Player Comments on LOTR:The Shire, an Exploration Game

This is a charming little game. It's pretty short, but well-written, and you convey a strong sense of geography using only links and pages. To my knowledge, it's the only attempt at an "exploration sim" on CYS.

Unfortunately, it is hampered by the fact that nothing really happens. I understand that that goes with the territory of a peaceful exploration/walking sim, but I don't think that the format of a text adventure is able to carry that idea without it being boring. This is a very short game, and it was starting to drag by the time I finished.

It's clear that you're capable of good writing, though. You conveyed the tranquility and peace of the Shire very well, and some of the interactions with the Hobbits were genuinely amusing. I genuinely laughed when the bartender commented on how even the big folk now about how great his beer is.

I must also commend you on your impressive knowledge of the Legendarium.

I hope you take your strong descriptive skills and sense of humour and try to apply it to something more ambitious, because I can easily see you making a very worthy contribution to the site.

Also, just a bookkeeping matter, this should be filed under "Fan Fiction", not "Fantasy Adventure", as it is based on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and is not an original setting.

A very pleasant wander through that fabled land. I noted the reference to one of Tolkien's other books, "Leaf, by Niggle". That's a good one. I hope you can continue your life's work with an increasing eye for beauty and truth, and so to be one who leaves an eternal trail for others to explore!

This game is a descriptive world map where you can do some sightseeing and enjoy a couple of peaceful towns.

The game was mostly enjoyable. The grammar was consistent. The scenery was described in detail, along with beautiful pictures of each scene. There was also some information lying around the town and character descriptions were well carried out. The size of the map was also great.

In the future, I would advise you to try to incorporate a plot into a map exploration game. Maybe you could make it a mystery by finding clues around the map, or create different endings, such as deciding to settle in this town or moving on. You could also describe who ‘I’ am, and past journeys I had that lead me to this town. That’s what choose your story games are for after all!

Overall I would give this a 4/8 as encouragement mainly due to the nice pictures and descriptions. To raise this score, you would need to develop a plot or more background. Keep going and don’t give up!

This was an exploration game, true to its name. This story showed the environment of the Shire to the reader.

The old lady was very funny, letting me go around her house with a spoon. I wish I could know more about her backstory.

I really liked the photos you put throughout the game. Aside from the descriptions, the colourful photos kept me reading. There was a lot to explore and read through, like old scrolls and policies in the Town Hall. This game felt like a museum more than anything.

Maybe a nitpick would be the lack of storyline, as that made the game a bit mundane after reading ten or so pages. But it is a very minor thing and sometimes it might be nicer to keep a storygame simple anyway.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this. 6/8

It was fun exploring the shire. To be honest I got kind of bored and was trying to find a way out for the last couple of minutes. I guess I found one!

6/10

I have to say I love the concept of exploration games and discovery tours of iconic locations for interactives, and this was well thought out in terms of parts of the Shire and its locales. I will agree it would be nice to have a little more to do and see and maybe a few more characters to interact with, but the principle is still a great one. I am hoping to do something similar myself with Star Wars in the future.

On the short side but definitely sweet, this felt very therapeutic to play. Something about following in the footsteps of LOTR heroes and poking around in every nook and cranny that was very satisfying. I would really enjoy more of these...(and not just LOTR-themed.)

I appreciate a lot of writing, and complex story structures go into these kinds of stories, but it would've been nice to avoid re-reading the initial 'buys a beer' or 'you get a ticket to the museum' when moving between one branch and another of a location.

It was neat being able to use a bribe at one point... Pity the encounter with the charming Ranger-lady was a one-off (although I can appreciate why).

Thanks very much - I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good work.

Great story! It looks like plenty of work and time went into this.

Very charming. Nice and relaxing. Thanks for this. :-)

It's okay but not as good as the Star Wars one. I agree with the others that there needed to be something to do.

The descriptions are okay and vivid. But as game this is boring as hell, you are just going aimlessly from A to B. Without any reason carved into a plot. There is also no dialogues... A good first attempt.

This is cute enough for what it is, and I think kids may enjoy it. I liked the part with the Entwife.

I'd have liked just a tiny bit of background on the character and maybe some goal or reason they're traveling though. You don't need a full plot, just a little hint of one to propel the whole thing forward.

If you learned to do variables and a little on page scripting, you could change the descriptions of places the player had already visited. That way every time you enter the inn wouldn't be the first time, and so on. That would add a lot to the interactivity of the whole thing.

As per the description, you do explore the world, but I would suggest allowing the player to make choices that have consequences, rather than wandering around aimlessly. I would also suggest adding at least a little plot, even if you mean for it to not be so much of a story, to give the player some reason for wandering around. It is unclear to me, if it is not a story, as stated, and not a game, as you cannot lose, what exactly it is meant to be.