Thank you for your feedback, Garry! I'm glad you liked the game. Yes, it's a bit short, as I was working under a tight deadline, but I hope it's also sweet.
You make some good points. I didn't even know about CREDITS or HELP, as they're not mentioned in any of the development guides that I found, and I didn't think to try them in the game.
Thanks for pointing out those spelling errors. Good proofreading is very valuable!
I did some reading online, and it seems that if Joe Public is American, then they're not considered wrong. From things you've written in your game and elsewhere on itch.io, I'd guess that you're Australian? Me too, although somehow I was taught to use the full stop when I was growing up. Now that I know the preferred Commonwealth English form, I'll try to change my habit, because I do generally try to stick to that way of doing things. But I've been teaching ESL with American English textbooks for a few years, and I have no energy left to discuss whose flavour of English is "more correct". You would not believe how often it comes up. :) Also, I apologise if my spelling/vocabulary wavers back and forth across the pond; now you know why.
Leaving out responses for locking/unlocking/closing things was a conscious decision. There are always more little things for which you could code flavour responses, and if I'd been working on the game for a month or even a week I would've done more, but I drew a line there. Those kinds of responses are one of the things that I really admired about your game. You managed to cram even more puns and asides into your game without exceeding your two-word limit or creating confusion.
Both the fisherman and the newspaper were only ever intended to be extra hints for those puzzles. I added the fisherman because I felt that the folder was an incredibly vague hint (I didn't originally conceive of it as being a hint like that at all; it was only there to give players feedback that not just one, but two of the treasures related to dodgy business practices), and that most players would need an extra nudge. There was also another somewhat roundabout reason for the fisherman and his puzzle item to be present initially, which was related to some things that were cut for time. The newspaper was added when I had half an idea to make Dale say something else, so it would've been the only clue for that puzzle, but in the end I didn't change Dale's line.
I think that it may seem like the fisherman is more important than he was supposed to be, which in turn makes it seem like the player shouldn't be able to get the treasure that he hints at without hearing his clue first. The reality is that getting that treasure was going to involve a chain of puzzles dealing with the bureaucrats at City Hall, which I had to cut so I could go to bed and not be ruined for work the next day. :) So now, you just turn up at City Hall and ask for the treasure.