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by David Welbourn

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The Enigma of the Old Manor House

by Daniel M. Stelzer profile

Mystery
2022

Web Site

(based on 9 ratings)
1 review

About the Story

Everyone's heard stories about the old mansion on the hill. Decades ago, they say, old Doctor Black lived up there all alone. Until something happened—nobody knows what—and he vanished without a trace. The house belongs to the Historical Society now, it's turned into a little sort of local museum. But the south wing has always been closed to the public, and they say that's where it happened. Where he was murdered.

You don't really believe in the ghost stories any more, of course. You're too old for that. He probably just had a heart attack. But it is Halloween coming up, and Abby started telling the story, and you'd read that book and you told her it sounded like a poltergeist, a ghost that throws things around. Which means it has to be real and physical, right? Something you could find and trap.

And then Dylan made it a dare and nobody wanted to back down. And that's how you ended up here, in the dead of night on Halloween, prying one of the boards off the window next to the door and squirming your way in.

None of the others showed up. But you are not afraid of ghost stories, and you are not going to chicken out like your friends did. One way or another, you're determined to find out the truth, just like the detectives in the books always do.

This is a short, puzzle-y work of parser IF. Tutorial included for people who aren't familiar with the medium.


Game Details


Awards

1st Place, La Petite Mort - English - ECTOCOMP 2022

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A pleasant, methodical ghost-hunting parser game, November 12, 2022
by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This game was made in 4 hours, but has about a dozen beta testers, and it makes sense, as it is very polished.

This is a game where you explore a dark mansion with a lightsource and a helpful notebook. You are trying to find a ghost, and have to navigate around, dealing with blocked passages and places your light can't get through.

The atmosphere is generally creepy, especially since someone died there in the past. The descriptions of the dark areas are especially evocative.

Overall, it's a clever game and has some heartwarming parts.

I think it could still do with a little more polish, even with the cadre of testers. That's to be expected for most speed-IF, but it would make sense for the author to add on to it, since I could see people liking it in the future. The commands I think would be useful to have responses to include(Spoiler - click to show)POINT POINTER or STACK BOOKS, or X ROD.

I liked this one quite a bit. I used hints 2 or 3 times.

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The Enigma of the Old Manor House on IFDB

Recommended Lists

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New walkthroughs for November 2022 by David Welbourn
On Monday, November 28, 2022, I published new walkthroughs for the games and stories listed below! Some of these were paid for by my wonderful patrons at Patreon. Please consider supporting me to make even more new walkthroughs for works...

Polls

The following polls include votes for The Enigma of the Old Manor House:

Outstanding Mystery Game of 2022 - Author's Choice by MathBrush
This poll is part of the 2022 IFDB Awards. The rules for the competition can be found here, and a list of all categories can be found here. This award is for the best mystery game of 2022. Voting is anonymous and open only to IFDB...




This is version 5 of this page, edited by Draconis on 29 November 2022 at 3:44pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page