I need a hint. How do you find the khopesh? In the meantime, here are my play testing comments so far.
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I played version 0.1.0.
This appears to be a small game, but it suffers from a number of technical issues, lack of hints, illogical puzzles, very small vocabulary and the need for lots of trial and error. I wasn't able to finish it and I'm not sure if it was because it's buggy or I just hadn't hit on the right read-the-author's-mind solution to a "puzzle". Anyway, here's some comments:
Consider adding a title screen. It doesn't have to be fancy.
As there is no title page and no title, the title is uncertain. It is 'Delver' on the itch.io page, but CREDITS says it's called 'The Pyramid'. Assuming the former is correct, you need to change the game_name in the game_information{} block.
Consider making some prettier credits. You can still see the system credits using *CREDITS.
You are allowed up to three sentences for an introduction. You should take advantage of this to give a short intro or back story and state the objective. You can put this in the on_startup{} block.
As you can't get the artifact bag, I was assuming this was where to store the treasures, until I found something else that hinted at a treasure room later. Why can't you get the artifact bag? It might be a red herring, but it should be possible to get it.
Make sure all sentences end with a full stop.
You should override the system HELP command, as this is longer than 6 words.
It doesn't understand SCORE and it's not shown in the status bar, so how do you get to see the score?
The number of turns in the status bar is not updated each turn, so you can type TURNS and the number of turns is different to what's shown in the status bar.
Every time you EXAMINE EXPLORER, you refind the journal. This is quite annoying if you have it in your inventory and it reappears in the room. Do a test using something like:
: match "examine explorer" {
: if (is_present "dead_explorer") {
: if (has_not_created "old_journal") {
: create "old_journal";
: print "Found journal.";
: done;
}
: print "Nothing else.";
: done;
}
}
If you PRESS TILE at the pyramid entrance, the wall keeps opening. How many times can it open? This is a similar issue to above, except that you need to test whether the loose tile has been created.
When you GET BOOK/JOURNAL, it says "Taken.", then "Heiroglyph translator", then press_any_key. Surely, just the first message is enough. You get the second, but without the spelling error, when you examine it. "Heiroglyph" should be "Hieroglyph".Some responses are surrounded by asterisks or double quotes when it doesn't make sense to do that, e.g. *Cannot read* and "Wall opens". This gets very annoying very quickly.
When you EXAMINE HIEROGLYPHS in the old room, you get two responses, one surrounded by double quotes, one surrounded by asterisks.
It doesn't support REWIND/UNDO. Use rewind_enabled = true in the game_settings{} block to enable this if you haven't done so already and recompile it with a later version of Adventuron.
It does not make sense for spikes to fall on you when you're outside the pyramid. Where did they come from? Sky hooks?
The falling of the spikes is completely illogical. It appears that you get spiked after four moves no matter where you are, unless you've picked up the correct object. There is no reason given for this illogical behaviour and no hints given regarding how to avoid the spikes. It's just systematic trial and error and restart over and over again.
If you EXAMINE STATUE after inserting one or more treasures, the relevant slots reappear. Same issue as old journal and loose tile.
If you EXAMINE ROOM at the statue chamber, the hieroglyphs are "stolen" from the old room. In fact, it looks like you can make them appear anywhere. Same issue again.
If you READ ANYTHING (presumably after getting flail and crook), you get directions, but no starting point. There is only one room that you can follow the directions without running into a wall and that's the statue chamber, but if you follow the directions, nothing happens. Is this bugged or another read-the-author's-mind problem.
Sorry if this sounds negative, but I'm only trying to help.
