Ancient Treasure, Secret Spider

One-room romp where you play a fairy, giving suggestions to a mysterious stranger to fix an ancient machine while two more NPCs fend off a band of goblins. You're too small to be heard or perform any actions yourself, but flying to an object will attract the stranger's attention to it, and if he's holding something suitable, will try to use it on the object. Basically, "USE x ON y" with extra steps.

It's "limited parser", so gameplay is purely typing in nouns, which leaves room to really fill out the fairy player-character's personality, and she's delightful and hilarious. The Dunning-Kruger effect writ large, confidently clueless about everything around her: "As soon as you first laid eyes on him, you knew that he was destined to fall obsessively in love with you and die of a broken heart, so once again you flutter enticingly into his gaze. But, when he swats you away like an annoying insect, you are reminded that this poor, proud man is concealing his abysmal eyesight from his companions."

Being clueless, she refers to items as "thingamajigs", "whatsits" etc, it's up to you to decipher what they are, help get the machine working again, solve the mystery of the stranger, and escape to freedom. A PRAY command provides hints, giving you "y" from "USE x on y", but could probably do with a second level that also reveals "x", to avoid occasional moments of lawnmowering.

I suppose that the title of this review could be considered as a spoiler, but since this fact of the game world was intentionally announced by author C. E. J. Pacian as part of teaser publicity in the days leading up to its release, I'm not worried about it.

Pacian's trademark creativity is on display in this short light puzzler that starts out with an eye toward comedy but slowly refocuses on drama over the course of its plot. Nothing is quite what it seems in this world, which the interactor sees in a form doubly-refracted through the twin prisms of the player character's hefty egotism and vast ignorance. Though these distortions, are, of course, deliberate obscuration of important information by the author, they're imposed in such a playful manner that the player welcomes the friction as a chance to linger longer in this highly entertaining universe.

Due to its limited parser format (accepting only nouns as commands, with an implicit >FLY TO verb), it's possible to play through the entire scenario without gaining much understanding of the game universe, but the real fun lies in trying to see through the veiled descriptions and decide what's really going on. It's this multi-level gameplay (and the story's inventively but delicately interacting plotlines) that makes Ancient Treasure, Secret Spider stand out as more than just good.

The original, produced in only five days, was terrific, and already the author has released post-competition versions to address a few minor issues that weren't very noticeable. (My own playthrough seemed 100% problem-free.) Even before these refinements, it was an excellent game to put in front of parser and/or puzzler newbies who are having trouble understanding how interactive fiction could be considered fun. For those who already know their way around, it makes a great bit of fun, sized somewhere between "snack" and "light meal" in scope -- perfect for a lunch break or a long commute.

I quite enjoyed this game. The writing is cute, and the puzzles are fun.

I have some spoilerific feedback for the author.