Go to the game's main page
Review
Adapted from a Review-A-Thon 25 Review
Style: parser
Played : 7/18/25
Playtime: score 13/14; locs 13/14 10m 3 playthroughs
I am fascinated at the mental space this particular work settled into for me. It is a parser implementation, using the MOST niche GAGS platform. As an aspiring IF author I fully understand and endorse the active pleasure of engaging an uncommon platform and producing something functional with it. It the impulse that drives the Engineer subclass of our population, and for those so smitten a source of great personal satisfaction. It is true, though, that as a CONSUMER, a parser game’s implementation language is almost never interesting. If anything, all parsers look the same from the outside and are often burdened with common expectations. On some level players have no reason to CARE what happened before the > prompt.
As an author's training vehicle toy, what does this work offer the player? A pretty solid, spare parser experience of navigation, pick stuff up, find goal. It certainly has the unimplemented noun/synonym problem of many parser games, but not defeatingly so. Its very small size puts it in the category of “no wasted time,” even in the face of its unambitious narrative and puzzle construction.
More, as a parser fan, I really appreciated its palate cleansing properties! My randomizer slyly slotted this in the middle of the 'Thon for me, which ended up being about perfect. I have no beef with choice-select/Twine, it’s a perfectly serviceable interface. But I do have a soft spot for parser play, and this tiny little shot of gameplay was just the perfect amuse bouche in the run of this 'Thon. A little treat to spice up this endeavor.
I do wonder, outside the context of the 'Thon, is there an audience for this? Where a cascade of fully realized parsers are just a click away, will this plucky little trifle register? Seems like no? That’s certainly ok. Not all art must be timeless, how much pressure would THAT be? For me, in this moment of 'Thon 25, it served a very specific, very welcome function and I’m glad it’s here. Feels like more than enough to justify itself.
