The House on Highfield Lane by The Pixie

Comment chewed123pencil

cant get closer to the house?

Review lemonade123456789

this game is annoying and confusing do not recommend.

Comment Neta89

Same problem here with Patch and the boots as described by 7x7. Please help!

Comment 7x7

Like the game a lot but same boot issue reported below. Really weird and frustrating. I give the boots, he wears the boots, he has bare feet. Help?

Comment ZuzuMonarch

I'm stuck as stuck can possibly be– spoilers following, fair warning– on the boots. I know what I'm supposed to do– go inside of them– but no matter what command I enter, I enter the secret room instead of the boots. It's driving me a little bonkers.

Comment jimbrock

Stuck on the "Give boots to patch" issue. Has anyone resolved this one?

Comment DHRunner2642

Looks really fun... but I got scared just noticing that the number of mannequins was different. I'm too much of a coward, haha. But the game is really nice, well made!

Comment Voreaper Hemorrhage

its terrible

Comment Laxon

I should have said same issue as DocP in previous comment. Just to iterate "give boots to patch" seems to work (but doesn't) but also "ask patch to wear boots", "tell patch to wear boots", "patch, wear boots"none of these things work - I simply get "Patch looks mournfully at his feet, his bare feet".

"Give boots to patch" seems like the right command but it isn't removing the boots from my inventory and I'm guessing if the boots are still in my inventory it won't move on.

Comment Laxon

I'm having the same issue as XanMag - stuck with giving the boots to Patch. Well, "give boots to Patch" works and I get this "Mandy gives the boots to Patch. He looks at the footwear with a big smile, then proceeds to pull on the left boot... Then the right. He looks at them, now on his feet, for a moment, before getting off the bench, and standing upright, ripping of all the wires connecting him to the strange device."

BUT

I'm still carrying the boots? And if I ask Patch to follow it says "Patch looks mournfully at his feet. His bare feet."

It's like Schroedinger's Patch: he both has the boots and doesn't have the boots.

I can keep giving Patch the boots indefinitely but he never has them? Does this mean I can't continue?

Comment XanMag

I could be wrong because it’s been a long while since I played but… I think you have to tell him to wear the boots. Try:

Patch, wear boots

Or something along those lines?

Comment DocP

Really great so far, but I'm stuck on giving boots to Patch. I'll give them to him, he'll be happy and get up, but he won't follow because he has bare feet. I can even drop the boots from my inventory, so it seems like the game doesn't think I've given the boots to him. Unfortunate, I was enjoying the story so far.

Comment The Pixie

Type FONT to change it to a plain font.

Comment bigtpsychoboy

Is there any way to adjust the font for the game? The current font is difficult for me to read.

Review joshtgb

Great game. I found the puzzles fairly intuitive approaching the game with the idea that I was going to examine everything. Also mapping out the game and keeping track of details was helpful for me. There are lots of in game hints without needing to use the provided hint system. I also enjoyed the fact that a lot of puzzles had more than one way to resolve them. Even trying to resolve the solutions incorrectly was often well crafted and humorous rather than just saying "you can't do that". Resolving the puzzles incorrectly also allowed exploring the puzzle more fully and you could actually learn from your failures rather than just "trying the next thing" - often hints for the correct solution were included in those failed attempts. I haven't seen that level of detail or intricacy in most other games. Nice job!

Comment joshtgb

Great game. I found the puzzles fairly intuitive approaching the game with the idea that I was going to examine everything. Also mapping out the game and keeping track of details was helpful for me. There are lots of in game hints without needing to use the provided hint system. I also enjoyed the fact that a lot of puzzles had more than one way to resolve them. Even trying to resolve the solutions incorrectly was often well crafted and humorous rather than just saying "you can't do that". Resolving the puzzles incorrectly also allowed exploring the puzzle more fully and you could actually learn from your failures rather than just "trying the next thing" - often hints for the correct solution were included in those failed attempts. I haven't seen that level of detail or intricacy in most other games. Nice job!

Review IFforClassroom

This game is well polished. Immediately, it showcases the superiority of Quest 6. Excellent feel, smoothe gameplay, and lots of fun.

Review Deckrect

I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I suppose that IFComp has some time pressure on it, so creating a game for the competition is absolutly no easy task.

Also, I would like to say that even if I player lots of parser 30 years ago (Yes, I'm an old and tired guy), parser is not my poison.

All that out of the way, just the opening was a big deal. The fist chunck of text is wonderful. Delvers character, sense, dread, theme, mood, Everything. Everything without waste of words. No recurring Infodump so many IFs tends to throw over the player. Streamlined. So, Pixie got ecxatly one of the hardest tasks when writing anything: hook the reader right in the biggining.

The puzzles are a little hard? Yes, they are. But I found it a fair measure to the quality and quantity of work put in the game. Loved testing some verbs and nons and seeing the game replyig t it. Also, I think part of the difficulty is because the scenario around the character is a bit complex and discribing it becomes a challenge.

And speaking about the character... I loved the character. I like the comments and personal opinions in good measure and well placed, adding some personality. I did read another internet review criticizing the use of the third person, but actually, I loved. It has a two folds: The character building would never work if not done in third person. You may even try to say "You think" or "your feel", but it usually only creates offended people asking why the author is trying to tell what they think or feel. The second fols is that I really defend the idea of third person. It introduces the character. Gives a new layer of drama. Of problems. Of drive. And the character was wonderflully portrayed in this game.

As a final comment, I liked the way as the game feels like an old school parser, but with a fresh air, right because the player is not dropped into the hunt for solving puzzles, but because there is a character with intent, facing a problem. It makes all the puzzle solving thing more natura

Review XanMag

As with KV, I tested it in its early phase as well. Thanks, Pixie.

The puzzles I found were difficult, but the hints were helpful. I also think that as later revisions come along the difficulty will fall into the range that I'm guessing The Pixie (author) has intended. The game was a nice combination of new ideas in puzzles and, yet, at the same time, I frequently got a "Zorkian" vibe. Certainly better than most of the games on the site and is worth your time to play.