The Basilisk and the Banana

This game was entered in the Text Adventure Literacy Jam, designed to introduce newcomers to the genre.

It was co-written with a kid, who has provided the art for it, which gives the game a pretty awesome feel. I especially enjoyed the lettering on the parachute.

The game is well-fit for an introductory game, with good programming, a generally easy but dramatic set of puzzles, and a lot of humor.

The plot is a bit silly so some things didn't make much sense, but I don't think 'makese sense' was high on the list of priorities here; it seems like 'have fun' and 'be cool' were higher priorities, and it succeeds at both of those.

This game has a really fun and simple premise. You are Hermes and you need to deliver a letter to your father, Zeus. It’s a colourful and enjoyable Adventuron game with hand-drawn illustrations and styling that fits well with the Ancient Greek theme.

The tutorial is great and very straightforward - it’s an easy-to-follow introduction to all the basic commands and commonly used shortcuts. The game also makes good use of a fairly limited parser, sticking to basic verbs and simple noun-verb commands throughout. The only slightly uncommon verb (WEAR) is fully explained in the tutorial.

For me, this game is pitched at exactly the right level for TALP. When I first started out in the world after the tutorial and could seemingly go anywhere in any direction forever, I was a little worried the map was going to be huge. However, the story quickly limits the player’s movement and the game becomes a simple and fairly linear (but still very enjoyable) adventure.

The only time I got stuck was when I couldn’t find an item and didn’t seem to be getting any help with it from the in-game hints (you need to be in a certain location to get the hint you need, which doesn’t make much sense). I was able to find the hint I needed for this by looking through the comments on the Itch game page, but there is also a walkthrough provided.

It’s solidly coded (I only came across a couple of tiny bugs) and well written. A very good addition to the TALP canon.