The Witch’s
Yarn is a new “casual” adventure game
from developer Mousechief! (exclamation point theirs, not mine).
It’s the first adventure
game I’ve ever played which I’m pretty sure I could have programmed
most of myself. And I don’t know how to program. That is to say, the game
was built in PowerPoint, or at least feels like it was.

No matter. Who cares?
It’s the gameplay, right? It’s
just important that the reader understand that this is a game that
makes Inspector Parker and Betrapped seem like big-budget projects
in comparison.

The Witch’s
Yarn tells the story of a middle-aged witch named Wednesday, who with
her fungal familiar Greta attempts to leave the
magical life and open a legitimate yarn shop driven by human-only
labor. A surprising amount of people (magical and otherwise) are
involved in the success and/or failure of her new venture, and it
is these interactions that are the meat of the game.

Actually, they are the
meat, potatoes, two vegetables, and dessert of the game. You see,
The Witch’s Yarn isn’t so much
a game as it is an attractively illustrated and mildly interactive
story.

About eighty percent of
the game takes place on a single screen. In one single chapter
you get to exit Wednesday’s store and
explore the other shops on the street. But then it’s back to
the yarn shop.

The gameplay mechanic
attempts to recreate a movie or a play. By pointing and clicking,
the player gives “cues” to the
characters. This isn’t a bad idea.

The “puzzles” in the game consist of figuring out what
order to click the cues. Yeah, I’m afraid that’s it.
If you click too many “wrong” cues in a row, you fail
the chapter.

The good news is that
the game is very forgiving when it comes to making mistakes. If
you realize you’ve messed the chapter up,
you can simply “rewind” as many steps as necessary to
try again. Or you can easily rewind to the beginning of the chapter.

I’ve complained that the game is essentially an illustrated
story, but it must be said that the story is pretty good. You do
get to know Wednesday’s children, extended family, and neighboring
merchants. The social puzzles in the game can be fun to solve. The
final major puzzle – making sure an impromptu party in Wednesday’s
shop goes well – was fun to solve.

Though there’s precious
little art in the game (and only the most minimal animation), the
art is attractive and appealing.

The highest-quality element of the game is the superb jazzy piano
musical score.

The bottom line is we
have a game here with some good ideas – the “cue” system,
a good story, an unusual presentation – hobbled by extremely
static gameplay.

I can’t recommend this game at its current price point (around
twenty dollars). I think it would be smarter of Mousechief! to give
this game away and try to get players interested in the type of thing
the developers are trying to do. I would be interested in playing
this team’s next game. If they can figure out how to get a
little more interactivity into it, they just might be on to something.

Final Grade: C
(find out more about our
grading system)

System Requirements:

This
review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and
may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent
of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link
back to Just Adventure.