80 Days: A recommendation, and an offer · 8:47pm Jun 12th, 2016
(Now finished! 80 Days Challenge: Original Post * Reviews Part 1 * Reviews Part 2)
I've spent a lot of time over the last month or two faffing about with video games. For the most part, this has been a distraction from my literary hobby. In the process, though, I've stumbled on something quite singular:
I would like to recommend to you a game that might very well improve your writing.
I'd also like to put my money where my mouth is, and give you a chance to put that to the test.
The game I'm talking about is 80 Days. It's a indie game whose core is several hundred thousand words of interactive-fiction narration, as your character journeys around a steampunk alternate-Earth inspired by (and transcending) Jules Verne's Around The World In 80 Days. It's won handfuls of awards — including Time Magazine's Game Of The Year of 2014 — but don't take their word for it. It's worth experiencing, and I need to describe my own experiences to illustrate why.
I knew this was a great game when, halfway through my first playthrough, words on a screen reduced me to tears.
This game broke me on my first playthrough. More accurately, it broke my character (the narrator, Passepartout) and his traveling companion, but I was sucked so deeply into their story that I couldn't help but feel the blows.
The trip around the world started full of wonder and optimism — both mechanically (with some good gameplay decisions and some RNG luck) and narratively (with a trip to the World's Fair showing off the marvels of the age, and a number of explorations stumbling across unlikely allies and unexpected beauty). There were some hints as we travelled across Europe that the world wasn't quite so bright a place — with news of distant empires clashing, and France rebuilding after its loss in a costly war — but for the most part, as our trip took us on a chaotic path via the quickest routes across the Mediterranean and Middle East, everything felt under control.
Then we hit India, and everything went to shit.
Poor information led to a route that unexpectedly dead-ended in the jungle, smack dab in the middle of an uprising as the natives fought for independence against the British Raj. I'll avoid spoilers except to say that we were drawn into the conflict by one of the sides' leaders during our attempt to flee the region. That led to Pangsau Pass and a mission which failed horribly. Like, the game even offered a fade-to-black option as it was describing the consequences (which I took, and the understated nature of the narrator refusing to describe the scene any further felt worse than seeing it would have been). As we fled the pass to escape the hostile side, the leader I'd failed came back to twist the knife, taking vengeance on us for failing. We escaped with almost literally nothing but the clothes on our backs.
That wasn't what broke me. The moment I had to stand up from the game and walk around the house, wiping tears out of my eyes, was after we'd finally found safety and an airship flight out of the area. An airship engineer named Carrington, bless her heart, coaxed Passepartout out of his shell, challenging him to join her on the ship's wing. There was a death-defying midair scramble and some light flirting and some magnificent vistas, and she was so relentlessly positive and the experience was so affirming, I felt that old bastard Hope begin to creep back into my heart. And then the game pulled the floor out from underneath me:
... and fffffffuck, that's just catharsis, like a dagger to the heart.
I'd like to say that the playthrough got better after that. It would have been one of the most narratively powerful gameplay moments I've experienced even if it had. But no, the journey was only about halfway through, and the game wasn't done throwing punches. Thanks to the lost luggage (and my failure to catch a particular gameplay mechanic), the rest of the game was a desperate scramble against not only time but also money. We had to stop at banks with nearly every new city we visited, waiting for bureaucracy as loans were taken out and funds were wired. Passepartout's companion got grimmer and more cynical with every trip to the bank, and the mood further collapsed as the clock ticked inexorably toward the deadline. Our last hope at finishing the run on time was extinguished about Day 60, when the connection we needed to make was charging exorbitant rates that even a bank loan wouldn't cover, and we had to make a cheaper detour through South America and limp our way north up the African coast. As the circumnavigation finished — the characters broke, deeply in debt, and six days past deadline — it was with the feeling that the scrapes we'd narrowly survived and the renewed hope we'd found and the lessons we'd learned had, in the end, meant nothing.
And what really got me is that this game is at its finest when you fail. It didn't just "Game Over" when the deadline passed — it let me keep pressing on, with grim resignation on the characters' part and a totally unspoken sense that there was still something worthwhile in simply reaching home broke and beaten. And then — one connection from the end of the game — it ran me through an encounter with a fresh-faced pair of travellers setting out on the beginning of their own journey, giving me a chance to give them advice — which ended up not only being an unburdening of sorts but also a gentle, stealthy gameplay tutorial in disguise. (This is how I discovered how to deal with the thing that had wrecked the second half of my trip.) On top of that, after it played through the epilogue after the return to London, the two characters sat down to unpack their experiences and (interactive-fiction style) decide what it all had meant ...
... and then picked themselves up and decided that the only appropriate response was to take a second run at the wager that had broken them, in an effort to break even.
This game knows catharsis.
I have, I hope, offered the tiniest glimpse of this game's writing quality. But I said that this game has things to teach you about how to write well — and a number of lessons leap out at me:
• Economy of words. Just like the Writeoff Association's minific competitions, the game's format is one that doesn't allow for the luxury of space. I can't think of a time when it went more than 100 words between prompts, and it's very rare for an individual city (or leg of a journey) to get more than 1000. The game's stuffed to bursting with characters, settings, technologies, and emotional journeys to parallel the physical ones; we meet strangers, learn their joys and woes and backstories, and leave them again in the space that many fanfictions take to describe a single room in Twilight's palace. The screenshotted text that reduced me to tears was a mere seventy-five words. This game is a master class in less-is-more: hooking the reader with a few judicious details and letting their imagination fill in the rest.
• Narrative voice as worldbuilding. I cannot easily summarize how evocative Passepartout's narration is of the theme and tone of the world itself. The things he takes for granted and never says (or never justifies) do at least as much worldbuilding as the things we see on-screen. The Victoriana oozes out of this game's every pore.
• Emotional pacing. There's power in a sudden tragedy, and there's power in a gradual slide into failure, but you have to handle them differently. Catharsis, on the other hand, is at its best hitting hard and fast after letting the wrongness linger for a little too long. The timing of some of the game's biggest emotional moments here was emergent — you have to take advantage of opportunities as they come up — but in hindsight it's clear that some of the other timing was carefully planned. The meeting one step from the end of the game was set up to bleed off some of the sting before launching into the epilogue. Carrington's airship was a few precise steps from Pangsau Pass, tackling the moment of failure while it was still fresh. If you have a sense of the emotional state of the narrative you're writing, you can choose those moments for the biggest impact.
• And, of course, catharsis. Make a point of making poor choices to see how the game reacts — and the surprising ways that those choices can fold back into the story later on. The writing shows how powerful it can be to drag your characters through hell and then pick them back up again — letting those emotional consequences unfold over time. "Torture your protagonists," writing guides advise, but just hurting them isn't enough: hurting and healing have to come in a cycle to really capitalize on their full power.
If you're interested in playing 80 Days by now, I absolutely think you should. Set aside a little writing/reading time (a single playthrough runs about 3-5 hours) and let it crack open your heart.
On Steam, its normal price is $10 — but if you're reading this within a day or so of my post going up, you're in luck, because it's also available as part of one of the best Humble Bundles I've ever seen. You've got until early Tuesday 6/14 to pick it up — along with such gems as Her Story, Tim Schafer's Broken Age, and the tactical RPG Shadowrun: Hong Kong (made by the same team that wrote Shadowrun: Dragonfall, which is almost worth another post on its own for its poignant and economical characterization.) If you play video games at all, and you like good writing, the Bundle is a must-buy.
Which is where the money-where-my-mouth-is comes in. I want to make you a deal.
If you are willing to write and post a piece of 80 Days/MLP crossover fanfic, I will throw $10 at the Humble Store and purchase the complete bundle on your behalf. Furthermore, I will read, review, and signal-boost your story here on my blog (which is probably a bigger deal than $10 of games, given the amount of work involved). 
Here's how this works:
1) Post a comment below so that you're publically committing to writing the fic. The nature and size of that story is up to you: let's say a minimum of 2000 words, but if the idea really inspires you, you can keep going as far as you feel the urge. It can be pony-in-80verse, or Passepartout-in-Equestria, or a thematic crossover, or whatever, as long as it's publishable on FIMFiction and properly uses the "Crossover" tag.
2) Send me a PM with your e-mail address (and Steam name, if you've got a Steam account: I'm baxildragon, though I'm active infrequently and my computer kinda hates its chat system). Humble allows gift purchases, but I need that to send you the link to your games. You can also tell me how much of my $10 purchase should go to the developers vs. how much should go to charity, if you want, or we can work some reimbursement deal out if you want to throw more money at the pay-what-you-want system.
3) Play the game at least once, and write your fic (or at least enough to be publishable) by the end of June.
4) Drop me a line shortly before the fic goes live, and I'll do the reading and reviewing and signal-boosting. This offer is good for any reader who writes an 80 Days crossover, whether or not I buy you the bundle.
5) I reserve the right to restrict this to the first 10 or 15 respondents if I get a huge flood of takers, but I doubt that'll be an issue. I also reserve the right to just buy you a gift copy of 80 Days if you miss the Humble Bundle deadline but really want in on this deal, but there are so many fantastic games in the bundle you should do that if you can.
(Continue on to Part 1 of my story reviews.)
I'll give it a whirl.
I've been looking at this for a while, now. I'll come back and read this after I'm done - I don't want anything resembling more spoilers than I already spotted. Thanks for the rec.
I buy humble bundles fairly often anyways, so depite having bought this one only a few days ago, purchased. Looks like Broken Age was the only game in it I already owned, anyways, and I did like Shadowrun Returns...
Of course, I've spent far too much time this weekend in Stardew Valley, which is very easy for anyone who likes games along the line of Harvest Moon to get hooked on.
--arcum42
This sounds up my alley. Tabbed.
Interesting, thanks for the heads up. I'd been tuning out the humble bundle on account of too many games already, but this one looks quite interesting - I picked up a copy. Now if only it had Elegy for a Dead World, it'd be perfect.
I'm usually skeptical of story-based games, and a lot of the other titles in the Bundle don't interest me much....
alright, this one probably knows what it's doing.
I might try this out, and the writing challenge sounds kinda fun. I just have no idea if I'd be able to commit to it, since I'm so flaky.
Shit, H-Dogg. I wish I could commit to a piece, really I do. Maybe I should just pick it up and see what happens.
...oh screw it, I'll commit to a piece.
Can we commit to this deal without you buying the bundle for us? I'd still like to write a crossover fic on this story and have it at your discretion, But I'm capable of purchasing the bundle myself.
I promise nothing, but I definitely want to check that game out. Thanks the recommendation!
Yo, now I'm even more psyched that I picked the Bundle up a week or two ago. I mostly bought it for Broken Age and lowkey for Read Only Memories, but now I'm super excited to play this game too.
To anyone reading considering buying the bundle, definitely do! I've heard very good things about Broken Age, Read Only Memories, and Her Story, so you're definitely going to get your money's worth.
4018639
Sounds like the name of a dragon about to drop a mix tape hotter than its breath.
4018094 Jesus, dude. Are you a sociopath? And I don't ask that meanly. I mean like, do you have trouble relating to other people's emotions?
714-496-3119 if you ever need someone to talk to. Just don't call me right now because I'm about to go to sleep. Normally if someone has something important I'm fine with them calling me in the middle the night but right now I need to catch up on sleep
I have to admit my first playthrough was not nearly as affecting as yours. Frankly, I thought the game was a bit lackluster. My real problem, I think, is that there were some hints of story, but I think unless you end up actually actively following a story thread, all too often they don't really go anywhere. There's a potential romantic interaction on the train across Siberia, but the lady gets off the train. I didn't follow her, and ultimately, while it was mentioned again later on in a clever little callback (I suspect the game has something that lets you call back to such things), it didn't go anywhere. I got on a ship with a bunch of characters, and it set up for a mutiny... but the mutiny failed, I got booted off the ship, and it ultimately didn't go anywhere. That just kept happening over and over again.
I, too, ended up in Panama City based on the idea of "Well, of course there must be a shipping route out of there!" and I, too, ended up deep in the Amazon after hijacking those steam shovels. And, yet again, it didn't really feel like it went anywhere, as I left the characters behind and moved on.
I did think there was some definite cleverness - both the world's fair, and that encounter at the end of the journey were quite brilliant, and I was deeply amused by my character's complaints that they were going the WRONG WAY around the world. And yes, it was clever of them to slip in some gameplay hints.
I wanted to love the game more than I actually did, unfortunately. I think you actually have to intentionally chase down plotlines.
Also, Passepartout's name is a terrible pun. In French. It means "go everywhere".
4019236
This specific sin falls, of course, on the shoulders of Jules Verne, not the devs.
4019289
I missed the original comment, but you seem like maybe you could use an internet hug. So in the spirit of the fandom, consider yourself internet-hugged. No actual physical human contact is required, so hopefully your fear of people won't be too set off.
Heh, I'll do it. Just reading this post got my gears spinning. What I have in mind right now is probably way too ambitious, though.
4019289 i'm sorry you feel that way about yourself. My offer still stands you ever need anyone to vent to
I like a writing challenge. Count me in.
I'm sold :v I'll commit as well.
Might be a tight squeeze to play through the whole game and write a story before the end of the month, but I'll do my best.
4019236
There is a shipping route out of Panama City. It costs an arm and a goddamn leg, tho.
A few things about that.
80 Days is intentionally constructed to never strand you anywhere. It's basically impossible to "die." Fogg can die, but not you. It's possible to lose, but the game will try very hard to never put you in a circumstance where you can't actually move forward.
You do have to intentionally go hunt down plotlines. A lot of the games content involves you needing to metagame and go haring off in directions that a sensible person trying to circumnavigate the globe would never do. For example, my first couple playthroughs, I noticed a bunch of newspaper headlines talking about how the Artificers guild was planning a trip to the North Pole. And I was like "well, that has to be there for a reason. Let's see how far north I can go, there's a connection from Moscow to St. Petersburg, let's see what I can manage." It made no sense for us to go that far north, but there were cities there, so...
Another time I was like "all right, every time I transit the Suez I see all these cities in Africa way down south. There must be a way to get to them. I'm going to take the rocket to Tunisia and then carefully see if I can't work my way into the interior." Makes no sense if you're trying to circumnavigate the globe, but if you want to make it Bloemfontein and visit the Zulu Empire, that's what you gotta do. Want to go to Belgrade? Better pay attention and solve some mysteries instead of just hopping on the Orient Express and riding all the way to Istanbul.
Much of the most interesting stuff in the game relies on you not playing efficiently but instead looking for alternate passages to obscure cities. Indeed, after your very first playthrough you even receive an option to not take the Amphitrite Express to Paris! You can go to Cambridge and fly across the North Sea instead. (Indeed, you have to do this if you're trying to speed-run; the quickest possible route is something like 35 days and requires never setting foot in continental Europe.)
This thread seems like it might generate some first-time players. Let me give some non-spoilery advice, because the game is shit at explaining its own mechanics.
You're going to need money, a lot more than you started with probably. The easiest way to make money is trading, buying low and selling high in various cities. Visit the marketplaces whenever possible and see what is for sale and where it it will sell for more than you paid for it. (The game WILL tell you that; you might find a bottle of wine for sale in Paris and it will be very clearly labelled "this will sell well in Vienna, Moscow, and Budapest.") You'll probably need to buy more baggage at some point... but some conveyance only allow for a certain number of bags. If you have three bags and the motorcoach only has space for two no matter what, you have to make some hard decisions.
Banks follow normal banking hours of operation, which means they aren't open on the weekend and they're usually only open nine to five. If you need money on a Wednesday that's going to take three days to arrive, you won't get that until the following Monday.
Keeping Fogg in good health is important. (In many ways, this game is basically Phileas Fogg Raising Project, as the man has all the agency of a Pokemon.) One of the easier ways to do this is to buy various articles of clothing that reduce the fatigue effects of rough terrain or inclement weather. If you're trapped in the jungles of India, as Horizon was, then having the Jungle Traveler Set of clothing will make your life much easier. Of course, you need to buy that... and have luggage space for it. The Open Road set is the least useful, the Heavy Weather and Air Traveler sets the most.
Trains, then airships, are your fastest and most reliable means of transportation. If you want to go a long way fast, look for a train.
Work the clock. You can sometimes shave valuable days off your time if you notice that the next leg of your trip doesn't depart until the following day at five p.m. That might be enough time to squeeze in a trip to the bank, a trip to the market, the "Explore" option, and then visit the bank the next day to pick up your funds before catching your flight or ship or whatever... but only if you do it in that order. If you explored first, the bank and marketplace might be closed by the time you're done.
Conversely, maybe the next leg of your trip departs tomorrow at six in the morning, which means you can't squeeze in a visit to the bank, and you also can't wait for the market to open that day either.
There aren't a lot of red herrings. If something seems significant, it probably is. If you hear a rumor about something, that something not only probably exists, it has a sidequest for you.
Every dot on the map has something going on in it. None of them are just there to be there.
4019419 4019843
PMs received and bundles purchased.
4018023 4018697 4019823
Hooray! I look forward to your stories.
I'm assuming that you want me to purchase the bundle for you, but to do so I need you to send me a PM with your e-mail address (as I noted in the original post). If my assumption is wrong, just let me know.
4019014 et.al.
Yes, absolutely!
If you wish to purchase the Humble Bundle (or the game by itself) on your own, more power to you. (I don't think I can afford to do reimbursements; I'm not commissioning fanfic exactly, just buying games for people.)
But no matter how you get the game, anyone who writes 80 Days/MLP crossover fanfic after reading this post can drop me a line when their story goes live, and I will read/review/signal-boost it.
4018090 4018148 4018169 4018197 4019123
I'm reading your comments as "thanks for the recommendation" rather than "I want to write a crossover fanfic". Assuming I'm correct: 1) you're welcome, enjoy the game; and 2) if you do end up writing a story, let me know, as per 4020392 above.
(If I'm incorrect and you want in on the games-for-fanfic deal, send me a PM with your e-mail address so I can make the purchase.)
4018261 4018639 4019080
We're running out of time on the Bundle, though. If you want some time to think it over and think the game sounds interesting anyway, you can buy the bundle yourself (and then see if the game revs up your imagination or not), or if money is an issue I'm happy to take your word for it that you'll try your best.
It's totally okay that you're waffling on committing.
You don't have to pay $10 to pick the bundle up — the minimum amount to pick up the second tier of games, including 80 Days, is about $4.50. I'm buying gifts at the $10 level because the Shadowrun game is great too, and because the bundle in general is so strong I'm willing to throw a little extra money at the devs.
4019376 4018023
PMs received and bundles purchased!
4020413
okay, in the spirit of Jules Verne, I'll take on the challenge and commit. I'll finish or die trying!
but I hope I don't die, or I'll miss Bronycon.
4020413 I did mean thank you for the game rec, but thanks again anyway - I went ahead and bought the whole bundle, which is an excellent deal.
My writing a story at this moment would herald the collapse of the universe, but if the universe should start collapsing anyway, I'll let you know when the story is done. I usually work better under pressure.
4020413
Pretty much. Thanks for the rec, the game is quite fun, and while I can't guarantee that there'll be a fanfic, if there is, you'll be the first to know.
4021151
Awesome! Drop me a PM with your e-mail, like the post says, so I know how to get your gift bundle to you. (I'll buy it now so we don't accidentally run out of time tomorrow morning.)
And I'll look forward to meeting you at Bronycon! (Or your determinedly authorial corpse, which I'm sure can still be shipped.)
4019289
As 4019376 and 4019564 said, it sounds like you could use some emotional support. I'm a complete stranger and all I've got is words on a screen, but I'd like to offer another text-based hug and some wishes that you can build the connections you're currently lacking. I think you can — I don't think you're doomed — but unfortunately I don't have a magic wand to change that.
And I really hope this isn't taken the wrong way — I don't say it lightly or dismissively; I say it because, as a complete Internet stranger, I simply don't have the resources to offer much help, and pointing you in a useful direction might be the best that I can do — have you considered talking to a mental health professional (counselor/therapist/psychologist)? They exist for a reason, because human brains break with startling regularity and you are not alone in your pain and they have training in helping you find ways to reframe your life to find some happiness despite your circumstances. I am not ashamed to admit that counselors have helped me through some of my darkest times. My problems are not your problems, and I can't say that I have experienced what you're feeling, but I know that you deserve better, and I believe that it is possible.
You specifically mentioned a fear of other people, which of course complicates that greatly, but if you're interested in moving forward, it might at least be worth a few Google searches to see if there are any online communities you can lurk in to pick up some tips, or more concrete suggestions from other people who have overcome the same fears and abuse. I googled "fear of people" (as I said, this is not a problem I have personally had) and this article, if you ignore the ad at the top, appears to have a pretty smart summary and suggestions. Maybe it's a starting point?
Good luck either way.
4019236
I just want to say that this comment in particular kind of blew my mind. I hadn't considered that people might play the game without wanting to follow up on those story threads! It seemed pretty obvious to me from early on that there was at least a little wiggle room built into the deadline (my best time now, after four runs, is in the low 50s), and following up on those story threads generally ended up providing social connections and rewards that unlocked distance-eating routes, so there's a positive reinforcement cycle involved in chasing story threads. Well, two actually; successfully completing story quests does offer a slight mechanical advantage, but even simply going out of your way does have narrative rewards, in that I really like the game's narrative and writing and meandering a bit lets me see more of it.
Maybe that's another possible writing lesson to pull from the game? An example of balancing digression and goal fixation. Obviously, the point of the thing is to complete your journey (=write a story) in a deadline (=word cap), but if you ignore the dangling hooks and charge straight forward, the story ends up a bit lackluster. It's lingering in details and taking a few side trips that spices the journey up. But if you get too meandery, the trip goes off into the weeds. There's a balance there to experiment with, that a little more iterative play might uncover, if you thought the writing was good enough that you'd enjoy taking a second pass at it.
I'm now four playthroughs in: a loss, a win, a journey in which Passepartout did not return to London by choice, and a semi-speedrun win. The loss was by far the most affecting playthrough for me; the first win gave some endorphin rushes of accomplishment (for finishing, and for solving a goddamn murder mystery) but didn't stick with me as much; the incomplete game was ... unexpected in pretty much every way, and I really appreciated it in hindsight; and the speedrun was, well, kind of boring because I was just trying to redo some previously chosen paths but make the best decisions each time and accumulate enough resources to take some shortcuts.
Not counting that last one, the game has given me a crazily different experience each time. In terms of FIMFiction tags, I've played through an Adventure, a Mystery, and a Romance.
So, yeah, what 4019863 said: allow yourself to do some wandering and see what opens up.
4019863
I considered doing that in my post, but actually decided against it because, as I said, my most powerful experience in this game came from failing.
In fact, the thing that scotched my first trip was completely brain-dead — for some dumb reason I didn't realize that staying in hotels took money, and I accidentally spent enough to just barely not be able to afford a connection that set me back several days of waiting, which cost me even more hotel fees in an expensive city, and somehow even that wasn't enough to tip me off; I just thought I was fucking up my money management — but if I'd known the mechanic up front I would have missed out on the experience of blowing the deadline. I haven't even come close to 80 days since that first failed run.
All of what you say is great advice, though — especially what you say about going in weird directions. When I juked far north (like you did), I was pleasantly surprised to have the game lampshade the change of direction, and both retroactively justify why such a crazy detour was taken and foreshadow what lay ahead.
Is there any way to turn off that damn racing clock? I'm all for the scarcity of resources and am all good with the idea of any choice I make taking time, but I hate the mechanic of it clicking an entire half hour away while I read and digest a simple paragraph and it makes me queasy enough that I can't concentrate on the words.
4022054
I … uh … don't remember any point in my playthroughs during which the clock was running as I was reading text. Does that actually happen? I know it ticks while you're in the "planning" globe, so I try to do planning at night when there's nothing else going on, and I know it ticks while you're shopping (which can be a little frustrating), but during the interactive-fiction segments I've dawdled pretty aggressively and never had that count against me that I know of.
Edit: OK, apparently it ticks a few minutes off if you have conversations while you're travelling, but it doesn't affect the overall time of your journey that I'm aware of (the trip endpoint, or the next conversation point, should come up at a specific time-mark regardless of how long you take talking). And unless it makes you consistently miss connections, half-hours aren't going to make or break your run.
I guess the best thing to do is try to tune it out? Do you have a Post-It note you could slap in on top of the screen to conceal it when you want to focus?
4022072
Yeah, I thought of that. Might work, but you kind of have to pay attention to it. It just bugs me that right at the beginning it was docking me like twenty minutes basically to read the phrase implying I should pack quickly, which I found aggravating from a metagame standpoint. Looking at it further, it does appear that the big long reading sections have the clock paused, but the time passing in the menu is the thing that'll take some time getting used to. If I ponder for thirty seconds what to do next it has taken my characters literally an hour pondering what to do next, which makes them seem less like gentlemen travelers and more like stoned theater students at the sixth hour of a wrap party.
Made it to Russia and the trans-Siberian railway without too many issues, and then I misunderstood an option and hopped off the train smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. I *think* I have cash enough for another ticket, but I might just detour to Mongolia instead - a girl I met on the train said some interesting stuff about the place. Still frustrating, though.
Also, the dialogue mechanic (on trains, when you ask about places) is super confusing.
4022241
Ooh, let me know how Mongolia goes. I took that route on one of my playthroughs but I think I missed the trigger for the cool bonus content there.
The two-portraits dialogue mechanic is definitely weird, yes, but the good news is that all it does is reveal routes on the map and add city tooltips giving you information about markets and current events. It's one of those edge things that can slightly optimize a play if you wrap your head around it, but if it hurts your head you can totally skip it.
4022100
I pretty quickly got used to letting the city intro text hang on the screen while I figured out what my priorities in the city were, and then blitzing through my pre-figured choices while the clock was ticking, until I hit evening or an Explore text-block and had more "free" planning time.
Also, the specific hurry-event at the very beginning with packing is more generous than it seems. If you hit 8 PM the clock just stops and lets you catch your train anyway. It's a little immersion-breaking, but the split-second twitch-gaming aspect of the initial packing is a little unfair, so I don't feel too guilty about grabbing for the free cheat.
played through it once before reading any possible spoilers in these comments.
4021544
this seems to match what I learned so far. there's a lot of little story hooks, and at first I wasn't sure if I could actually bite on them. later on, I was probably just incorrectly following them. in one instance, something dangerous yet intriguing was about to happen, then I accidentally chose the option (vaguely worded) that had me back out and pretend it never happened. that was disappointing!
the goal by itself is not difficult at all. with a little common sense I found a safe and fast route back to London in 65 days. I probably overprepared by building up a supply of money and useful items as soon as I could. later in the journey, the characters even commented about how I was hurrying along and not fully experiencing the journey (maybe that was directed only at Fogg, but I wouldn't be surprised if the game had that scripted in response to my choices).
though I did have an amazing moment where I decided to be a little reckless and roleplay along. It ended with me passed out in an opium den in Hong Kong, completely seperated from the master. I was lost and penniless, and possibly in trouble with a dangerous man. after I had carefully managed all that money and those suitcases full of items early on, all my security was pulled out from under me! all I had to go on was an unreliable rumor that Fogg had already headed to Yokohama, and maybe I could catch up with him there.
I did end up reuniting with Fogg pretty soon, and didn't find out the full story behind that dangerous man, but that jarring feeling, suddenly naked and vulnerable, that could make a great story moment all by itself. maybe I'll work it into the crossover fanfic. I'll have to play this game a few more times to see what I missed out on.
I had played this game some time ago on the iPad and rather enjoyed it. It's an intriguing proposition, Horizon. At least you inspired me to tinker with some words in the hopes of making a short choose-your-adventure story that would be similar to one of the location-story-threads in the actual game. Initial progress is encouraging, but it also makes me really recognize the amount of effort that had to go into content creation for a game of this nature!
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No kidding -- branching stories quickly get into weird exponential workloads. I'll be excited to the see the results, though!
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Yeah, I eventually read this as a "this is how it's going to work" moment, throwing you in the deep end. I'm not sure how fast you have to pack to avoid the last minute rush at the outset; it may be impossible.
I need to re-train myself from my quickload-spamming FPS instincts and not view "failure" as something that immediately needs to be undone. I shan't get far in this game if I start over every time I "fail."
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day 2 of 16:
poor naive me has discovered that the opium den part comes directly from Verne's book, so I can't really credit it to the game creators. well, it was still exciting. but it'd probably be plagiarising to use it myself now in a fic
went on two more runs. since I finished my first run ever way ahead of schedule, I thought, "oh this game's EASY, it's in the bag." both the new runs ended as failures. the first one went way past the deadline because of some crazy science-fiction events, so I stopped caring about speed and took it slowly. instead of fun and leisure, the route went through some horrific territory. yikes.
the second wasn't so bad, though a few delays meant I was going to miss the deadline even if I dashed through America. I gunned it anyway, figuring 3 days late wasn't too shabby. and just when I was starting to think money management is far too easy, a train robbery took all my funds away. 3 days late turned into 10 days late...
it's a bit loose as a game, but pretty great as an Interactive Fiction piece.
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Was run #2's horrific territory the caravan to Timbuktu? Because yes, yikes.
(Just played through another game last night, and did something similar to what you did in your second run: said screw the deadline and pushed out to the corners of the map. Did some cool sightseeing and got constrained into some squicky choices by a single poor decision followed by bad finances. The game doesn't hesitate to pile it on when you blow it.) I'm mostly disappointed because I spent the entire run following an overarching plot generated by the adventure seed, kept pushing it forward toward completion, and blew it at the last minute.
SIR
I VOW TO TAKE UP YOUR CHALLENGE
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yep. that one.
I wasn't necessarily exploring freely, just doing a slow defeated march home. That balloon crash really messed everything up, and the mad scientist's teleportation device didn't help either. Hey, we saw some amazing and marvelous things along the way, so it was all worth it. So I was just trying to find any route back to London at all, and the only one available to me was that evil one.
kind of a depressing "welcome back to the real world" ending. however, it puts a new context on Fogg's standard "let's try again!" epilogue
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Most encouraging, Monsieur!
I bought one extra copy of the Humble Bundle before time ran out, as a hedge against something like this happening. Do you want copies of all the games? If so, PM me with e-mail address etc., as the post originally said, and you can laugh in the face of oblivion and snatch my offer defiantly from its jaws!
Also, just wanted to backtrack a bit and note:
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But using the game's version would be okay?
Seriously, though, don't be scared off of it just because of the source. A straight-up retelling tends to make for a lackluster crossover anyway, but an adaptation (using new characters like ponies, or changing the social circumstances by putting it in Equestria, etc) is completely legit as fiction, much less fanfiction, where you're borrowing giant chunks of the source work's context anyhow. Hanging a story around that episode and its "jarring feeling" and sudden vulnerability sounds like a smashing idea.
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heh heh.
apparently in my head, it only counts as plagiarism if it's unintentional. or if you steal from someone who stole from another to begin with. it becomes watered-down borrowing.
when you know the true source of what you're ripping off, then it's artistic stealing
to clarify I meant using just the emotional effect, of course. finding out I made the same choices as the book character, completely by accident, just made me a little cautious about being accused of coincidental similarity. like wearing the same hat as someone.
that's why I agree with your theory that this game can teach better writing. not necessarily in the overall narrative of the playthrough, because that can turn out uneven. each little interlude has its own structure, and contrast built into the text choices, which makes them all feel at least a little meaningful... in a way I'd contrast to a game such as FTL, where random events feel like arbitrary fate, much like flipping over Community Chest cards in Monopoly.
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If you liked SR:R, Hong Kong is going to throw you for a loop. Much deeper story and characterization, leaning heavily on the vast difference between a very 80's Hong Kong underground and our general experiences. I loved it.
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I haven't had a chance to get started with it yet, but if it's anything like Dragonfall I'm going to love the stuffing out of it. The character work in that was fantastic.