Interactive Narrative

The Stanley Parable begins with an in-engine cut scene set of a man in a dingy office. A narrator explains that this is Stanley, who loves his job, even though as described it sounds quite tedious. But, we are told, one day the orders he receives on a screen stop coming, and he realizes that no coworkers have stopped by all day. So he decided to go to the staff lounge.

At this point, we are handed the controls. The office opens onto a corridor. The narration continues when we hit certain points along the corridor; and eventually, we reach a branch, and are told that "Stanley turned left."

Following the narrator's instructions eventually leads to a story in which, supposedly, Stanley liberates himself from a control device that kept him happy despite the tedium of his work; and, in a final narration, are told that "Stanley would never follow orders again." Which is amusingly disconcerting because, of course, to reach this ending, we did nothing but follow orders.

Naturally, if you restart, and diverge from the path, the story changes -- quite often, the narrator becomes prickly and upset with you, because you're not doing what your told. There are, of course, multiple different endings depending on what path you take -- some rather humorous.

Dreams of Your Life is not so much a game as a sort of conversational meditation on the subject of life, death, and love. Writing this, I realize how dreary it sounds; but actually, it's quite effective.

It's a project tied to a documentary film, Dreams of A Life; in this it is not unique. But unlike most games tied to documentaries, it does not in any fashion try to replicate the experience of the documentary itself. It does, at times, refer to the documentary's subject, never talking about the film itself; the subject is what happened to Joyce Vincent, a woman who died in a flat in London in 2003, in her 30s, with her television on. She was not discovered for three years.

Sadness is not often an emotion evoked by games, but Is It Time? succeeds in doing so. It's an attempt to move into Passage territory; you play an old woman, living alone, whose husband has recently died. Your world consists of two scenes; the interior of your house and "outside," which consists of the gravestone of your husband, a winter-bare tree, and a park bench.

Your character has three stats: fatigue, hunger, and boredom, which count down from 100 to 0. If fatigue or hunger reaches 100, you pass out; at 0 boredom, your depression makes your motion slow. You can move left and right, press the down key to weep, or press space bar to interact with objects; your main interactions involve preparing food and sitting on the park bench. The whole world is in a dreary palette, alleviated only by occasional visits from your children, or memories of your husband; they are in bright, vibrant colors. At the park bench, a friend, another old lady, often appears, sits with you, and talks.

Digital: A Love Story is an extraordinarily charming game -- a sort of text adventure in which you use your new pre-VGA computer to dial up all sorts of interesting BBSes, just like we did in the Old Days. There, you make virtual friends, uncover a mystery, and have the opportunity to fall in love.

Tales of the Arabian Nights, originally published by West End Games in 1985, has recently been published in a new edition by Z-Man Games. It is, in its own way, an important game.