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All Member Ratings
| Average Rating:   Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 3 |
An absolutely charming game. I enjoyed the artistic references and the world-building potential. Everything works, the hints are helpful but not overly leading, and it made me think about what a person is without the total sum of their experiences.
(The whole "give the title of every wallpaper in the house" thing was also quite fun)
((Pet the cat while you still can! I missed my chance))
- junoxgod, October 1, 2026
I quite liked this game. The writing was strong, and the puzzles flowed right. I particularly appreciated the highlighted words, making examinable objects jump right off the page.
But there was one puzzle that didn't sit right with me: the Napoleon puzzle.
I've said elsewhere that I think that puzzle solutions should be surprising, but inevitable in hindsight. I don't think the Napolean puzzle reached that bar, even/especially with its THINK ABOUT hint. The hint itself felt surprising, but not at all inevitable, and the puzzle solution felt like a surprising leap from there.
Here, I'll include a small nudge, the one I wish the game would have provided if you'd typed THINK ABOUT NAPOLEON a second time.
When you THINK ABOUT NAPOLEON, the game says:
I’ve already discovered that plants may be transformed into other objects, and I noticed that several plants were missing from the greenhouse. Perhaps they are hidden somewhere (or in some other form altogether).
That hint means that the plants are hidden in another form. They're hidden somewhere hard to find, in a form that you can transform into plants.
Now, here's my criticism of the puzzle.
(Spoiler - click to show)The floor was an adequate hint that the other plants were missing, but the response to RESEARCH PLANTS was too discouraging.
There are numerous books here on the topic of botany, plants, and gardening. If I narrow my search to the type of garden or growing conditions of the plants I am interested in, perhaps I shall find something useful.
In hindsight, the author intended that to mean that you can research "potted plants" or the "greenhouse," but I think it's hard to read it and not think "you need to research a more specific plant," e.g. RESEARCH SADDLE FLOWER. (That doesn't work, BTW.)
It's hard to imagine how/why you could credibly search hundreds of books for "potted plants" but not find the book you need when looking for "plants."
The puzzle would be "fixed" if RESEARCH PLANTS turned up the correct book, but that would probably make the puzzle too easy. So, I think the appropriate fix is to include the phrase "exotic plants" in the description of the greenhouse. Perhaps something like this:
The greenhouse is designed to contain a collection of exotic plants, but, disappointingly, it is now entirely devoid of greenery.
It makes more sense to me that searching for "plants" might turn up too many books, but "exotic plants" would be a much narrower search.
I'm looking forward to trying more games by this author!
- Tabitha (USA), September 21, 2026
Amnesiac explores magical house full of transformed objects and memories, September 19, 2026Tableaux Vivants
I enjoyed this game. I first encounter Lamp Post Projects through their watercolor-illustrated fantasy games about what I saw as 1600s-1700s fancy European society in a fantasy world. These were long choice-based games that focused on kind and gentle friendships/romances and explorations of magic, music, and horticulture.
The author later made the parser game The Gnomish Treasury, which also focused on a combination of fantasy and culture, in this case museum artifact preservation.
This game features magic and culture again. We are an amnesiac character writing a letter to ourself in what we discover to be a magical cottage filled with transformed items and references to cultural touchstones such as famous wallpapers, books, objets d'art, etc. (okay, I don't think there are any actual objets d'art in the game on looking up what that actually means but it seems like the kind of thing that would be in the game).
This game had gentle puzzles, though I did struggle on the first and one of the last puzzles. This isn't a bad thing; a completely trivial set of puzzles can be as unenjoyable as an overly hard set of puzzles. I didn't know how to achieve my first goal/leave the room, but eventually something 'clicked' and I got it. Solving the horse problem, though, stumped me; the book research mechanic was so open ended that I never considered researching that, even with the hints. I used the walkthrough. It made sense as a solution afterwards.
I liked the writing, enjoyed the reminder of Christina Rossetti, liked the generally self-indulgent nature of the game. It reminded me of two other authors. I first thought that Lamp Post Projects and Amanda Walker are like two facets of the same gem, or like Mario and Wario, with similar settings and themes but with one focusing on the beautiful in life and the other focusing on the ugly (not in a bad way). If they ever collaborated on a game, it would be pretty funny to see the results, maybe like how Gojo's Red and Blue collided as opposites to produce Hollow Purple (sorry for intruding a lowly anime reference into this refined company).
The other author I was reminded of was Andrew Plotkin; this game shares a similar structure with Dreamhold, which was about a magician recovering scraps of themself and learning exactly what kind of person they were, for good or for bad.
Good game, felt unique (despite my connections to other games), would recommend to others.
- jaclynhyde, September 16, 2026
- plethora , September 10, 2026
- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), September 6, 2026
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