The Hunting Lodge

If you're willing to take moody atmospherics and tense exploration (Spoiler - click to show)-- followed by an intense timed escape sequence -- over a well-developed or unique plot, then this Lovecraftian mansion crawl is fair game. Boasting some genuinely unsettling scene descriptions, The Hunting Lodge lets its creepy backstory unfold in the first 'act', before abruptly shifting gears into an nerve-wracking cat-and-mouse (or rather eldritch-abomination-and-plucky-human) game.

Worth noting for Twine fans and developers alike: this game takes full advantage of the tool's variable-setting functions, with a small virtual inventory needed to advance the story, simulated turn-based events (e.g. (Spoiler - click to show)countdown that decreases by 10 seconds each click), and a monstrous pursuer that moves about in (randomized?) wumpus-style fashion. With all the conditions in play, it truly shows off the mechanical possibilities of the authoring system, beyond the obvious CYOA type functions.

I admit that I still haven't beaten the game yet. But I don't need to -- I already recognize how satisfying it is, even when it ends in death-by-creature or (Spoiler - click to show)a fiery, explosive demise.

I actually played this game backwards on accident. There is a major event you're supposed to encounter early on in one of the first rooms, but that ended up being the last room I entered.

Most of this game is navigating a house while a mysterious being also does so. You have to avoid, destroy, and escape.

Over all, it was well done, but I never really got into it. The room descriptions were fairly amusing.

The Hunting Lodge was a shocking shift from the author's IFComp 2012 entry In a Manor of Speaking, submitted for EctoComp one month after. Both have unexpected deaths. This has fewer jokes--though they're there, in the descriptions, if you look. The author himself mentioned, when he re-released the game, that his post-comp fixes included some jokes, because he couldn't help himself. I think the changes are for the better.

The author describes it as partially influenced by Hunt the Wumpus, and it is, only the map is slightly imbalanced, and there are fewer rooms. You wouldn't know this at first, as you're driven to a barren hunting lodge where you haven't heard anything from your brother for a while. Then there's a moment when you know you're in trouble, because of something you did, which is rather good. Then the chase starts. There is a way to defeat the monster and exit.

The strategy here is tricky. The monster's roaring is louder the closer it gets, so you need to, whenever possible, avoid rooms with two exits. But of course one of the things you need is in such a room, and you must visit a dead end as well. So there's a chance you'll just get killed by the monster, and that's luck. But it adds to the fear, which makes it a good EctoComp entry. There's also a timed bit at the end, and you may be helplessly trapped by the monster as time runs out. More scary fun.

Given the author, I was sort of expecting a mounted moose head that gave you a raspberry or wet willy when you weren’t looking, or perhaps a Big Mouth Billy Bass gone bad. There is humor there (a note that breaks the fourth wall explains the rules) and some subtler hat-tips to authors the writer likes, but the main plot is dead serious. It's easy to forget those jokes.

Post-comp I think the author did a good job of fixing bugs and balancing gameplay. It's a quick tense effective experience. We should all try divergences like this from our main style. I know I haven't, and I'd like to.