Untold Riches

Untold Riches is short very straightforward interactive fiction about treasure hunt. For the most part it manages to achieve its goals set in ABOUT page.

Some simple things could be improved, e.g. calling "a mechanical device" a machine won't work. The parser only understands device or power station. adding machine to the vocabulary isn't difficult. In fact it would have been in line with the design principle of being for "novice programmers".

Another problem I have, at the end of the game, (Spoiler - click to show)when you unlock the chest with key. the reply you get is: (Spoiler - click to show)The brass key clicks perfectly into place and turns with a gentle twist of your wrist. You’ve done a lot to get here, and only one simple step stands between you and the professor’s amazing treasure (whatever it is). I found it unclear whether my action succeed or not. I spent lot of time trying to find out, (Spoiler - click to show)Why the chest did not unlock, instead of opening the chest. There is no need for the player to first unlock and then open the chest. It is bad design practice to deliberately break the action in two parts. It is understood when you unlock something, it should open and reveal its contents. Breaking away from that convention, I think, is not inline with the stated design principles.

But other than these small problems, I definitely enjoyed this 15 minute adventure.