I'm sorry but I'm currently completely lost at what I can do in this "game". Even though I can only congratulate you for your submission, and for your programming skills, I have to admit on the other hand that having to install Python and going through various issues didn't encourage me a lot (I tried and spent an hour on it but it's obviously above my skills - but I'm a graphics creator, not a programmer). Apologies for not doing more with your game or engine (I have no idea what it is exactly!). I won't rate your game, to avoid giving a low rate to something that might in fact be a true gem. I'll let the public votes and eventually the Judges later decide for me! All that being said, congrats for the effort and big thanks for your participation to the jam! You can be proud! Whatever people may think or say, you have created a game from scratch in 3 weeks, and it's great!
Viewing post in The Pity of Thieves jam comments
Thanks! I did see the link, but focused on the description and how to install Python, then I forgot. I failed to use the file provided with the Download button... I think that the explanation about Python should be in a Readme file with the game file, or in a devlog. And that the URL should be more obvious, and not in the middle of all the text ^^
Anyway today i used the URL to play Pity of Thieves. The concept is interesting and the game is well done. I like how the texts appear, fade, and the fact that we can progress in the story with commands. It looks more complete than some of the other text adventures I could play in the past, but I haven't played a lot of them.
I walked a lot in the town, continued to the south and south west, past a bridge, a forest, and got stuck at the confluent of two rivers. I see that it is easy to get lost (and the rotative symbol of the jam appears ^^ Where am I?), the world is vast and you have to be careful to the directions you take. Happily I took notes on paper, and could draw a quick map that helped me.
However I ended to be stuck in the main quest. Naill gave me a Briony for Freda. I wandered for quite a long time without meeting anyone else. When I finally came back and found Freda ( she was very near from where we met Naill actually), she tells me that I can enter the house. However she keeps telling me that I can enter if I don't steal anything, but I couldn't find what to do, and couldn't talk to her. I tried to give her the flower. I could open the inventory and saw the Briony in it, but didn't find the command to give it to Freda.
Maybe I will try again later. The game is rich and looks interesting, the story is well written. Well done! I'm sure I would find what to do by typing help, but I have to find the good command to use with the inventory. Anyway it was an interesting experience! Much better then installing Python yesterday :D
Cyber, that's great, thank you for coming back to have another go!
I'm really glad you got so far. It ought to be possible to say 'give the Briony to Freda'. Maybe you did that but the game didn't report what happened next.
At the end of the Jam I ran out of time and had some family commitments so unfortunately the 'win condition' isn't as obvious as it could be.
Thank you Icehouse. It's fair to say that my focus was shared between the game and development of the library which supports it.
I think right now the game is a decent demo for Balladeer. And it's also a work-in-progress which I might continue with. Since it's on Github, it's there for others to tinker with, too.
EDIT: This was a reply to Icehouse's post above, but for some reason it keeps appearing down here.