Tuesday 10 May 2011

Love, Hate and the Mysterious Ocean Tower

For the Speed IF Jacket 4 event...


Love, Hate and the Mysterious Ocean Tower
A brief story of love, romance and cosmic horror.

Originally written in a week, this interactive vignette whisks you through a world where terrible powers and inhuman foes threaten the very existence of humanity - and the only one who can save us is a magnificent bastard in pink trainers.

Since that initial week of work, I've spent some time fleshing the thing out (with plenty of help from my trusty beta-testers). It's still a small game, but the setting is much more fully implemented, and I threw in a few additional endings for good measure.

--PLAY ONLINE--

Love, Hate etc. is available to play in your browser via Parchment.

--DOWNLOAD--

Or you can download the story file (mirror|random mirror) and run it with a Z-machine interpreter.

See this page for help finding an interpreter. I use Frotz, while others swear by Gargoyle.

13 comments:

gnome said...

Another excellent game by you kind Sir CEJ. Fantastic, simply fantastic!

Commissar64 said...

Excellent indeed. Thanks for that!

*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*














































These are the endings I found:
Stabbing yourself with the dagger
Stabbing Peyton with the dagger
Running away
Willingly being stabbed by Peyton

Is this all of the endings?
Will I ever get learn of the horror that lies in Peyton's left eye? :)

Pacian said...

@Gnome: I accept your hyperbole with gratitude.

@Commissar64: There is, in fact, one more ending - what I tend to think of as the game's "good" ending, relatively speaking.

gnome said...

@ Pacian: I humbly thank you for accepting my very reasonable hyperbole. Not to go and try stab things. How didn't I think of this?

Ithmeer said...

Quite an excellent game. Touching at times and very funny.

Unknown said...

I really adored this. Very evocative. Though so many things are left unexplained, the setting still feels rounded out. I also love how your decisions lend nuance to Nicky, how each ending gives him a specific feel. I would love to see more of this world and these characters!

That "good" end took the longest to find, heh. I'm glad I stuck with it, though.

Pacian said...

Thanks, D. I'm glad you liked it.

Stadtgorilla said...

I also find this game absolutely fantastic! I wrote a couple of lines over at my page at
http://www.stereosanctity.org/?p=53

Pacian said...

Thanks, Stadtgorilla!

I'm glad you liked it.

Ricardo said...

I like the direct style and, well, pacing of your IF. They just flow fluidly. Even a short one like this is packful with mood, drama and characterization.

Short and excellent IF like this is what is needed to get more people into it, I believe. I usually point beginners to this one, Cadre's 09:05, Plotkin's Shade and Nelson's Balances.

so, keep it up. You're one of my favorite IF authors, hands down. Wish TADS got a web interpreter too...

Pacian said...

Thanks Ricardo.

TADS kind of has a web interpreter, but it's not as simple to use as Parchment (the games have to be compiled in a particular way), and I've never got my head around it.

Okami Blackcrystal said...

I was so happy when I found the "good" ending! Although the story was short, I can't. Stop. Thinking about it.

Pacian said...

Thanks. :)