Grubbyville is a Z-machine work of interactive fiction written with Inform 7 and is © 2016 by Andrew Schultz. This game was entered in IntroComp 2016 where it took 3rd place.
In this incomplete game, you play as Max Herdesh, a high school student who wants to be valedictorian. (Your Pop is even more keen on the idea.) Unfortunately, Harley Drotz got into honors Ceramics for his fine art elective which will push him into the lead by year's end. To best him, you'll have to get into the Art Appreciation Independent Study.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the work.
Your bedroom
The game begins with a menu conversation with Pop. You can play it out however you like, but for this walkthrough, we'll just skip it all.
> 1 (to quickly skip it all)
TL,DR: You need to be #1 at school and beat Drotz.
Entry Hall
> verbs. think. map.
> i. x sheet.
> w.
By Teachers' Lounge
You don't actually need or take the GHS brochure. Also, you can go into the teachers' lounge, but since it's description-less, empty, and supposed to be locked, that may be a bug.
> x rug. x rack. x brochure. take brochure.
> w.
X-Hall
Although there's a lot of visible exits, very few are currently open to you.
> in. x panel. w. n. sw. (None of this is helpful in the intro.)
> ne. (You need some sort of art first.)
> nw. (You need a pass to get past Big Ed.)
> se.
Humanities Wing
> s. e. (Neither sub-wing is open.)
> se.
Social Studies Sub-Wing
> x door. se.
School Yearbook Office
> x Myron. x pass.
> talk to Myron. 1.
Feel free to play this part out as you like.
Your mood is now EXPLORING and you have a pass. You're also quite done with Myron. You won't talk to him again and you won't revisit his office after you leave.
> x pass.
> nw. nw. nw. nw.
Math/Science Wing
Only Math and Computer Science sub-wings are open in the intro.
> n.
Math
Although "Pnuemonia Alley" is to the east, you can't visit it in the intro.
> x list. (You note that Dennis's birthday is today.)
> in.
Math Study Area
> x book. take it.
> out. s. nw.
Computer Science
> x PC. (A game called Participation Points.)
Play it? (yes or no) yes
Who will you play as? 1: Harley, 2: Max, 3: Ditch game.
> 1 —or— 2.
> 1. 1. 1.
After finishing the game, you're now motivated to look in the backpack.
> x PC. (You replay as the other person.)
> x backpack. (It has notes for other games including one about gambling and another about Dennis.)
> se. se. s. in.
Chess Hovel
On entry, your mood changes from EXPLORING to UN-ALLIED.
> x Dennis. talk to Dennis. ("Go away.")
> x shelf. search shelf.
> give book to Dennis. (This counts as "nice".)
> talk to Dennis. (You can choose how you want to play this.)
Dennis offers some protest poetry.
What do you say? (yes or no) yes
*** INTRO IS OVER ***
> mood (To see your final mood.)
Thanks to my testers, who found bugs and also inspired me to expound on things I forgot to.
Keetie de Kater, Jason Lautzenheiser and Vince Laviano, in last-name alphabetical order.
Thanks to Jacqueline Lott Ashwell for holding IntroComp, which was a great venue for helping me push forward this idea I liked but didn't have a firm grasp on, yet.
Thanks to the usual suspects for making cool extensions, and of course, to those who created Inform itself.
Use the DONE command to get a summary of what you've done with everyone so far.
Incidentally, it seems that if you're nasty to Dennis, it wipes away any nice points you obtained from him earlier. I can't extrapolate what how this exclusion principle works in general from just this one interaction, though.
Once you're past the initial conversation with Pop, your current mood is stated in the status line after the room name. You can also use the MOOD command to see what your current mood is.
I speculate that moods and deeds in the full game will restrict your options when dealing with other characters, but I'm just guessing.
This walkthrough is provided free of charge since the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations. Please consider it a thank you for your support!
I create larger walkthroughs too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.