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Rain Check-in

by Zeno Pillan profile

2025
Inform 7

(based on 4 ratings)
Estimated play time: 20 minutes (based on 2 votes)
Members voted for the following times for this game:
  • 20 minutesPasserine
  • 20 minutes: "per ending, no hints" — joes
1 review5 members have played this game.

About the Story

Easy self check-in, they said. Turned out to be more of an escape room experience.

This summer my partner and I rented a room with self check-in for one night. The instructions to get in were wild: we had to find a key taped behind a railing outside the building, guess the right staircase in a secondary building in the yard, and then retrieve the home key from a wall safe hidden behind an umbrella stand. This experience convinced me to write a game about self check-in. It’s inspired by several check-ins I’ve had since 2018 up to nowadays, even if the story is completely fictional.

Features:

This parser-based interactive fiction uses standard commands (you can find a list in the HELP menu). If you get stuck, there’s an integrated hints menu, or you can read the walkthrough. The walkthrough also includes six artworks and a guide to all the footnotes. The game has multiple endings: two game overs, one main ending, an alternative path to the main ending, and one side ending.

AI:

As you may know, English isn’t my native language, and in my previous works that was sometimes a drawback. For this project I focused on a smaller location and used ChatGPT as a writing assistant. I ran almost every sentence through it several times to correct grammar, smooth out phrasing, and find the most context-appropriate terms. It often suggested multiple options, and that really helped me tell my story the way I meant it, even in a language I’m not yet fluent in.

That’s it! I hope you enjoy playing this game and, to quote ChatGPT punning me: ‘Break a lock—uh, leg!’ ⛈️

Zeno August 2025.

Awards

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(0)
4 star:
(2)
3 star:
(1)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 4 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Short parser game with multiple endings , September 27, 2025*
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

This game is a parser game where you end up parked at the end of a lonely road, ready to check into a room. Unfortunately, the airbnb (I think?) host you are working with has sent you poorly-translated instructions. You have to find your way in.

I found two endings, but peeking at the walkthrough shows there are some more including at least one area with a bar that I didn't visit.

I found the house area to be descriptive, with the squeaking gate and the approaching thunderstorm. Like real life, I was mildly panicked about what to do with my draining phone battery.

I liked the puzzles involved. I did have some difficulty fighting with the parser in one part. Specifically, after (Spoiler - click to show)putting the dial on the lockbox, X DIAL and TURN DIAL and TURN DIAL TO 1 didn't work but TURN DIAL TO 123 got me to the menu.

The author states that the text was grammar-corrected with chatgpt. It did feel like fluent English. While I oppose most uses of AI in games, it's mostly for aesthetic rather than ideological purposes; most AI text is boring, all AI stories I've read have incoherent plot, most AI images don't match the story and bloat file sizes, and, for one ideological purpose, if we use AI we can't grow as writers. But the text here is written by the author, just spruced up, and I like the scenario he came up with. Grammar is a fairly mechanical thing, so I don't mind its mechanical improvement here.

Even if you don't use walkthroughs, I recommend checking out the walkthrough once you're done to see the surreal and vibrant art.

* This review was last edited on October 11, 2025
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Game Details

Rain Check-in on IFDB

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This is version 5 of this page, edited by Dan Fabulich on 17 October 2025 at 2:21am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page