The Lighthouse

by Eric Hickman and Nathan Chung

2008

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Number of Reviews: 10
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A teachable moment, March 22, 2023

Mr. Webster, the lighthouse keeper, has asked you to take care of his lighthouse while he is away. Are you up for the job?

According to the publication notes, this is the authors’ first game, and it certainly bears a lot of the telltale signs of a first game. The map is small, the descriptions are unhelpful, and the coding is a little buggy. While the concept of having to take care of an isolated lighthouse all by your lonesome sounds like fertile ground for a story, the entire game can be finished in about 15 turns, which squanders any narrative potential.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that this also appears to be the authors’ only game. We all have to start somewhere, and while I will admit to being unimpressed with pretty much every aspect of The Lighthouse, I can’t really fault someone for wanting to show off something that they made. I just wish that they had put more time and effort into it.

If nothing else, I hope that The Lighthouse serves as a reminder that we all have to learn to walk before we can run.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A short coding exercise about a lighthouse, February 10, 2016

This is a game I played last year. You have 3 doors, 4 rooms, two keys, a container, and a button. Nothing is hidden, there are some typos, and the authors manually insert the winning text into the game without actually ending the game.

As a historical curiosity, this, along with Detective, is one of the best known games with minimal coding due to its entry in IFComp, among other reasons.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
This review is longer than the game, April 15, 2015

Let's see, 27 moves in four minutes. That speed typing in high school really did the trick. Believe it or not, there is a Brass key and a Crystal key. Guess which one opens which door. Well, that is not hard since finding the keys is linear. The entire four minutes is three to four containers and the game would not last that long except for the number of non-consequential items (e.g. a desk) that do nothing, contain nothing, and cannot be acted upon in any way shape or form.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Not spectacular, but I have seen worse, December 8, 2013
by Simon Deimel (Germany)

This little game is not a challenge for anyone -- finding keys and the corresponding doors right after that; no further implementations, no real story. But going through it did not hurt me, and finally there is a good will behind this game, as opposed to others which were simply made to be annoying. I have seen much worse. And stuff of the same quality which got better ratings for reasons that I do not understand.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Not really a game--a basic exercise in IF, October 22, 2013
by streever (America)

I wouldn't call this a game: besides poor implementation, it features no challenges at all. You have 3 doors, and can only open one. If you can figure out what direction that door is, you can walk in it and obtain a key, which opens the other door, etc.

The game is finishable in 12 completely obvious moves, and the writing could use an editor. (The initial sequence with the man is the prime example of editing needs.)

I would encourage the authors to revisit this concept and flesh it out--the basic premise could make for an interesting game, but it would need some sort of tension and better technical implementation.

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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Examine Lighthouse, December 22, 2008
by Aaron Mumaw (Appalachia)

You see nothing special about The Lighthouse.

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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
no regrets about the five minutes spent on it, November 25, 2008
by Jeremy Freese (Evanston, IL)

I mean, if you go in appreciating this is the first game by somebody who is maybe 15 years old, it is a cute experience. It also made me smile to carry the button around and win in different rooms. I can't give one star to something that only took five minutes and had me amused, even if it was campy amusement.

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Not IFcomp material., November 16, 2008
by James Hall (UK)

The Lighthouse is no doubt the authors' first game, as it's very basic and very, very short. The aim of the game is to switch on the light in a lighthouse and...uh...that's it. It's all over in about two minutes. No plot. No twists.

Granted, the game does work, but I'm still baffled at why this was a 2008 IFcomp entry.

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
An exercise in brevity, October 27, 2008
by WriterBob (Richmond Hill, Ontario)
Related reviews: IF Comp 2008

The Lighthouse, submitted for the 2008 IF Competition, is probably the easiest IF game ever created.

The goal as stated in the introduction is to turn on the light in the lighthouse. Beyond the introduction there is very little description. All the places have names, but there is only the most cursory description of each room. Every object, when examined, returns the stock response, "There is nothing special about X."

Technically there were no flaws in the game. There was however, no challenge either. The old Infocom sampler offered more in the way of interaction.

Perhaps, as a previous reviewer surmised this was an exercise on the part of the authors who were trying to learn Inform. I hope this is the case. If the authors read this review, I would encourage them to continue creating IF after this first rather timid step.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5 wasted minutes, October 12, 2008
by Fra Enrico (Torino, Italy)

What is this? A short exercise by people who are learning the inform language? If not, this is a hoax. A short, empty, hollow, meaningless adventure lasting no more than 20 actions, which steals away 5 minutes of your time in front of very brief descriptions and very few choices.
The setting? A two-rooms ligthouse. The goal? Turning on a lamp. The way to achieve it? (Spoiler - click to show)Open two doors, and push a button. How exciting.

Nothing more.
I couldn't imagine something less interesting. I don't know the score this game will get in IfComp08, but it doesn't matter. There is nothing here worth the worries. I don't dislike short and simple games, but this one doesn't even deserve the name of it.

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