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Estimated play time: 25 hours (based on 1 vote)
Members voted for the following times for this game:
- 25 hours — OBNAKWA
About the Story
Dimity Jones In Puzzle Castle: An Electronic Escape Novel in Eighty-Nine Ciphertexts is a (mostly) fictional story, contained in a single text file, that requires the reader to solve puzzles as they go along, and to use each chapter's solution as a key to decipher the next.
Think: escape room in the form of a novel -- or, as one reader put it, "Interactive Fiction meets Advent of Code."
My wife, the author, passed away six years ago. This is not the last thing she wrote, but it is the most unusual, unapproachable, and personal of her major works. It is also, as the only novel of hers that I cannot breeze through in an afternoon (and despite my unflattering appearance in it), my favorite.
Though Dimity Jones was left unfinished, and perhaps abandoned, at the time of my wife's death, its elements were all there, on her hard disk, awaiting only a final compiling. My contribution to this text has therefore been little more than that of an occasional copyeditor (my wife was a meticulous speller and self-proofreader) and playtester.
Warm best wishes,
Larry
From the Author
A flurry of real & unsolicited feedback from people who have played or read Dimity Jones:
"Thank you so much for this. It's an amazing work, both technically and artistically, and I'm having a wonderful time working through it."
"This has been a unique and amazing experience on many different levels, I am very grateful to you for creating it."
"It was amazing from a literary perspective, from a puzzle perspective, and from a fun-software-problem perspective. It's easily one of my all-time favorite digital variety puzzlehunt thingies."
"It's original and fun, Interactive Fiction meets Advent of Code."
"You really did a hell of a job, and I wish that one day your game gets the audience it deserves."
"I have been somewhat nerd-sniped by this."
"I've been having a lot of fun solving the Puzzle Castle, even if it's been nerd-sniping me from work."
"What a great experience from end to end. Great puzzles. Great story. I believed in the characters, and I wondered the entire time how much was real and how much was dramatized. I still do."
"The overall story is superb ... All in all, I spent a number of days playing your game, and I had a lot of fun. Even at the very end, I was amazed by how thorough and thoughtful the game is—not a single character was wasted!"
"Thanks so much for sharing, really enjoyed it."
"Having everything in one text file that you unlock in steps is a beautiful experience."
"Thank you for this! It's a lot of fun."
"I enjoyed the writing and the puzzles both."
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Game Details
First Publication Date: January 1, 2025
Current Version: 1.0
License: Public Domain
Development System: Custom
Forgiveness Rating: Merciful
IFID: Unknown
TUID: rs57p6plpnhttsq8
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This is version 2 of this page, edited by Dan Fabulich on 4 August 2026 at 7:12pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page
