“Narthex” Released


I’ve finished up a little game that’s partially a test for a conversation engine I cooked up. It’s called “Narthex.”

After a long journey, you will reach the Narthex, the waiting place before the oracle. There you must wait until your time. Then you will be given the answer to a single question. This game has two endings. The second is not worth getting.

Play “Narthex” at Ludus Novus.

22 thoughts on ““Narthex” Released

  1. Initially I thought it was based off “Before the Law” by Kafka. I’m not entirely certain which ending was less worthwhile, but it’s an interesting concept

    1. Also, I think you exclude the possibility of 0 as the high-order digit. Well, I’m not interested in giving this thing focus for half an hour.

    2. I rolled a 1020 and decided I could spare seventeen minutes. I was not impressed.

      1. I agree. This was not more than than a few kilojiltings. It could have been far more disappointing.

        Maybe.

  2. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what sequence is the timer waiting for? I’m on 866X right now (I think), and I’m worried that if I leave it it’s not a all-9s/0s/what have you, but some in-between state. Does it make a sound? Can I read for a while?

    Anxiety about games about waiting. :(

  3. Hmm, interesting. I didn’t even try for the second ending, but I think I had more fun that way.

    I like the atmosphere of this one.

  4. I can’t believe I waited all that time for that ending.

    That was brilliant, you magnificent bastard.

  5. I like to think of this game as a test of patience, and I have proven my patience.

    But it is also nice how you facepunch me with the fact that I have been waiting for something nobody knows what it is, just to have some random thing, of which no-one knows what it is, except an (unproven) oracle. And I actually had this exact thought moments before the door opened: If I leave now, I would have waited for nothing.

  6. This was good, and disappointing at the same time, i don’t know what i was expecting on the other side of the door, “Looming” gave so much in such a small setting that i was expecting something like that, it’s nothing like that, anyway, this will sound weird, but, it was fun being waiting, only to be disappointed with the end, it plays with my expectations, and as time goes by, my expectations grew, and the great thing, in my opinion, is that the dialogue in the NPC’s tells you go is going to end, and i wouldn’t noticed, until the end.

  7. Is it cheating if I just left it running in the morning when I went to work? Just finished it when I got home from work. :)

    And yeah, we can’t say you didn’t warn us!

    1. I dont think that works, since you cant miss the time, I think that if the timer goes past the point you are allowed in, the door will close again.

  8. This game is completely brilliant. (Just now I rerolled once or twice until I got a low number, and then did other things until it was down into double digits.)

  9. Wow. That was brilliant.
    I don’t know what I was expecting, but that made the ending all the better, didn’t it?
    It really wasn’t worth it. But at the same time, it was.

  10. Gregory, I’m not sure whether to congratulate you for an awesome game or kick you in the balls if we ever meet.

    Probably both.

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