Key & Compass presents:
The Valley House
by Bob Reeves

• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Characters, Credits, Inventory
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• External links:
  • This story at IFDB, IFWiki, and ifwizz.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Walkthrough

NOTES:

• In this game, there's almost nothing that you need to do. If you like, you can just type z over and over until you're watching a movie in the living room at night. At that point, you just need to walk to the bigger bedroom, and the game ends.

  By contrast, this walkthrough will attempt to be a bit more proactive than that, suggesting things to examine and interact with.

• Time jumps might happen a turn or two earlier or later than indicated in this walkthrough. That's okay. Don't worry about tasks undone if the jump happens early, and just wait or do something else if a jump hasn't happened yet.

Smaller Bedroom (on the bed)

> x me. i.

> x bed. stand. look under bed.

> x wardrobe. s.

You get ready for the day. Time jumps to after 9 am.

Study (on the chair)

> x letter. (Letters to Paul and Amy re: an event a year ago.)

> x computer. x shelves. x cabinet. x desk.

> take letters.

You do some weeding. Time jumps to early afternoon.

Kitchen

> i. x lunch. eat lunch. x dish.

> eat banana. turn on coffeemaker. x spice rack.

You go have a nap and dream of Sam's last minutes. Then you do a few more small chores. Time jumps to late afternoon.

Study

> x desk. x open letter. (One from your father; another from your sister.)

> w.

Living Room

> turn on tv. x fireplace.

> x bookshelves. x first bookshelf. x second bookshelf.

You make a dinner Sam would've liked. Now it's early evening.

Kitchen

> n.

Back Hall

> unlock back door. n. sw.

Flower Garden

> x flowers. smell flowers. x hoses.

You go watch a movie on DVD. Now it's almost 9 pm.

Living Room

> n.

Kitchen

> x extinguisher. n. e.

Bigger Bedroom

*** Is there ever an end? ***

> read (to learn more about the Painless Little Stupid Games series.)

Extras

Characters

The story's sole character is the protagonist, Mel. The name "Mel" is mentioned when you examine the spice rack. Several other people are mentioned, however:

• Sam, Mel's spouse, died a year ago. Mel has fixated on remembering Sam ever since. Interestingly, neither Mel nor Sam is explicitly gendered. "Sam" might be short for either Samuel or Samantha. "Mel" might be short for Melvin or Melissa.
• Paul and Amy are single friends of yours. You write letters to them.
• Your father and your sister wrote letters to you. There is also a mention of your sister's ex-husband.

Credits

From the game's final READ option:

About Painless Little Stupid Games

The first five Painless Little Stupid Games were written in ALAN, mainly as a way of learning and experimenting with that language, in 1998-99. Then things happened in my life that led me away from interactive fiction for 11 years. In the meantime, ALAN evolved beyond my interest in continuing with it, and the magnificent edifice of Inform 7 came to be. I began learning the latter (my 2000 game RANS had been written in Inform 6, but the two are nearly different languages), and figured the best way to start would be to "translate" the PLSG games. The Inform versions appeared in 2010.

But my original plan, way back when, had been to write ten games for the series, and the first and second games, Mahadev and Sturdlint, had already been outlined in my head: so after porting the old games to Inform, I decided to go ahead and write the new ones in 2010-2011. They are all still exercises, sketches, and don't presume to be important or profound or anything but fun. That being said, I also wanted elegance, and will continue to work on them as people play them and report defects in this quality.

The Complete Chronological List of Painless Little Stupid Games

• Dinnertime
• To Get To The Other Side
• They're After You!
• Mazemapper
• The Mean Story
• Mahadev
• Sturdlint (The Mempotnaclob)
• The Last Dark Day
• Zork LXIX: The Great Underground Hot Dog
• The Valley House

Thanks

Thanks go to Sean M. Shore as usual for his intelligent and thorough beta-testing.

Inventory

• some around-the-house clothes. You're wearing them when you get to the study. A key ring is in one of the pockets.
• two sealed letters. They're on the writing desk in your study after 9 am. Examine one of them; it acts like examining both.
• a dish holding a light lunch. You're carrying it when you get to lunchtime in the kitchen. You should eat the lunch.
• two open letters. They're on the writing desk in your study after 4 pm. Examine one of them; it acts like examining both.
• a key ring holds a house key and some other keys. It's in a pocket of the clothes you're wearing after you leave the bedroom. Unlock your back door with the house key when you're in the back hall.
• a bowl of fruit containing two bananas, two bosc pears, and a tangerine. It's on the left counter in the kitchen. You may eat any of the fruit.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

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.