The Semantagician's Assistant is a Glulx interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2025 by Lance Nathan. It was an entry in IF Comp 2025 where it tied for 12th place.
In this one-room wordplay game, you play as someone applying to be the semantagician's assistant. After you pull Weldon the Magic Rabbit out of a hat, he explains that all you need to do is escape from the doorless dressing room you find yourself in. You see a vanity, a dollhouse, and six magical devices.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 2 of the game.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.
Spotlight
> x me. (in tux and cape?)
> take hat. (weighted down?)
> reach into hat. (something furry and alive?)
> take bunny.
>> SPACE
Magician's Dressing Room
This is the same room, but now you can see it properly. The rabbit is a magic talking rabbit named Weldon; he's here to be your guide. You may ask him questions, but you can't experiment with him. Your goal is to leave the dressing room.
Acquaint yourself with Weldon.
> x me. x rabbit. x hat.
> ask him about himself.
> ask him about semantagician.
> ask him about hat. (done with it)
Check out the vanity.
> x vanity.
> x clippings. ask him about Atlantis.
> x cartoon. take it.
> x note. ("Reminder: roster is in vanity drawer")
> look under vanity. (runners for a drawer)
> x won. take it.
> x photo. ("How rood!"; a rood is a large cross.)
Check out the magic tools. The "use" command tells you how to use them.
> x sawing table. use it.
> x rings. use it.
> x wheel. use it. look in compartment. (empty)
> x chimera. use it. push lever. (stuck)
> x rotator. use it.
> x funnel. ("ACTION" to "REACTION")
> use funnel.
Check out the dollhouse.
> x dollhouse. x slots.
> x fridge. x bed. x wardrobe.
> x bookshelf. x chair.
> take chair. (no: locked)
Experimentation is necessary to learn what the magic tools actually do. Weldon will only start answering questions about them after you've at least tried to use them first, but he won't ever explicitly tell you what they do. That's part of the test.
The rings either changes an O into an OO or vice-versa, as long as it makes a new word that's something physical.
(I originally thought the rings could add an O to any word, but a bat doesn't become a boat, and a cat doesn't become a coat. The rings always need an O to work with.)
> put cartoon through rings.
> x carton. show carton to Weldon.
The sawing table separates words into equal-sized halves or joins them. Again, all new words must refer to something physical.
When the table is split, there's an upper chamber that holds the first half, and a lower chamber that holds the second half.
> put carton into table.
> separate table.
> x car. take it.
> x ton. take it. (no: too heavy)
> put won in upper chamber.
> join table.
> x wonton. take it.
The dollhouse furnishings all unlock when you insert a new furnishing, but whenever you take an unlocked furnishing, all the others are locked in place again.
Exchange the car for the wardrobe.
> put car in dollhouse.
> take wardrobe.
> put wardrobe in table.
> separate table.
> x ward. take it.
> x robe. take it.
> x cord. untie it. (can't)
The funnel transforms things by adding a "RE" prefix. For example, ACTION would become REACTION if those were both tangible objects.
> put ward in funnel.
> x reward. take it.
> put robe in funnel.
> x record. take it.
> take robe. open it. look.
> x rod. take it.
> put rod through rings. x rood.
The rotator reverses a word.
> put rood on rotator. spin rotator.
> x door. take door. (It's now against the west wall.)
> open door. (locked)
> put reward on rotator. spin rotator.
> x drawer. take it.
> put drawer under vanity.
> open drawer. take roster. x it.
> put roster through rings. x rooster.
> show rooster to Weldon.
The wheel transforms any Chinese zodiac animal into any other one. Weldon can tell you the order.
> ask him about zodiac.
> put rooster in wheel.
> turn wheel 11.
> open compartment.
> x monkey. take it.
The Chimera machine can transform an animal into another animal by altering one letter. Since the lever is stuck at 1, only the first letter ever changes.
> put monkey in chimera.
> push button.
> x donkey. take it.
> join table.
> put donkey in table.
> separate table.
> x don. x key. take key.
> unlock door with key. open door.
*** You're hired. ***
> author's note
This is the response to CREDITS:
The code is mine, though not without a debt to the authors of Inform 7 and its extensions, and in some cases the examples in its documentation. I'm incredibly grateful to testers Matt Sakai, Christopher Cotton, and LaLayna Sandlin; the game is better for their feedback, and they bear no fault for all the errors I introduced post-testing. The cover image is from "Free Textures" by Visualogist (http://www.flickr.com/photos/34123770@N05/sets/72157612511821277/).
As for Weldon: his name comes from Math for Smarty Pants by Marilyn Burns. I can't overstate how much I loved that book as a child, or how formative it was for me. When I needed a name for a magic rabbit, well, there was only one option.
If you're stuck, you can ASK WELDON ABOUT something. You've got a talking rabbit; you might as well get him to talk. Asking Weldon about something more than once may get you progressively more useful information. If you're not sure what verb to use on a magic device, you can "USE [device]" to find out.
There's also a self-indulgent author's note available with the command AUTHOR'S NOTE.
These are the items already in the room from the start.
The only response to SCORE is:
Well, you're still in the room. That means the interview isn't over yet.
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