Creative Cooking

(Note this is a review of the game version available part way through IFComp)

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to run this parser game. The competition listing gives no clues re interpreters etc. The game file is AGT format. But luckily Gargoyle and Spatterlight on my Mac will run it. Gargoyle coped best with visual layout, so I used that.

This is a very short game, nowhere near the hour and a half playtime suggested on the competition site listing. You have to gather a set of ingredients to cook with, and that’s it. They’re not hard to get, and it’s nice to get to the end. I would like to see the game finished. This is very much just a taster - an “amuse bouche”! - for the planned full story.

However the game is plagued by unimplemented objects that are referred to in the description. And that makes it quite frustrating to play. For example in my second location as I started to play I had this experience:

> w

My bedroom
My bedroom, with its large, welcoming double-bed (welcoming not only
for me, that is...) is against the west wall, and a round table is in the
centre. Two doors lead east back to my lab and west to the backyard,
and stairs lead down to my closet.

> examine bed
I don’t understand the word ‘bed’ as a noun.

> examine table
I don’t understand the word ‘table’ as a noun.
The same thing applies elsewhere, far too often. For the author please implement objects like this. Even if they aren’t necessary to complete a game on a simple run through some players will try interacting with them. And it breaks the player immersion when you can’t.

In another location I had a similar problem:

Garden
The garden, which is also the common green, is not only where the
zarnest trees are, it is where the people relax; there are many benches. I
can only return south to the upper plaza.

> examine benches
I don’t understand the word ‘benches’ as a noun.

> sit
I don’t understand ‘sit’ as a verb.
Fair enough maybe that it didn’t understand SIT, though can it be added in game? But the benches are right there, and I’d maybe like to do something with them.

There’s a more serious problem with one object that you need to do something to after you get it. I’m going to put this in spoiler text. (Spoiler - click to show)You have to soak the yardvine in water in the pond. I tried SOAK YARDVINE, PUT YARDVINE IN POND (or WATER) [either gets response “I can’t move the blue yardvine.”] and DROP YARDVINE. No good. Only THROW YARDVINE seems to work, which to be fair is in the walkthrough, but wasn’t intuitive.

The fantasy world setting is intriguing, and I was happy exploring it. The author is clearly putting effort into developing the ideas behind it. But constantly being unable to interact more with elements was very frustrating. Please, please in the full version of this game flesh out the objects in locations more. People will try EXAMINE X where X is lots of different things. And if you can support this it can make for a much better player experience.

So yup, folks may be like me initially thinking they can’t run the game, but very possibly can. It’s a short, simple game. But needs a much fuller implementation. And I don’t think that’s a problem of the Magx system, but just more author coding that was needed.