Ransack!

This game was entered in the Text Adventure Literacy Jam for 2026.

I came in expecting a large, sprawling game, as most of the authors' games have been, which gave me a crumb of trepidation as I've had less time recently. Fortunately, this one was intended for beginners and so is fairly brief, with the time and work going into polish rather than size.

This is a very trope-y, old-fashioned Native American adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones (and old black and white serials and such). Cultures are mixed together (including Egypt and Native American cultures) and there is a distinct lack of respect for native people, to the point that it feels like the character doesn't see them as human. As I discovered, this is intentional to the piece and is addressed in what was to me a satisfying way.

The puzzles were satisfying and relatively straightforward. I got stuck twice, once because I for some reason kept typing (Spoiler - click to show)SQUIRE instead of SQUIRT and didn't notice it, and again because of what I think is an intentional soft-lock where I used an item too early (fortunately, I had saves, and the game warns you that you may need to save. Even if I hadn't, it wouldn't take too long to replay to that point using knowledge of puzzle solutions).

Overall, I found this game fun. It wasn't super-descriptive, but that could be a bonus for any second-language speakers or young readers just learning about text adventures.