Captain Cutter's Treasure

This is a pretty solidly-implemented short scenario using Inform 6 with the PunyInform library. It has 4500 lines of well-organized source code, which is available for download, and which demonstrates some advanced techniques such as use of a third noun. The PunyInform library has evolved significantly since the version used here (which is 2.4), however, so be advised that some changes may be necessary if adapting the code for your own use.

The review by MathBrush highlights the finicky nature of some parts of the interaction, which significantly detracts from the player experience. In addition to the strict requirements for phrasing, there are certain places in which the game provides feedback that teaches the player the wrong thing. Later in the game, this can be a problem where, as Mark Twain might put it, what interferes with your progress is not what you don't know but what you know that "just ain't so."

A couple of examples of this spring to mind. First, in the opening room: (Spoiler - click to show)There is a mouse hole. The protagonist, though expected to risk the anger of bloodthirsty pirates in the course of reaching the best ending, is too afraid to >SEARCH or >REACH INTO this hole. The >EXAMINE text for the hole implies that it's too dark to see into, but if a lit lamp is available, then a fresh >EXAMINE will discover something inside the hole. However, the >SEARCH and >REACH INTO commands don't change their behavior in response to light, and this seems a bit cruel, especially in the case of >SEARCH (which implicitly involves examining). Second, on the pirate ship: (Spoiler - click to show)While it is strongly hinted that the PC must create a diversion, it's up to the player to figure out how to do this. The correct solution, which involves (Spoiler - click to show)>BURN PILE OF STRAW after relocating it, might be fine if it weren't for a similar object (in the first room) which can't be moved. It's a case where the player being attentive to the game's feedback works against the player's understanding of the game world -- personally, I would think that the first room object was the more portable of the two in the absence of more information. More importantly, there is an opportunity to (Spoiler - click to show)>CUT ROPES which would seem more than satisfactory to create a diversion and would make use of an available inventory item, but for which no response is programmed.

I know that author Garry Francis is a champion of the old school style, and I still regard this game favorably in general, but its design ignores decades of genuine advances in puzzle craft and interaction technique. What essentials would have been lost by a "merciful" design (per the Zarfian scale) for the warehouse sequence, or by having the NPCs be a little less obviously keyword automatons? (Spoiler - click to show)(Harold never even gets up off the floor of the bar even while answering the PC's questions at length, and shows less life than Samuel, who believably passes out after drinking too much of the rum the PC gives him.) Why the occasional attention to admirably small details such as non-essential pieces of the pirate ship, and the presence of some descriptions of smells and sounds, but only about a dozen conversation topics per NPC? (Spoiler - click to show)(On review of the source code, the most talkative NPC -- in terms of available responses -- on land turns out to be Jerome, instead of Harold or Isaac, which surprised me because he seems the least important of the three.)

I'm going with 2 stars on this one because I think Captain Cutter's Treasure has potential that it hasn't quite reached. It really wouldn't have taken much to cross the threshold into 3-star (i.e. "good") territory, some of the items mentioned above would go a long way, and even doubling the topic count (about a dozen responses each) for NPCs and doing other things to add a touch of realism would make the protagonist's situation more convincing.