About 'Enter The Story'
"Enter The Story" is an adventure game based on classic novels. A new classic story will be added every six months. All the stories link together to make the world's largest adventure game.
How is it unique?
Enter The Story is unique in many ways:
* It's more faithful to the original novels than other games
* It isn't dumbed down: it deals with serious issues, as well as fun.
* Buy one game and get all previous games at no extra cost
* The stories link to become the world's largest adventure game.
* The back-story comes from the real world (it won't be revealed yet)
* The art style is unique as well.
* It's designed for rapid development: a new story every few months.
Other unique elements are still in the planning stages.
What do you actually do?
"Enter The Story" is a classic "point and click" adventure game, with some refinements. Gameplay is simple: you explore, you listen, or you suggest.
Left click anywhere to explore.
Double click a person to listen to what they have to say.
Right click on a person to suggest something. They will respond to whatever you next right click on. For example, maybe a child says they are hungry. You remember seeing some food in another place. So you right click on the child and right click on the food. The child might say "ah, I remember where I can find some food!"
Think of the game like a book. You enjoyment comes from the story, the situations, the characters. But unlike a book, you don't just sit back and passively watch. You explore, you get to know the individuals, and you make the decisions.
How this compares with other games
This differs from other games in two ways: story and realism.
In most games the story comes second. You buy a racing game or a platform game or an RPG, and the story is just an added bonus. Even adventure games tend to adapt the story to fit the requirements of the puzzles. But this game is different. The story comes first. The tension and drama and enjoyment come from the story, and puzzles are secondary.
Because of the emphasis on story, you face real world challenges, not contrived situations. You do not pull levers and steal cars and blast aliens. You do not have multiple lives and amazing skills. You do not control people as if they were puppets, you can only suggest ideas and hope they follow... just like in real life. People can be frustrating and infuriating, but they have personalities and needs, and that's why you care.
Enter which story?
"The Story" in "Enter The Story" refers to three different layers of plot:
1. The particular novel, starting with Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
2. The big story that links all the others. There are hints throughout the first story, beginning with the face on the book.
3. The real-world slements of the back story. These will be revealed a little bit at a time.
Who do you play?
This game is like a book. In a book the reader is sometimes directly addressed, but usually is a silent observer, like a disembodied spirit. In later stories the identity of you, the reader, will be explored in more depth.
Most of the story deals with different people and how they think and act when alone. So there is no separate user avatar, and you do not control them like puppets. You have to see how these people react on their own. You can place ideas in their heads but ultimately they must decide. it's more realistic that way.
What about inventories and verb lists?
Traditional adventures have an inventory. This involves stealing everything that is not nailed down, carrying unfeasibly large objects in a tiny bag, and conveniently losing objects that would make some later puzzle too easy to solve. None of these things make sense in a serious adventure.
In practice, inventory based games severely limit which items can be added to inventories, and what the user can do, as it is impossible to program a meaningful response for every possible interaction or combination. This game i contrast, does not believe in artificial limits. In this game the entire game world is our inventory, but the characters themselves decide how they react and what they do, just as in real life. You can draw their attention to things, but how they react is up to them.
Voice acting? Where are the voices?
One of the first things you will notice about "Enter The Story" is that the music is not interrupted by voices. All dialog is as text, not voice. There are several reasons for this:
Practical reasons:
This game would require thousands of audio files. Adding spoken audio would take as long as all the other design elements combined. I would rather that time was spent on creating a new story instead.
Aesthetic reasons:
The music is important in this game. But there is a lot of dialog, so voices would always get in the way.
Quality reasons:
"Enter The Story" is for people who enjoy reading. The best voices are the ones you create in your head. If you don't enjoy reading then a game based on classic novels probably isn't for you.
Why isn't it 3D?
Many video games are now based on 3D, but 2D is better for this game because:
(1) The allows people to play even if they don't have a graphics card,
(2) It's easier to navigate (some 3D navigation is very tricky), and
(3) It allows for faster game development. (3D modeling only saves time if similar characters and props can be reused. In this game, every story will be very different from the last, so it's quicker to create new objects in 2D.)
In summary, I have tried to strip the gameplay down to what matters and get rid of everything else. I hope you like the result.
System requirements
"Enter The Story" is built with Adventure Game Studio 2.72. It's native to Windows, and has a Linux runtime engine.
Minimum requirements: 50 MB free RAM (i.e. not including your operating system), 1 GHz CPU (1.6 GHz recommended). The game was developed on a 1.6 GHz XP machine, and uses around 50 percent of system resources (except for less than a second when changing scenes). The game can be run either full screen or in a window, and can even run in low resolution mode (320x240 pixels) for very slow computers. The game runs in 16 bit color or higher.
The game will be about 130 MB on the hard disk. The download is around 60 MB for the complete Windows installer, or 70 MB for other systems (a generic zip file for the widest possible compatibility), but a larger download). the free demo will be around 37 MB.
Price
The price is US$14.99, or the equivalent in local currency. For that you get everything - the current story and all previous stories!
Purchases are handled by BMT Micro. BMT and its rival Plimus are the two payment companies used by nearly all independent game developers. Your money is safe with them, and they accept Visa, PayPal, and all they usual methods. If you want a copy on CD-ROM they can send it through the post, but there's an extra charge for that service.
Where to get a legal copy
It's easy to tell if you have a pirate copy of the game. The game can only be downloaded from EnterTheStory.com If you got it direct from EnterTheStory.com, it's legal. Anything else is a pirate copy.
Copy protection?
This game has the strongest copy protection known to man: the honesty of its users. It has no other protection. It just works. It's aimed at people who enjoy classic books and think deeply about right and wrong. You're not the kind of person who steals games.
Actually, a legal copy of this game is cheaper than 'free.' The cost of the game is $14.99 - not much by today's standards. And that money goes to fund my research into solving world poverty (see below). If you want to cheat me out of a few dollars you can, but you lose social standing among honest people, and that costs you more in the long run.
If you don't care about your reputation you can still find a pirate copy somewhere, but that will take time. And this game is updated every six months so you have to spend extra time finding the latest version. Your time is valuable: every wasted minute costs you money. For most people it's cheaper to just go to EnterTheStory.com and be legal.
Can't afford a legal copy?
If your earning capacity is so low that $14.99 is a prohibitive cost, then you have my sympathy. I know what it's like to be financially poor. I guess there's nothing I can do to stop you pirating my game. But here's two things to think about:
If you're really that poor then your time is better spend downloading educational materials, getting qualifications and increasing your earning potential.
If you can't get an education, or you're educated and still can't get a good job, then there is something seriously wrong with the economy in your country. I'm trying to fix that (see below). Money spent on my game will help to change the world.
Buy this game and change the world
The money is used to help end world poverty. Yes, seriously. I am using this money to fund my research into land rent as the basis for economic justice.
Many Nobel prize winning economists have argued for land rent as a fairer alternative to taxation. Winston Churchill spent the first part of his life campaigning for it (til he got sidetracked by Hitler). Land rent is the simplest and fastest way to end poverty and create justice in the world. But the arguments are often long and technical. I'm researching ways to simplify these arguments, so that every voter (and crucially, every land owner) can see how it benefits them.
I created this game as a way to fund my studies. I have a dream of using Henry George's ideas to end world poverty. When you buy "EnterTheStory" you'll be helping me turn that dream into a reality.
About the developer
My name is Chris Tolworthy. I live in Scotland and have been working in multimedia since 1992. I designed and developed the game, but a host of talented people provided the game engine, the stories, the raw art, the music, and so on. Much of it was generously donated for free by people who share my vision. When playing the game you can press "C" at any time to see copyright details for the images and music on that page.
Add your own story
That's right, if Enter The Story does not include your favorite (out of copyright) novel, then you can make your own story and have it included in the next release of the game!
