Hawkbyte -
Thank you for taking the time to play and review "The Time Machine."
I'd be interested in hearing more about what tricks "feel like part of the world and make the game deeper," which "feel artificial and frustrating," and which you feel are "red herrings." This is my first game and I'm trying to learn. Please feel free to email me about this topic at bill.maya@gmail.com instead of posting here (I don't want to spoil the game for anyone who hasn't played it yet).
I am working at making Wells' house less "ordinary" since he is supposed to be an inventor of somewhat eclectic pursuits (the orrery was a start and I have other devices planned). I chose the house because, quite simply, I had to start it somewhere and I felt dropping the player directly into the world of 802,701 would be too jarring and confusing.
I did have two rounds of beta testers and multiple beta testers in each round (7 in round 1; 5 in round 2). The games is as good as it is because of their efforts. Forgetting to mention them in some sort of game credits was an unfortunate omission, one that I will rectify in the next release (I did thank them personally and in my beta post on the IF forum, but not by name since I didn't want to break their anonymity without permission).
Putting the watch on the desk and not being able to take it again. My fault, caused by a last minute change that I didn't adequately test. Having Mrs. Watchett suggest you put the watch on the desk was unintentional, not me trying to be cruel.
I've removed the fuse-burning-out logic. I had reasons in there for putting it in initially, mainly to get the game to its end state, but now I realize that it would be better for the game to remove this constraint (but I may reintroduce it since, as you wrote, coming up with a substitute fuse might be an interesting puzzle).
I worked and reworked the controls in the time machine several times and I'm not 100% satisfied with the result that appears in the game. I had to let the player travel forward to 802,701 but I couldn't give them free reign to wander through the eons. I will have to rework this to make things clearer.
I plan on publishing a post-ParserComp version soon after the contest ends and I've added your list of unimplemented objects and actions to my To Do list. I've already fixed the typos you mentioned thought I couldn't find 'The entrace' and 'Wells" story' (I will keep searching for those two).
Thank you again for your kind words.
Bill