As has been said, the game is much too short and the learning curve too steep. If you don't want to have to program a lot of options into it, have people tell the player stories with a few helpful words thrown in that come into play later on. As it stands, I'm just blindly guessing.
On a non-language note, I loved having the pictures on each page. Definitely kept me interested.
Really great game. Virtually anything the player wants to do has a unique response and the puzzles are both hilarious and challenging. There are a few bugs, such as typing "i" or "inventory" will crash it completely, but otherwise it's technically airtight. Well done!
Like Riggamortis said, managing the case was kind of a hassle. I wouldn't have known what to do except that "knife" appeared in the sidebar. In the text where it says "you open the case", perhaps also mention what's inside. I kept cycling through "use key on case (case opens). examine case (wonder what's inside?). open case (you can't open it)."
Easily the best gamebook I've ever played. Sure, it's not "fun," but it's most definitely rewarding. It shows you both how draining and miserable depression can be, but also that there's always a way out. Great job.
A lot of the commands were not intuitive (especially involving distracting the other boat--how were we supposed to figure that out?). Overall just not that well made.
