The Beast I Couldn’t Find

The genre of Interactive Fiction is something I have never experience before, and after spending a few days trying it out, I have to say that I think it’s frustratingly fun. The first game I played was Violet and it is the only game I have actually “beaten.” I think.

This concept of interacting with a text that has been coded in a way to only respond to certain commands was something I really didn’t understand when I first opened the page to play the game. A blinking cursor and empty white space becomes the canvas for a formulaic, yet inherently unique experience. The fact that you have to enter commands spontaneously ensures that no two people will have the exact same experience. For example, when I was playing Violet, one of my first commands that actually earned a response was “listen.” The more I made my character listen, the more the story progressed, yet when I wanted to enter the hall, Violet would always redirect me back to writing the dissertation. Direction becomes the most pivotal aspect of these games, whether you are literally walking in a specific direction (North, East, South, West, etc) or if you want to move in a narrative direction. I think when we are referring to a narrative direction in interactive fiction, we also have to consider what story we are trying to flesh out, shape, or even discover. Does our character complete his dissertation in the narrative or does he stray away from it to look out the window or listen to the conversation across the hall? The choice in direction, no matter how much Violet protests, is ultimately ours. Yes, there are limitations on what we might do and where we might go, but we decide what we want to do with the agency that is given to us. I think this is just like those choose your own adventure books, except now we get to write our own paths.

This idea of writing a path is probably more applicable to the Bronze game. The whole premise of this game is to find the Beast, but I was never able to. I enjoyed this game the most because I felt it was not as limited as Violet and it took a lot more focus to navigate the castle than the one room you are confined to in Violet. I started out trying to enter commands but only when I used cardinal directions was I actually able to get to the Entrance Hall. From there, and for about 20 minutes I ran into a lot of dead ends in other rooms and dark places with weird sounds I could not, for the life of me, “examine.” What was really interesting was the point in which I was getting past dialogue between my character and the Beast of the castle. By going in and out of the same room over and over, an entire thread of the narrative was displayed. This narrative was clearly written into the code, but how I accessed it was probably not the way you were supposed to encounter it; then again, if this is a “choose your own adventure story” that choice was perfectly fine. There are also mini puzzles; one is literrally a puzzle with a missing piece which is locked in another cage which you need a key but the key is nowhere to be found. I was also able to “acquire” a object in the story. I picked up the shackle which later made noise in the dark place with the leak. Maybe I’ll go back and try to find the key and the Beast again, but this time I know to draw a map! If you’re literally going to be exploring a text, it only makes sense to map it out, right?