The King and the Crown

You are a king in this short little game, and your duties include listening to the cries of the people, giving advice and occasionally invading France. But before that, you have to find your crown and scepter.

True to the blurb, this game has self-deprecating, irreverent humour in buckets. For example:

>x cabinet
An intricately decorated wooden cabinet strengthened outside and in with a cage of the strongest steel in the world. This is where you keep the Royal Crown.

And, sometimes, also snacks.

This game brands itself as a one-puzzle, short game, and indeed, strictly speaking, only six actions are needed to complete the game itself. The author has, however, implemented little bonuses for those who poke a little more at the game, so it’s equally fun - if not more - to try and explore and uncover some of the game’s secrets, including the traditional references to other well-known IF games and pop culture

The humour sometimes backfires, though; the custom parser error messages start out cute at first but quickly become annoying. The parser could definitely be more comprehensive, especially for ambiguous references to nouns. Not a bad play- slightly silly and unsubstantial, but that’s completely excusable. Good for maybe 5 minutes' poking around.

This short IFcomp 2015 game is, I think, the author's first game, though they are planning on future games. You play a king who has to face the day and his people, and needs to find his King and crown.

This game is notable in that the hidden content massively outnumbers the actual puzzles. The game can be beaten in less than 10 turns. However, the ending is very different, depending on your actions. There are magic words, background stories to find in the scenery, and a hidden part of a novel, as well as a ton of customized error messages and such.

Overall, I would like to see the author make a longer game with similar attention to detail. It would be difficult, but having that much hidden stuff, coupled with more puzzles and a longer plot arc, would make for a great and memorable game.