Sugarlawn

I've played this game through about eight times now. The setup is something of a scavenger/treasure hunt through an old antebellum mansion, grabbing antiques while filmed for a reality show. Most non-passive commands cost you fifteen seconds, and you have half an hour to collect items and pass through the foyer with them (or else put them in their special location, which you must guess based on the item and what rooms you've seen). It doesn't take long to reach the end point, and as you learn more about the value of various items, how to access different parts of the mansion, and other factors, you start working on how to allocate your time best. My first playthrough, I ended with about $6000, whereas my most recent I had almost $18000 (still a far cry from the high scores listed in the links).

I wish there was a way to play without the time limitation, just so I could play through the entire game, but I understand why having that sort of gameplay available would cheapen the timed play, since it would be easier to make choices once you had the entire place mapped out, and more room for trial and error on the special locations was allowed.

Did I mention you're wearing a chicken costume for the TV show? You're wearing a chicken costume for the TV show.

An absolute delightful treasure romp in the vein of Hollywood Hijinx (only with loads more charm), Sugarlawn had me simultaneously hooked yet a tad frustrated.

I do love a logical treasure hunt and a game show might be the most realistic modern raison d'etre for taking everything not nailed down. And because it's a game show it's clear from the beginning that replays will yield better results; thus, I was prepared for obsessive map-making and note-taking which I thoroughly enjoyed. What frustrated me is the nature of optimization puzzles. For a while I enjoyed finding shortcuts to improve my score, but after a while the diminishing returns were more exhausting than invigorating. For example, one way to improve optimization throughout your treasure hunt is to pick up or drop multiple items at the same time, which to me is more of a trick of the parser than a realistic strategy. So after four or five meticulous runs through the game I felt sated, despite several puzzles not yet being solved, because I knew even if I solved them I would never have the patience for peak optimization.

Despite this I wholeheartedly recommend playing it at least once, if for nothing but the fourth-wall breaking whimsy. It's always clear while playing that you're on camera (this fact is used for puzzle-design as well), and it's frequently played for laughs. If you regret a decision and type undo, a voice calls, "All right, we’ll just record over the last thing you did.” And I've always had a soft spot for New Orleans culture and history, and so I got to bathe in that to my heart's content.

I had fun with it. Used trizbort to make a map, liked the history added in. Will definitely go back and do the "amusing" suggestions. Puzzles on my first one were too much for my fibro-fog brain, but I plan on going back to figure stuff out.

I beta tested this game, and I love it.

You play as a contestant on a reality show that apparently involves finding antiques while wearing a chicken suit (?).

You run around a mansion gathering items while a timer ticks down each turn. Some items are easy to find, while others require a great deal of ingenuity.

Knowledge is the key in this game, player knowledge and not character knowledge. You can learn secret codes that help you succeed. There are secret bonuses. On top of all of this, all of the items have an 'optimal placement location' that gives you even more money.

This game has more narrative than most shameless treasure hunts, and a lot of funny lines, but the focus here is on getting the best prize. Your host comments on your score each time, and you are able to replay as much as you want in-game, with it being interpreted as re-takes of the show.

Love it, think it's great, and I think people will be playing this one for years. I play IF for many reasons: love of stories, love of characters. This game satisfies my itch of 'take/drop/N/E/S/W', which is the same reason I love the original IF game Adventure.

This game takes about 30 minutes to finish the first time but hours to get a good score.