Ben Poisoner (sic) originally submitted "Upon the Spooky House" to Event One of the Exposition, evidently having written it over the course of the single weekend allotted to Event One. Guessing that Ben had misunderstood the rules, I offered him the chance to submit a revised edition of "Upon the Spooky House" to Event Three of the Exposition, which I promised to judge "just like any other Entry in that Event."
This does mean that I must judge "Upon the Spooky House" as if Ben had been given three months to prepare the game, even though he wrote it in one weekend and then had three weeks to revise it.
The game is written with enthusiasm, which I appreciate very much. The subject matter is right up my alley. It's my kind of game. I like the pacing quite a bit, and the transition into the final scene is crafted well. The ending works, which is what you normally expect from an Exposition Entry, as long as the Entry is supposed to have an ending.
The game consists of only five rooms, and there are very few things in those rooms, and most of those things you can't do anything with beyond applying your sensory organs to them. The game is thin on content.
But here's the thing: The source code text really enhances my appreciation of the game. The comments are great! It's like I'm watching Ben Poisonor write! And so what we have here is a sort of dual artwork, where playing the game is one experience, and reading the code is a complementary, maybe the word is "interpretive," experience. If the game itself were a little more expansive, the value of that interpretation would increase geometrically.
But what we have here is quite pleasant. Therefore I award "Upon the Spooky House" 19.7 points out of 30.