Backup Released


I’ve put together a game! I guess this is my November game, as the space station game would be October’s, and it’s still under construction. “Backup” is an Interactive System Failure about killing.

The Prosperity Commission transportation facilities are designed for the utmost safety and reliability. They are equipped with weapon dampening fields, highly-trained security forces, and four redundant computer cores. You are the third backup computer core for a facility under construction. You should never have to wake up. Something is wrong.

Download “Backup” from Ludus Novus.

To play the .zblorb file, you will need a Z-machine interpreter, which is like a media player for interactive fiction. If you use Windows, I recommend Gargoyle. If you use Mac OS X, I recommend Zoom. If you use Linux, I recommend the Linux version of Zoom.

This game is heavily inspired by Gun Mute. It is a (potentially) violent piece of interactive fiction with multiple endings set in a science fiction world of robots, plasma swords, and intergalactic finance. I’ve attempted to create something that rarely occurs in interactive fiction: a game that requires tactical thought as a challenge rather than puzzle-solving. In-game instructions and hints are available by typing HELP in-game. “Backup” is written in Inform 7. Let me know what you think in the comments!

13 thoughts on “Backup Released

  1. I attempted to run Zoom on my Ubuntu machine. Apparenly, zoom is an X windows program. I do not understand why someone would choose to build an interpreter for an interactive fiction language such that it couldn’t be run from a shell. It boggles the mind.

    1. Zoom is a pretty interpreter. There are also ugly command-line interpreters for Linux. Frotz may be an option; I think it’s new enough to open zblorb files.

      1. Frontz barfed on it (at least the version that was available via apt-get). I’m not exactly sure what the difference between a “pretty” interpreter and an “ugly” one is, though.

        1. Zoom provides some graphical support, customizable fonts, and similar GUI-riffic stuff… and the MacOS version, at least, has a pretty game browser that displays cover art and such. Command line interpreters would likely have less support for that sort of thing. Thus “ugly.”

  2. I found the game itself entertaining as I learned its in and outs, but once I had learned the ropes, it felt far too short. I enjoyed the battle system put in place and I think I would have liked more than merely four opponents to play with.

  3. Excellent game. Have found all four endings.

    For “Sabotage,” you need to work with the invaders instead of just running off.

    Personally, I’d love to see you expand this into something bigger and better, with more potential fights, more ending, more interactivity, maybe more drones to inhabit…

  4. How is this “A game about killing” as it says in the about text, if wether you kill or not has little impact on the game? As far as I can tell it only alters the first line the commander says and the body tally at the end of the game. I experimented killing none, killing everyone, and killing half with each ending saw no difference. I expected more consequences, or any consquences, for engaging in or abstaining from something the game claims it is about.

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