Scarlet Portrait Parlor

Number of Reviews: 1
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This game has great source code, August 31, 2020

The source code of this game is delightful, and you simply must read it. No, seriously, the game is basically unplayable (its puzzle is unfair) unless you read the source.

I played the game with the story file in an interpreter, which is normally my preferred way to play IF, but as a result, I missed out on a message that appears in the HTML "Play Online" version:

An Entry in Event One of the Second Quadrennial Ryan Veeder Exposition for Good Interactive Fiction.

The challenge of Event One was to create a game in Inform 7 with beautiful source code text. Therefore, you may be interested in viewing the source code text.

Well, it turns out that there is no way in the game to deduce how to win, or even to know that you should read the source to enjoy the game. (Spoiler - click to show)You have to get rid of your heavy guilt. You can't drop it. You win by putting the guilt on the loom, for no reason I can discover.

If the source code weren't so good, this game would merit one star, two at the most. But the source code is very, very good.