Subject Is Compliant, Subject Is Defiant by Christina Nordlander

[raw]
made by Christina Nordlander for LD34 (COMPO)
Theme: two button controls.

You are a prisoner subjected to mind-eroding treatment by an AI.

An unusual text adventure game. Most commands are disabled; influence the outcome by typing COMPLY [C] or DEFY [D].

Made in 48 hours in Inform 7.

Many possible endings, more or less happy. Walkthrough for one ending available at http://doopnet.com/games/compliant/

Ratings

Coolness 76% 2
Overall 3.69 163
Fun 3.38 311
Innovation 3.41 320
Mood 4.14 26
Theme 3.95 296

Feedback

justinooncx
14. Dec 2015 路 08:44 UTC
Pretty interesting storyline. Did you imagine one true ending, or is the truth dependent on what you choose?
馃帳 Christina Nordlander
14. Dec 2015 路 09:29 UTC
@justinooncx: Heh, thanks for playing! And yes, your choices determine the outcome, and what the player character believes about their own identity in the end.
epicTCK
15. Dec 2015 路 17:13 UTC
Well done. Very Very innovative
phi6
15. Dec 2015 路 21:27 UTC
Awesssommmeee. Love it. Wish it had been even longer!
馃帳 Christina Nordlander
15. Dec 2015 路 21:30 UTC
Thank you very much!

@phi6: I did feel like I could have fitted more content in there. I might make a more (much more!) polished post-compo version at some point.
TomenLuca
15. Dec 2015 路 22:16 UTC
I was drawn into the storyline pretty quickly, complied a lot, but I finally could not take it anymore and defied the orderlies at the end. Great stuff!
Aglavra
15. Dec 2015 路 22:36 UTC
Thanks! I really liked the writing and the idea of two true endings, as it seems to me.
f7f5
15. Dec 2015 路 22:41 UTC
Cool. I like the take on the subject and the game world. I got 3 different endings.
piper82
16. Dec 2015 路 23:55 UTC
beautiful writing.
simon.parzer
17. Dec 2015 路 00:09 UTC
A text adventure! I like the storyline and had some fun figuring out all the different endings. I like the idea of reducing the interface to two verbs for this compo.
Crashmore Studios
17. Dec 2015 路 22:28 UTC
It's a nice little choose your own-adventure. Reminded me more of psychological thrillers like Shutter Island or the Prisoner though than any science fiction, so I don't think I saw where the AI came in but I didn't mind. Personally love those type of stories anywho.

The writing was pretty good and evocative enough and I also liked the comply/defy-dynamic. It added a pretty nice dynamic to the scenes and allowed you also for some subtle variations in the various routes outcomes.

It definitely got me hook. I'd personally like to see a longer version with the mechanic and the story a bit more expanded upon to say the least and possibly with some audio to it.

Well done! :)
DivineOmega
17. Dec 2015 路 22:43 UTC
Intriguing storyline. I like the distinct changes in the narrative dependant on your choices. That was a pretty unique take on the them.
Hot Box Games
17. Dec 2015 路 22:46 UTC
This was surprisingly immersive, as I'm not usually into this type of game. The writing put me inside the characters head and, when the time was right, I made my escape. Great entry, 5* from me. Great work.
馃帳 Christina Nordlander
17. Dec 2015 路 23:01 UTC
@Crashmore Studios: That is high praise! My idea was that the Treatment Room is in fact computer controlled (there's no person behind those loudspeakers), but I could have made that clearer. Of course, the protagonist wouldn't know, either. I did get quite a bit of inspiration from The Prisoner. (Other influences were "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" and Porpentine's game "Cyberqueen".)

As for everyone else, thank you very much for your nice comments!
Efuvex
18. Dec 2015 路 07:12 UTC
Really well written story - and for the 48 hour mark no less. Also found the game mechanics really cool, simply because they're so unique.
Volatile Dove
18. Dec 2015 路 10:12 UTC
Nice! Found two different endings. Liked it even if I'm not used to this kind of game.
oz2mura
18. Dec 2015 路 13:32 UTC
Wow, I definitely loved your writing and this story just sucked me. Looking forward to checking out your other works, and future works.
馃帳 Christina Nordlander
18. Dec 2015 路 16:57 UTC
Thank you very much!

@oz2mura: I'm flattered! Just a word of advice if you're looking at playing my other games: give "Pure Green" a miss, it was an experiment, but sucked. "Red and Gold" isn't too brilliant either (I think I had a pretty cool idea, but the actual gameplay ended up dull as hell). My other games might be worth a look, if you liked this one.
kmakai
18. Dec 2015 路 23:52 UTC
Loved your writing, the detail really brings the scenes to life. I think this setting was perfect for the format, it gives plenty of room for the player to imagine the scenes and implant themselves in them, while also being clinical and monotone.

The different paths seem to stitch together really nicely too, I'm always curious to see the actual topology the branching decisions make in games like this.

Great job!
Jod
20. Dec 2015 路 23:11 UTC
Pretty damn cool! Lovely writing, very well done. I liked the ambivalency about the truth all through the game. A very creepy undertone indeed!
felilix
21. Dec 2015 路 00:08 UTC
I really liked the writing in this! Great choose your own adventure that works well.
kaa
23. Dec 2015 路 19:50 UTC
Very cool text adventure! Didn't check all variants and my english is not very fluent. It's difficult to make good text adventure (I tried), but this time you definitely got it
OwT
25. Dec 2015 路 11:17 UTC
Amazing. Lovely writing and interesting plot. I'm amazed how you did throughout all of it in such a little time.
The presentation of the story was also very fitting to the mood.
I enjoyed and I'm sure I'll play it again and again and again... just to see all the possibilities.
nassi
27. Dec 2015 路 13:52 UTC
The ambiguity of the story is pretty interesting. Tried a few different paths to see how much pathing there really was and all of them felt believable.
BigAnt
27. Dec 2015 路 22:14 UTC
VERY WELL DONE! Great use of the them and I quickly found myself immersed in the story. Awesome job!
ursagames
28. Dec 2015 路 11:20 UTC
Excellent use of the theme and writing! I found myself going back and looking at a few of the different endings. I enjoyed the open-endedness of the branching stories.
xWarZonex
30. Dec 2015 路 00:23 UTC
Pretty neat game, I didn't quite understand the whole plot, but I liked it.
BlackBulletIV
02. Jan 2016 路 00:24 UTC
Great stuff. I like this take on interactive fiction. Had a great mood to it too.
BooleanByte
02. Jan 2016 路 00:29 UTC
Interesting idea, and it makes for an interesting situation as I don't know whats true, are they tricking me or is it true. I had this wierd feeling the first run, when i mostly defyed what they tried. But the second run got me somewhere else, but might it still be a lie? Who knows?
Xanjos
03. Jan 2016 路 22:28 UTC
Had to use Chrome for this as Firefox doesn't work for some reason but I loved the story and multiple endings. My only gripe is that the block of text after you've entered a command is a bit too large at times and appears too quickly for me to read and understand more about the story (Maybe have each paragraph appear slowly one by one instead?).
馃帳 Christina Nordlander
04. Jan 2016 路 01:04 UTC
@Xanjos: Good point, I do feel the story ended up a bit too wordy in places.

Thank you for your review!