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Massive Collaborative Text Adventure 'Cragne Manor' Released (rcveeder.net)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the after-Anchorhead dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader Feneric writes: Cragne Manor , a 20th anniversary tribute to the classic work of horror interactive fiction Anchorhead by Michael Gentry, is now available for free public download. It was written by a collaboration of over 80 authors and programmers organized by Ryan Veeder and Jenni Polodna. Each author worked on a room in isolation, not knowing the details of other authors' assignments. The result is a sprawling, puzzle-dense game that will at turns delight, confound, amuse, and horrify.

More announcements are available here and here, and an early review is also online.
"Each location is a different author's take on a tribute to Anchorhead," reports the official site, "or an original work of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, or a deconstruction of cosmic horror, or a gonzo parody of cosmic horror, or a parody of some other thing, or a portrait of life in Vermont, or a pure experiment in writing with Inform 7, or something else entirely.

"There are tons of puzzles. The puzzles get very weird."

14 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Re: aww first room I got eaten by a Grue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It was engineered to be expansive and broad as well as have a significant depth in available quests, characters, and levels. Unfortunately gameplay was not tested. It is only possible to win with one available character. I imagine the sequel will be better thought through, assuming they get to start on it.

  2. Story Structure? by Barny · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Each author worked on a room in isolation, not knowing the details of other authors' assignments. The result is a sprawling, puzzle-dense game that will at turns delight, confound, amuse, and horrify."
     
    ... and contain practically no overarching narrative. Essentially, it's a collection of smaller games that may/may not have any relation to each other except that they all happen in a room.

    --
    ...
    /me sighs
    1. Re:Story Structure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There is an emergent structure that's really marvelous. Some of the rooms were designed with common puzzles in mind, and there are satisfying overall arcs.

    2. Re:Story Structure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      There's an overarching narrative that was known only to the two organizers who essentially doled out room assignments with pre-determined interfaces. It's not so much like a collection of smaller games as it is one huge game with very different styles and moods and feels as one moves from room to room.

      A player will be able to go through and not only figure out a consistent map of the Town of Backwater but also piece together big chunks of the Cragne family tree and the area's history while working out the puzzles necessary to rescue the missing Peter.

    3. Re:Story Structure? by thelexx · · Score: 2

      Someone please mod parent up.

      --
      "Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
    4. Re:Story Structure? by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 2

      Someone please mod parent up.

      Done! Oh wait...

      --
      My first program:

      Hell Segmentation fault

    5. Re: Story Structure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      nothing more woke than judging people's ethnicity by whether or not their name is "too white" for your standards, A+ for your progressive politics that are very clearly genuine & not trolling

  3. Hanging keyboard input? by The_Other_Kelly · · Score: 1

    This thing is hanging with a "MORE" prompt, and does not respond to key input.

    Is this part of a Meta-Game?
    Or a bug`?

    --
    (R)ule in Hell or (S)erve in Heaven [R]?
    1. Re:Hanging keyboard input? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      scroll down to make it go away...

  4. I'm pumped! by AndyKron · · Score: 2

    In other news I just got Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy running on a 1986 Tandy 1400LT laptop yesterday. I'm pumped!

    1. Re:I'm pumped! by Feneric · · Score: 2

      Alas this isn't exactly one of those games. There are lots of interactions. You'll find that some older hardware / software will struggle at points.

  5. Re: aww first room I got eaten by a Grue by Feneric · · Score: 1

    I think you're thinking of something else. Gameplay was pretty extensively tested, there are no levels, and there's unlikely to be a sequel.

  6. Re: Go N by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 1

    Your score is 100%
    You have completed this adventure

    --
    READY.
    PRINT ""+-0
  7. Anchorhead is fun, too by imidan · · Score: 1

    I think I probably saw this here on Slashdot, but as the summary mentions Anchorhead, here is a web version of the game:
    http://pr-if.org/play/anchorhe...
    I spent most of an afternoon playing until I died without having saved.