The Loneliest House

Layers.
Fence, door, dome.
Wood and paint, intricate carvings and ironwork designs.
Longing, imagination, indifference to all else.
A writer, a reader, a character, a house.

Peel them off one by one.
Look harder, feel deeper.
Become…

A meditative, transcendent exploration of the house on the hill.

This parser game for Ectocomp was written in 4 hours or less.

This game really surprised me. I started it up, liked the writing, and decided to start poking around. I found a lot more things implemented in the first room than is normal for a speed-IF, which intrigued me, but I had trouble doing things.

Once I realized the twist, though, I found it to be clever, reminding me of some enjoyable games from the past. Just when I thought I couldn't do any more, I reached the ending, which was a satisfying conclusion.

So I'm not saying more because of spoilers, but I thought this was a good game and a good choice for the scoping and size issues that usually come with having a time limit for writing, like Ectocomp' Petite Mort division does.

This is a short parser letting the players use only one command: examine (X / L), where the point is to examine the abandoned house, and its different element, as if you were exploring it. Examining an element gives you a description, which focuses on other smaller elements, which if you examine those will describe further details, and... so on and so forth until the details are simply too small to see, or until you examined all elements to reach the end.

The gameplay reminded me of Nested, where checking an element gives you details you can look out, each if checked will give out subsequent details, and... Except, unlike Nested, TLH doesn't loop back to repeat ad infinitum if you take one specific path.

As for the whole, it felt a bit voyeuristic, especially in the descriptions of each details of the house, as, even if it is abandoned, you sort of see yourself opening the door or looking out the scenery from the window. You wish you could be inside the house, but you can't. You're on the other side of the fency, gazing with envy at the house. It's pretty eerie...

Also: +1 for including a walkthough! -1 for not being able to pet the dog (/jk)