I love Alice in Wonderland, so I was really excited to see this text adventure. It really does have a wonderfully Victorian feel to it - riddles and nonsense logic and wishes and demands, with a strain of Alician naughtiness through it. The writing is great, and the riddles are very riddlish. The only fault I can find is in the Wizard's justification for creating a puzzle that could only be solved by disobeying conventional rules - which, contrariwise, are conventional rules in the world of text adventures and video games. if someone gives you a box, it's meant to be opened, regardless of whether it's fair to the recipient or not.
The problems I had with playing it were problems of syntax and newbieness. Text adventures can be really challenging to people unfamiliar with their logic and rules, and this is...maybe the third game I've played in the last two weeks? I'm also unfamiliar with Craig Dutton's work prior to this, or after.
However, the first puzzle was really rough, for a couple of reasons. 1) for the specificity of the commands needed. you have to figure out how to find the farthing in your pocket, and then commands are use farthing on water and make wish. 2) you couldn't get away from it. There wasn't a way to go away, look at something else, let your hindbrain figure it out while you explore. You're stuck on a screen staring at a puzzle.
honestly, without the comments section, I probably wouldn't have figured it out. the specificity of commands needed is a problem that keeps surfacing throughout the game - you have to say the right words in the right order, and there's very little in-game hints as to what you're supposed to be doing. that and the inventory limit were things I personally found difficult.
however, it is solvable. it takes time and patience, but the game does reward you.
This was a really awesome game. It took me a while to master the syntax, but everything you need is usually easily locatable. most everything has a purpose. things that need fixing are mostly edits.
