Review (no spoilers)

Oh what a masterpiece!

But the archetypical moment of a horror game is when you face that door, and you think “Opening this door is the worst thing I could do right now,” and then you type “OPEN DOOR”. As Bujold once said: “It will be simple and elegant, and you will do it to yourself.”

— Zarf, A Writer’s Guide to Interactive Fiction

Writing

mathbrush is a master of mood. The game opens with charming, merry scenes — which continue as cracks form and the joy turns to dread. The result is the most unsettling atmosphere I’ve ever seen. The night after finishing it, I did not sleep.

Is it an adorable romp, with multiple pettable animals, yummy cake, and spooky games that are perfectly safe pretend? Yes.

Is it a creepy, tense horror game, full of danger and loss and the desire for disaster to happen just to end the fear? Also yes.

Fuck’s sake, even the cake has an arc! Have you ever eaten a cake with plot before? Didn’t think so.

Favourite moments: The books in the study: I shuddered. Doffing the crown: I yelped.

Implementation

Rich and full of detail. I’m impressed with how the game manages complex scene changes in a large world where you can solve puzzles in any order. There’s a huge amount of NPCs, all with many unique responses.

I tend to get lost in large games, but not here: there’s a very clear tree structure with well-defined areas that make it easy to navigate.

Almost all my natural in-character reactions were implemented: I can thank helpful NPCs, cry, dance. My favourite moment was annoying an NPC and trying to apologise.

Puzzles

The puzzles are my favourite kind: easy (if you play a lot of IF, anyway) but complex, so that figuring them out feels like playing with an ornate puzzle box. I got several puzzles wrong on purpose just to see the different possible outcomes.

Most of the puzzles are very fresh and original, with a few twists on old classics like the maze. Personal favourite: the creaky house.

Recommendations

The only caveat is that I wouldn’t recommend it for a brand new player. The adaptive hints try to handle that case, but it can’t be very fun to be walked through everything. Otherwise recommended to anyone who likes parser IF at all.

I award this game the rank of Most Correct About Fondant.

Feedback for the author (with spoilers)

The character of the Mirrored Queen is ill-defined. Are the mirrors and the shared title hints that she’s me? Is she meant to be truly good, perfectly sincere when she claims to be my friend, and a deliberate challenge: “You thought all the wholesome cheer was a facade for horror? Shows what you know, I’m still right there!”? Is she meant to be ambiguous, maybe a genuine force for good, maybe a player in a game where my family are pawns and just as sinister as her sister? Any of those could work, but I didn’t get a sense that the game was committing to any. As it stands, she’s more of a vague foil for the Empress.

It’s important to the plot that the pig is smaller and thinner than an adult human. But “a regular pig” is much girthier than a man. It would be better to describe it as a miniature pig and give an idea of its size.

Consider implementing “laugh”. It’s the only natural reaction I had that wasn’t implemented, and it’d complement “cry”.

Bugs

Mechanical

whistle = blow whistle

“whistle” is a synonym for “blow whistle” for the whole game, except at the very end.

Dazzling not properly reset

> summon
The dragon comes closer to you, lured by your call. It roars out a challenge!

> shine
You raise the sun orb high. It releases a brilliant light, dazzling the dragon. That was bright; it will be effective for quite a while.

> d
[…] The dazzled eyes of the dragon return to normal. […]

> u
[…]

> summon
The dragon comes closer to you, lured by your call. It roars out a challenge!

> shine
You raise the sun orb high. It releases a brilliant light, dazzling the dragon. That was bright; it will be effective for quite a while.

The dragon shakes its head, roaring. It is no longer dazzled by the sun orb.

Family scene transitions

I got the ring first, then the sceptre. Both times, the message was

For a moment, you think you can hear your brother David calling out, but then everything is quiet.

and I never got the message about Alice. Possibly relevant: I hadn’t seen Alice at that point.

Responses

Inappropriate responses

1. Talking to inanimate object produces “You can’t see anything by that name.”
2. Looking in the gift shop after the transformation produces “The golden-haired werewolf, who happens to be a werewolf, is looking around, bored.”
3. When examining the unsolved pot, the description of the solved pot is shown instead.

Unimplemented objects

• the astroturf and backdrop in the Duelling Garden
• Doña Villar’s dress
• the wall in the Queen’s Garden
• tears on the weapons
• crater in the crater

Missing pronoun reset

Pronouns should be reset from the lever after inserting it:

> put lever in hole
(the plastic beam in the hydraulics lever)
You slide the hydraulics lever into the hole. It fits perfectly! Now everything should work just fine.

> push it
You can’t see ‘it’ (nothing) at the moment.

Bad pluralisation

> talk to countesses
The countesses ignores you.

> talk to vicomtes
The vicomtes ignores you.

Extra article

> give sausage to toby
The Toby turns up its nose at the limp bratwurst.

Whitepace & punctuation

Inconsistent line breaks in AMUSING list

…XYZZY? …asking the employees about each other? …hitting, pushing, pulling, throwing something at, turning, burning, tying or cutting people?
…getting the moon open in Midnight. Laserfight?

Missing/extra periods at end of descriptions

Missing period when a duelling team isn’t wearing anything:

> x countess
These masked and dangerous women wear outrageous gowns. They are carrying some red laserpistols

Missing period after solving the pot:

> x pot
Little platinum remains. The pot has served its purpose

Extra period after Mom drops the list:

> x list
Mom’s handwriting is unfortunately impossible to read. Where did she go?.

Extra spaces

• Eugene has trouble keeping his footing, but so do you .
• Eugene has trouble keeping his footing, but your slippers keep you firmly grounded .
• holds a sign that says
• the castle falls, sending

Typos

• He walks way (“away” is more standard)
• It says, “This way to the Creaky House. (unclosed quote)
• nephw
• This is the almost the end.
• embarassed
• That to the north is a garden (can’t see “that to” making sense, I assume typo)
• Midnight. Laserfight