Ratings and Reviews by E.K.

The author admits that their grammar may be poor, but that is an understatement. "If you are prejudice against homosexuals then leave now because your not wanted" - while I wholeheartedly appreciate the sentiment behind this sentence, the errors don't fill me with any great hope for the state of the rest of the game. I also don't quite understand why someone who seems so blasé about their standard of writing would want to work on a text adventure, but maybe that's just me.

However, I'm willing to cut the author some slack. This is obviously a young person, new to writing IF. The basic storyline has a good degree of potential - the heady days of teenage trysts and romance, as navigated by the player character, a 17-year old girl at high school. However, it is difficult to say how well this will be implemented if the game is finished. While the author fully prepared me for the fact that there would be dead ends in the game, I did not expect quite so many. It is simply impossible to know whether the characterisation will be nuanced or drawn in broad brushstrokes, whether the plot will hang together or fall apart, what the level of interactivity will be, whether there will be multiple branches of plotting… The introduction certainly hints that there will in the end be a choice of romantic partners to interact with, but currently there is only the option of a dalliance with your best friend. It could be equally feasible for the author to concentrate on this single romance, or to follow a 'dating sim'-like structure, or, well, to do pretty much anything he or she likes.

I'm rating the game on the standard that it has reached *now* rather than future promise, and I hope the author will take this review in the constructive spirit it is meant. I will be happy to replay and re-rate if the game is finished.

You play Elliott, a harried farmhand at Granny Grabby's farm. Her prized duck Mabel has swallowed the engagement ring you intended to surprise your girlfriend with this evening - you must get it back! With the help of your favourite pig Bessie, you will embark on an enjoyable load of puzzles and fetch-quests, that range from the simple to the slightly obtuse, but all full of this light, quirky humour.

The lightness does perhaps disguise that it is possible to put yourself in an unwinnable position without the game immediately telling you. However, these occasions seem rare, and with careful reading you should be able to avoid this (if the narrative voice seems iffy about your action, consider its necessity before continuing on). The inventory system is also rather inefficient - while the game will automatically shift items into a container when your hands are full, it then ceases to recognise you as 'having' these items, and you will have to take them again before attempting to use them. This is a minor quibble, however, and doesn't really get in the way of the fun.

In all, this is a great little comic puzzler, full of the joys of spring (and things).