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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction
The Town Dragon impressed me as a game written by someone who cared about his story but didn't have much skill with prose or with Inform. This doesn't make for a great product by any means, but I enjoyed it a tiny bit more than the last game I played (Zero Sum Game) a piece with good writing and coding but a very cold heart. With an improvement in prose quality and code, this game could be enhanced into a fair example of standard fantasy IF. I could see that potential, and it helped to mitigate the game's other disappointments.
There is a dragon in town, and it's your job to rescue the mayor's daughter from them.
This game has more of an open-world feel, with many challenges that can be completed in any order, and a slowly unveiling realization of what's going on.
The problem, though, is that only a small slice of that open world has been implemented, making it very easy to do the wrong thing due to lack of guidance. It also has a really, really big maze that can be hard.
Interesting concept, and fun to play with a walkthrough.
Well-intentioned fantasy quest with some interesting plot twists, but also lots of bugs and unfortunate game design choices. A dragon has stolen the princess away, and you're among the young swains who are asked to get her back; along the way, you accumulate some treasure. The puzzles are extremely difficult (at least, it's hard to guess what you're expected to do); the STORY file included with the game will explain what's going on, and there's also a walkthrough included within the game file. Minimalist writing.
-- Duncan Stevens