TODO / TO EVALUATE * Exposition in the opening teaser. * First vision. CHANGELOG VERSION 0.5 Bugs and features * Now the imp can actually be dismissed. * Now "take all from small drawer" works, because I've worked around the 'from' in the crucifix carven from human bone. * The Amulet of Madness now has a description (instead of an initial description; I dislike Inform 7's default behaviour in the respect). * Trying to draw the pentagram when you have the pouch but it is closed now gives a more appropriate message. * Now each vision ends with "After that the vision vanishes from the ball." to discourage players from examining details of the vision (which are, after all, not implemented). * Finally, finally, I got rid of the "Sylvie is unable to do that" message when you ask her to open the bed. (Handling other people doing things well is quite an exercise.) * Got rid of the double "danger" (in the conversation fired by asking Sylvie to open the bed after you've seen the viper). * The shriveled carrot is now no longer scenery after you have hypnotised the goat (which made is basically 'invisible'). * Now the Amulet is mentioned in the desription of the player when it is worn. * Now when fate is banished and you have the diamond, it is mentioned in the description of your fate. * You can now "wait" during Giving Birth. * Now "What is your predominant emotion?" has been changed to the less over-formal "What do you feel?" * Fixed some bugs with the sacrifice of the hypnotised goat. * Uncommented the code that made Rudolph stop the player from entering the King's room. (I had commented it out for testing purposes, then forgot to put it back in.) * Sylvie now has a more informative initial description. * Improved text for the second vision. * Now the gardener reacts to being shown or given either the dried or the fresh belladonna. * Now the goat reacts to being shown or given either the dried or the fresh belladonna. * Killed a circle in the Mebeira dialogue. * Rewritten the initial text. * Slightly rewritten the initial vision. * The pentagram is no longer "careful". (The crystal ball was already carefully placed.) * Looking up "gating" now gives a more appropriate message. * Added a reference to HELP and HINT to the banner text. * Taking the viper goo now has a special message. * Hints for defeating Harold only appear after looking into the crystal ball now. * Now you can't ask Harold about Catherine before Amy tells you about her. * Hints for Greater Gating only appear after looking into the crystal ball now. * Debugged hints. Parser-related * Now the body of the gardener is refered to as "the", not "a", gardener's body. * You can now refer to Sylvie's body as "Sylvie". * The mortar and pestle now has an indefinite article. * Now "pentacle" is a synonym of "pentagram". * Now "knight" is a synonym of Sir Charles. * The indefinite article of the sorcerer's sand is now "some". * Now "move covers" (and "push covers") has the same effect as "pull covers". * Now "fireplace" is a synonym of the hearth. * Now the hot coals and the braziers are plural. * "Alfred" and "husband" are now synonyms of "King". * Now "rows" and "row" are synonyms of "pearls". * Now "cushion" is a synonym of "cushions". Spelling, grammar, English * "You have appetite" -> "You have no appetite" (when [not] eating the carrot). * "I only want to you to go away" -> "I only want you to go away" (when talking to Harold). * "a prince of royal blood and the of blood of Gondola" -> "a prince of royal blood and of the blood of Gondola" (when speaking with the King). * "'You've lost a pearl,'" now has right punctuation (when speaking with Amy). * Changed two dots to three dots in two places (when speaking with Amy). * "an very old man" -> "a very old man" (in the description of the gardener). * Fixed a punctuation error in the first room description. (Oops!) * "refileld" -> "refilled" (in the hints). * "as a bait" -> "as bait" (in the description of the battle plans). * There is now a "." after the messages that ends your illness (when you've given a blood offering). * "curled up" -> "curled-up". * Improved the snake stick description (two errors). * Fixed a punctuation error in Amy's conversation. * "complete rigid" -> "completely rigid" (when hypnotising the goat). * "such a heavy a mortar" -> "such a heavy mortar". * "No, you are too cute!" -> "No, I cannot harm such an innocent creature!" * "stories that would curl the blood" -> "stories that would curdle the blood". * "What do you know about that, Mebeira?" now has a comma. * "I'm a woman, Rudolph." now has a comma. * "struk" -> "struck". * "conviced" -> "convinced". * "waveing" -> "waving". * "appartment" -> "apartment". * "You feel as if you are losing control." -> "You are losing control." VERSION 0.4 Bugs and features * The player can now smell the coals, the grimoire, the roses, the rose and the wine. * Tasting the wine is now equivalent to drinking the wine. * The default message for telling about, asking about, asking for and answering have been changed to: "Just use the command 'talk to' if you wish to start a conversation with someone.", making the actual command to be used clearer than the previous message did. * You can now kiss the pixie. * You can now talk to the pixie even when the cage is closed. * There is now a backdrop called "the ceiling". (Even in the garden, actually, but there it disclaims its own existence.) * Now the belly is part of the player. * Now the buttons are part of the bear. * The pregnancy messages have been partially rewritten to put less emphasis on the moving of the child (which I have been told happens less often as the moment of giving birth approaches). * You can now toss coins. They behave differently when fate can no longer be changed. * Now the handkerchief is Amy's own, and you have to retrieve it from the floor after she has used it. * Now the imp-conversation names the object obtained instead of using the vague "object of your desire". (It turned out that I had already coded this except for the final step.) * Fixed a quasi-bug where choosing '0' during conversations allowed you to escape from the conversation, which could have some very undesirable effects. (Like getting the demon to change fate without agreeing to pay the price.) Now you can no longer choose 0, but I had to hack Simple Chat in order to fix this. * Created a full set of adaptive hints. (This could use some testing.) * The Rudolph puzzle has been slightly better clued by italicising the word "act" in "You don't act very silly." * Now the message when you accept the first fate (being killed by a viper) is more appropriate. * The King no longer addresses you multiple times and at inappropriate moments. (The previous fix was broken.) * The crystal ball now comes with a message explaining the 'wait' command in the den, but only during the first turn. * The pouch is now a possession of the player, to reduce the amount of information in the initial game screen. * Changed the protagonist's name from Flora to Catherine, which sounds a bit less girly and a bit more determined. * Now Sir Charles has three different stories to tell. * The player can't "run" anymore. * You get messages emphasising your pregnancy when you go down to the gardens or back up to the corridors. * Now trying to push, pull or take a fixed in place object leads to "You might not even be able to move that at other times, but you are certainly not able to move it now." * There is now a full set of menus, including license information, credits and instructions for play. Parser-related * Now "designs" is understood as the gold thread (on the gown). * Now "scenes" is understood as the tapestries (in the den). * Now "runes" is understood as the dagger. * Now "tome" is understood as the grimoire. * Now "cup" and "chalice" are understood as the goblet. Spelling, grammar, English * Everywhere, ' - ' has been replaced by '--'. * Removed a space in the conversation with Mebeira. Other Rejected for release 1.0 * Changing the name of the Rune. (I know a rune is actually a written sign, but "speaking a rune" sounds satisfyingly ominous.) * Replacing the standard Inform brackets: (which is closed), and stuff like that. (More than it is worth. If anyone really hates them, that person should write an extension that gets rid of them.) * Implementing more steps for some of the spells. (One tester requested this, but I don't want to make thing overly complicated. May be fun for a next release.) * Implementing something in which you can carry the pixie dust / pearl dust. (Adds complexity but little mimetic value.) * Making it possible to cast Haunt after you've talked Mebeira out of it. (One would need to implement a way to make the stuff oneself, but somehow discourage the player from doing so if she hasn't talked to Mebeira first - or the player will never see the option to talk her out of it. I don't think this is worth the trouble, especially since the game is not about revenge on your husband, but about how much you will hurt others to benefit your own child.) VERSION 0.3 Bugs and features * It is now possible to sacrifice the hypnotised goat. (Major bug.) * Now "open drawer" and "close drawer" automatically disambiguates between the small and the large drawer when one of the drawers is open and the other is closed. * Two of the random pregnancy messages have been changed. (Removed the panicky one and the "situation" reference. They are now: "You need to stop and take a few deep breaths. You are exhausted." and "You hurt everywhere. Only sheer willpower makes you go on.") * You no longer see the curtain-message when you don't actually go south in the den. (This happened when you were carrying the grimoire or the mortar and pestle.) * Now the gown is mentioned in the description of the player. * "cut X with Y" is implemented; it implicitely takes the dagger if it is around. * When the goat sees the shrivelled carrot because you are carrying it out in the open, this is clearly mentioned. * You can no longer see Charles missing the mirror when you are not in the parlour. * Now line breaks and spaces function correctly in Charles' demonstration. * Sir Charles is no longer listed among the contents of the room. * The King no longer addresses you multiple times and at inappropriate moments. * Stabbing the goat or the demon will no longer give an inappropriate message. * The demon no longer refers to warning the rebels as a sacrifice made for your child. * The conversations with the King and Mebeira no longer contain the cyclicity where you could ask the same question twice. * Added new way of acting silly: showing the teddy bear to rudolph; trying to give it to him will hint at this. * It is now explicitly stated that you take the dust after grinding. * Breathing is now an action accessed by "breath". This may occur to people during giving birth. * Trying to cast sleep on Charles when you haven't dealt with the snake yet no longer tells you about the deadly snake if you haven't seen it. * Now dropping a vial gives the message that you carefully put it on the floor. * Asking Sylvie to open the bed now gives you a warning and the option to refrain from asking her. * Asking Sylvie to open the bed and refraining from doing so now give the hint that you might try it yourself without too much danger. Parser-related * "tripod", "tripods", "brasier" and "brasiers" are now understood as the braziers. * Now "dress" is understood as the gown. * Now "cut gown" is understood as cutting the pearls. * Now "gold" is no longer understood as the gold thread, though "gold thread" still is. (This caused unnecessary confusion with the gold pieces.) * Now "paintings" and "pictures" are synonymous with "painting" and "picture". * "Look in ball" functions as examining the ball. * "Blow bellows" is now equivalent to "pump bellows". * Now "wave at [someone]" is linked to waving. (Making it easier to wave at Rudolph.) * Several abbreviations (such as "plant" for "plant grwoth") are now understood by the grimoire. Spelling, grammar, English * Stars replaced by italics around "feel". (I have not removed the stars around "know", where it is an esoteric tribute to Planescape: Torment.) * Capitalisation of titles "King, Prince, Queen" has been standardised. * Fixed a minor typo in the description of the roses. * "the goat entire" -> "the goat entirely" (It was grammatically correct, but overwritten.) * "winning a few battles" -> "winning several important battles". * "to you bed" -> "to your bed". * "At the top the northwestern tower" -> "At the top of the northwestern tower" * "when you start rummaging" -> "if you start rummaging". * "their grasps" -> "their grasp". * I hope I have standardised capitalisation of the name of rooms. The bold room titles displayd by "look" should have every word capitalised, whereas all other instances of these names should have no capitalisation. (Unless there is a name or title in them.) * Removed the autumn storm metaphor from the conversation with Mebeira. (Overwriting.) * "get your manhood erected" has been changed to "get your dick up" in the Harold-conversation, to make it more insulting. * The standard response of the look-up command now contains quotation marks, as it should. * The Conjurer's Den is now called the Sorcerer's Den, because "conjurer" seemed to sound like a fake magician. * The gardener is no longer described my the ugly combination "almost ancient". Other: * Reported the bug with "take all from small drawer" to Graham Nelson. Inform 7 has a problem with this command if it includes an object with "from" in the name. [Therefore UNRESOLVED.] VERSION 0.2.1 * It is now possible to tell Mebeira that you've succeeded Haunting the king, thus getting access to the Amulet of Madness.