Les Miserables: The Game of The Book. .... gameplay

Playing the game

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 metaphysical story. Underlying each story is the epistemological question, what is real? Where does meaning come from? Of course, this is a game, not a philosophical treatise. But the philosophy is there for those who want to dig deeper.