#text adventure

That one PC98 game with the elf in it. You know... the one with the rude protagonist.

UPDATE!

PLAY THE DEMO HERE!

Update 4: 20/08/26 +73k words = 481k words

Update 4 includes:

This week, I dug out some Infocom games, because text adventures are great and I feel like the world needs to constantly be reminded of the fact. First up, a classic: Planetfall (1983). The player takes the role of an Ensign Seventh Class in the Star Patrol, on duty aboard the starship Feinstein.

As you may recall, Infocom games usually come with “feelies,” a collection of props that set the mood for the game or otherwise enhance play (which basically boils down to reading text on a screen and typing in prose commands to navigate the story). The feelies for Planetfall are mood-setters and seem custom-made to occupy the attention of a kid like me on the car ride home from the computer store at the mall. The booklet includes a recruitment pamphlet for the Star Patrol, along with a jokey questionnaire (HULL is to SPACESHIP as SKIN is to: A. Glove, B. Cat, C. Thermonuclear fusion, D. Titanium, E. Burn, F. Muffin). There are three interstellar postcards in a vintage style, a special assignment task force ID card and a sheaf of note pages containing a handwritten journal (in two inks for added verisimilitude!). Judging from the journal, “You” are at wits end about your duties and contemplating going AWOL when the game starts.

Thankfully, the ship crashes not long after the start of the game. You wind up on an island in the company of a robot named Floyd and the ruins of a vanished alien civilization. In addition to finding a way to get off the planet, you also need to unravel why the aliens disappeared. There are two timers spurring you on (though I don’t think they click on until you make a certain amount of progression). The first is the plague that did for the aliens (the remaining population is in cryosleep, awaiting their robots to synthesize a cure) — it’ll get you, too, if you don’t find an antidote. Even if you do, though, the planet doesn’t have much time left as its orbit has decayed and it is on a collision course with the sun. You need to repair a whole bunch of alien tech to A. Stop the planet from burning up, B. Allow the robots to complete the cure and C. Repair your own ship. I’ve never managed to stop A., in part because some of the puzzles to do so are intentionally unsolvable, and I’m terrible at figuring stuff like that out.

The year is 1669 - the place, La Bucca, a bustling pirate port out west in the Atabean. Here, gods rule the land and monsters rule the seas; pirates plunder and reap their riches from the colonists who dare to claim this place for their own, while the native Rahuri people continue their years-long campaign for their freedom from oppression. It is a land of magic, of action, of adventure on the high seas. But here, in the waning days of the year, the island is poised for a celebration. The new year celebration is three days away. And you, a lowly pirate from one of the many crews that call La Bucca home, are determined to get a date. Hey, stranger things have happened!

READY TO PLAY: volume 2, chapter two.

Oblivious Melodies is an interactive fiction game, set in the in the fictional country of Angria, based on early industrial-era Britain. Following the Horne siblings (two semi-set main characters) and their emergence into gentry society, you will delve into a country divided by class, religious dissent, political factionalism, and the ever-encroaching interests of empire.

N.B. Please see the content warnings for the chapter before reading!

Play the Complete First Volume here!

previous chapter: vol 2, chapter one.

Banner illustration: John Wootton, "Haycart Passing a Ruined Abbey", c. 1745, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

Okay so, of course you'll notice a few differences from Lewis Carroll's strategy guide.

In Carroll's playthrough, he neglected to have Alice speak to Dinah before following the white rabbit, so he fumbled the locked room challenge and therefore skipped the seer's labyrinth. Due to a programming glitch, the cake vanishes unless you use the mushroom drink immediately, but we can more than make up for that after we unlock crafting.

If this scene looks familiar to you, it's because I made a couple of animated gifs of Alice back in 2012.

Awaken in a derelict factory with your only view outside constrained to a set of security cameras. Explore a politically tense industrial environment, with a point-and-click and text adventure style of gameplay as you uncover the fate of those who worked there… before the same fate falls upon you.

Claude has a plan.

He will steal Fodlan's Sword of the Creator to secure his place within his family's order of succession. Unfortunately for him, the Goddess Sothis has other plans for this scheming trickster.

Infiltrate a party, interrogate guests, explore the cathedral grounds and find a cure for The Fire-- a vampiric sickness quickly cascading through the guests and possibly the entire continent-- in this complete, 55k word text adventure game!

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For scuffle this year I and a team of my fellow horsies all collaborated on a 55k text adventure game for Em! It's free, complete and available to play in browser! It features the ships Byleth x Seteth, Manuela x Jeralt, Felix x Annette and Claude x Flayn. :) Ive never written fic before so this was really fun to do! There's even puzzles :D.

Let me know if you hit any bugs! 🐛