of thing I usually prefer, but I found the design and the writing left it somewhat less engaging than I like. It's a little too ... loose, I think. Too much text, too many unnecessary rooms. It's a little hard to skim the room descriptions for important information, especially when some of the directions mentioned refer to the position of objects in the room rather than exits. That's a very small matter, but it goes a long way towards making someone feel comfortable playing the game. I think that roughly about forty to eighty words should be ideal for a chunk of description.

And I think I've spoken before about the conservation of rooms in map design. Unless you've a very good reason for doing so, do not split up a street into opposite sidewalks. I found, in this case, that it diffused my focus.

Not a bad game, all-in-all. The ingredients seem to be there for another "Violet", but it's like scrambled eggs, home fries, and ham ... all done without salt. Maybe coffee to follow. The multiple-MacGuffin treasure hunt is an IF classic, but it could do with just a bit more flavour.