Study for a computer game

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Study for a computer game
Extra Bones' Cryptic Quest
Back in July, Extra Bones was invited to undertake a two week residency at InSitu - a small venue in New Cross, SE London, in the abandoned entrance and cloakroom of the Paradise Bar. For the past 10 years or so, the space has languished in a state of disrepair; used only to store the Royal Albert's barrels and to provide a sparse roof over the heads of roosting pigeons, but for a period over the summer it became home to a series of short exhibitions and projects . Inspired by Andrew Kerr's Hillside drawings for Good Press Gallery's Modern Masters show, we decided to use the space to make an evolving installation/programme of events based around ideas of adventure and exploration -- real, fictional or somewhere in between. The hope was to provide an open, participatory space in which people could do or make things together, and to enjoy the camaraderie of a noble and purposeful quest.
Having made some physical games for previous Extra Bones projects, I decided to attempt to make a computer game for this one. Aside from some unfinished Flash experiments, I hadn't made game before, but reading Anna Anthropy's Twine tutorial some time ago, it seemed a plausible option, and a Choose Your Own Adventure game felt like a good choice for the kind of narrative-focused project that we were putting together. I started to think about the kind of ways I might be able to use Twine - just coming up with thoughts about puzzles or dynamics that lent themselves to interactive text, then I began reading tutorials to see if it was all possible.
Within the installation, the game was intended to weave together the different threads of the residency, using the mythology and folklore of a fantastical shape-shifting island that Andrew had created as its setting. I had a ready-made cast of characters and locations, as well as a structure off which to hang some of the Twine experiments I had been working on. The game was to be available inside the space to be played any time - in between performances and workshops - and without any great commitment. Nothing too game-y; more of a story with game elements. The space itself was a mix of museum stores and Explorers Club trophy room -- artefacts 'retrieved' from the Changeling Island -- and the hope was that people could wander in, take a look at all of the relics or be involved in a workshop, and then set off and visit the Island in the game, enjoy the story, and to seek whatever treasures and secrets it had to hide. One was to reinforce the other.
So we built this peculiar cave of wonders. We covered the holes in the ceiling with a tarp, dumped a fetid, misty swamp inside the old ticket booth and filled the place with pseudo-museological objects -- geology, art, tools, jars of coloured liquids... The game was projected onto a wall behind the old cloakroom desk, underneath the billowing tarp that shielded the pigeons. We borrowed a PC and a big old trackball mouse, which mounted on a carved wooden hand. I wish I'd kept track, but over the course of the fortnight there were a good few people who completed the game.
Now, some months later, I have made a slightly adapted version which can be played online (some of the original version had some site-specific elements to it). It doesn't take too long to play, and I think it uses the stuff of Twine and text in a few interesting ways. Although it may lose something out of the context of the installation, I think it's a nice little story and I think it achieves the message that I hoped it would. Thanks to Andrew for the drawings in the game, and Lucy for the photos above. Also to Porpentine and Leon Arnott for their incredible Twine resources, and the various members of the Twine community whose macros I plundered, without which I wouldn't have been able to make the game. More information about the wider Cryptic Quest project are available here and here. Play the game here. It works best in Chrome because I don't know how to get certain CSS elements working in other browsers. If anyone plays it, I'd be glad to hear what you think.
An abstraction of the Suffolk countryside. From a photograph of a pylon near Wickham Market. (2005)
Drawing drawing Just a little scritch scratch of a pencil. Work in progress.
A Passer By His legs were spindly and he walked using a stick, which is what caught my attention. I wondered for a moment if the two things were linked. All questions unanswered, I returned to my reading.
QR Code Patterns ...I found I couldn't read.
To the moon, we'll leave tonight.
The Fox Physician
ONCE UPON A TIME there was an old man who lived with his old wife. The husband planted a head of cabbage in the cellar and the wife planted one in an ash bin. The old woman's cabbage withered away completely, but the old man's grew till it reached the floor above the cellar. Then the old man took an ax and cut a hole right over the cabbage. Again the cabbage grew and grew until it reached the ceiling; again the old man took an ax and cut a hole right above the cabbage. Again the cabbage grew until it reached the sky. How could the old man look at the top of his cabbage now? He climbed and climbed up the stalk until he reached the sky, cut a hole in the sky, and climbed out there. He looked about him. Millstones were standing all around; whenever they gave a turn, a cake and a slice of bread with sour cream and butter appeared, and on top of these a pot of gruel. The old man ate and drank his fill and lay down to sleep.
When he had slept enough, he climbed down to the ground and said: "Old woman, old woman! What a good life one leads in heaven! There are millstones there; each time they turn, one finds a cake, a slice of bread with sour cream and butter, and on top a pot of gruel." "How can I get there, old man?" "Sit in the bag, old woman; I will carry you there." The old woman thought for a while, then seated herself in the bag. The old man took the bag in his teeth and began to climb to heaven. He climbed and climbed--climbed for a long time. The old woman grew very weary, and asked: "Is it still far, old man?" "It's still far, old woman." Again he climbed and climbed, and climbed and climbed. "Is it still far, old man?" "Still half way to go!" And again he climbed and climbed, and climbed and climbed. The old woman asked a third time: "Is it still far, old man?" He was about to say "Not far," when the bag dropped out of his teeth. The old woman fell to the ground and was smashed to bits. The old man climbed down the stalk and picked up the bag, but in it there were only bones, and even they were broken into little pieces.
The old man set out for home, weeping bitterly. On his way he met a fox, and she asked him: "Why are you weeping, old man?" "How can I help weeping? My old woman has been smashed to pieces." "Be quiet, I will heal her." The old man threw himself at the fox's feet: "Heal her, I will give you anything you ask in return." "Well, heat up a bath, put out a bag of oatmeal, and a crock of butter, and put the old woman beside it, and stand behind the door, but don't look in."
The old man heated a bath, brought in what was called for, and stood behind the door. The fox entered his bathhouse, latched the door, and began to wash the old woman's bones. Actually she did not wash them so much as lick them clean. From behind the door, the old man called: "How is the old woman?" "She is stirring!" answered the fox. She finished eating the old woman, gathered the bones together, piled them up in a corner, and began to prepare a hasty pudding. The old man waited and waited, and finally called: "How is the old woman?" "She is sitting up," answered the fox, and spooned up the rest of the pudding. When she had finished eating she said: "Old man, open the door wide." He opened it and the fox leaped out of the bathhouse and ran home. The old man entered the bathhouse and looked around. All he found of his old wife were her bones under the bench, and even they were licked clean; the oatmeal and the butter were gone. The old man remained alone in his misery.
Translation by Norbert Guterman
Koło wielkie
A noble attempt to draw the perfect freehand circle, over and over.