A View to a Home

I did not get a very good feeling about this game when the ADRIFT download page proclaimed it is an "exploration of a 70 Room Home" and an "introductory adventure". Hmmmm.

Still I'm a seasoned adventurer and not easy to put off. I open the game and I'm presented with game objectives of "collect the gold, silver, and bronze medals and place them in the trophy case." Doesn't say why, whether they are lost or stolen or what happens when I find them. My feelings about this game do not get any better.

So onto the first location which simply says -

"You are standing in front of the entrance to your house."

Oh dear, I think it is going to be one of those games. What does the house look like? smell like? feel like? Have I been here before? Never? Am I happy, sad, afraid? Actually I'm bored, bored with this game already.

Right, onto the second location -

"Clean Aire
You have stepped beside a picnic table and gas grille. Also here is a shovel. You can move north and west.

x picnic table
Paint is peeling from the picnic table.

x grille
There is no gas in the canister."

Well, at least I can examining the items listed in the location description (even though it only contains two!).

A third location -

"There are a multitude of shoes on the floor and coats on their hangers. You search diligently and find nothing."

It is not getting any better. I progress -

"Utility Room
You are in the command center of the house. All the heating and cooling is handled here. You are especially fascinated by the automatic sprinkler system. You search the sprinkler system and your fascination quickly evaporates into futility. Nothing ineresting here."

So, every time I return to this location I'm going to be "fascinated by the sprinkler system" am I and search it? If the location has "Nothing ineresting here" [sic] then why is it in the game? At this point I stopped playing. The thought of 70 locations all like this hold absolutely no interest for me at all. The game appears to have no real plot other than locating some objects and putting them in another. The house has no logic in its layout, the locations are poorly implemented and randomly tacked together.

My advice to the author (or any author) is to "read" the "Adventure Creation Tips for Newcomers" on the ADRIFT forum - http://forum.adrift.co/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5490#p66606.

Now, lets be honest usually everyone's first game is not very good. Like this one. So what should a new author do? Listen to advice on the forum, read the above and play some IF. Then come back with a winner.