Interactive fiction in progress. Transitory is a text adventure game that takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area, on and around the BART train system, past, present, and future. Exploring the landscape and the intersections of magic, art, and technology lead the player to five puzzles corresponding with the five BART train lines. My aim is to make a super fun game that deepens people's relationship with the everyday geography they may experience. So, when you ride the real life train, you may start to notice the aesthetics of the stations, the characters of the neighborhoods around them, and think about the history of the land. The familiar will become new, and the train rider will become more aware of possible futures just around the corner.
As an added dimension to the game experience, the player can choose to play as a wheelchair user, Deaf or hard of hearing, blind or having low vision, or any combination of those disabilities. Representation in media buoys us up; as I experimented with writing game scenarios from the point of view of a wheelchair user, I had a powerfully happy feeling. I'd like to make the game playable in an interesting way from many points of view; the world must be navigable and the clues findable for all of them. As I play with that it is also fun to put in the sly crip humor that is a key piece of our everyday resistance and survival.
If you like the idea, please support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lizhenry
INSTALLING THE GAME
To playtest, install Inform7 and clone this repo.
You will also need to install an Inform7 extension, Transit System by Emily Short. From within Inform7, there is an option in the File menu on macOS, "Show Installed Extensions Folder". Make a folder named "Emily Short" in there and put the Transit System file in it.
Instructions: http://dhayton.haverford.edu/wp-content/uploads/Inform-manuals/WI_2_10.html
You'll need to download the extension and put it into the proper folder, inside folders named after the author:
Transit System by Emily Short.
Note: This also uses a modified version of Touchy Feely by Quantum Games, temporarily included in the main body of the game.
Download from: http://inform7.com/extensions/Emily%20Short/Transit%20System/index.html
Playing the game:
"Help" will get you a help menu.
Type "i" to look at your inventory (what you are carrying).
"Look" will show you a room description (again).
"Exits" will show you a list of possible exits from a room.
You can "go" in all 8 directions (north, northeast, etc) as well as up and down.
"n" is a convenient shorthand for "go north"
You can also take things, open things, sit on things, and stand up.
"examine" ("x") or "look at" will let you examine an object. Or, sometimes, details in a room description.
"tap" if your character is blind, will efficiently examine an entire area and its significant objects.
"Wait X minutes" may be handy when waiting for trains.
"Friends" will list the people you know in the game.
"Works" will list the artworks you've experienced.
"Hints" will get you a small menu of extra hints, a little spoilery.
There are many more commands to try!