Out of Reach

It's a very intriguing concept! Narrative-based games always had a maze-like design; you did it well here. However, as mentioned in your description, it became unplayable after a while, as I seem to be looping around in certain areas and unable to progress. Maybe if the code had been more fleshed out, it would've been slightly more playable. Overall, what it has so far is good! I may need to attempt again next time lol

There's a sense of learning to let go in this one that I really vibe with, even at odds with a lot of the text egging the player on towards some kind of grander adventure — I think I actually really like that the command that ends the game just ends the game, it kinda speaks to the broader message of knowing when to play and when to fold, in a metaphorical sense.

I love the way you use Inform for this piece. Is it just me, or is cycling through the rooms endless? Once I reached that fireplace room, I tried going only North and I somehow ended back in the room, anyway. Leaving the question of who we're chasing unanswered was a neat detail, as in the end, I found the cycle of the game can apply to a lot of things in life.

Like how you are following whoever it is for a long string of rooms, really makes you feel as if they are jsut out of reach, seeing them walk through a door every time. I believe I got the good ending? staying when the old man says to stay still and I stay. I guess tihs means we are letting whoever we are holding on to go?

It's an interesting premise that follows the history of "maze-like" games like colossal cave adventure, but instead has you following... something.... that being said I'm not entirely sure if I reached a bad ending or something?

Love the style you using environment description and character's thoughts to fill the text, it helps me get into the scene.

I thought this was a really interesting game! It got me to the point of mapping out the connections between rooms in Excel, and eventually just trying random combinations to see if I got anywhere. I think that can definitely represent the main character's fruitless search for whatever they came here to find. I also enjoyed how the connections between rooms get a little bit strange. I'd be very interested to see what the map Inform gives you in the Index looks like, because there's definitely something interesting going on here.

I do also want to mention, though, that I think there is a bit of a disconnect between the way that the player expects to play the game and what the game parses. For the big example, I tried a command that I think should have gotten me the ending immediately after I talked to the old man, but it turns out the parser expects you to phrase it in a very exact way. I don't want to go more into detail in the comments because there's no spoiler function on itch, but feel free to DM me if you want to know more! Also, I don't think it's immediately clear that you're supposed to go north on the first two screens. You might want to make it clearer that you're supposed to go north or, again, add extra synonyms (e.g. "go in" or "enter" at the entryway should probably just take you to the main entrance. 

Lastly, I just noticed this while I was trying extra commands out, but I think it's really funny that the old man is considered inanimate by Inform. I also tried to sit on the chair and not only did Inform not know the chair existed, it assumed I was trying to sit on the old man!