Coloratura
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux, Javascript
You are an alien creature. Not strongly bonded to the physical world, you spend much of your existence happily singing with the universe, emitting a blissful white aura. Unfortunately, the blind, foolish humans have interrupted your connection. In Lynnea Glasser's entry in the 2013 Interactive Fiction Competition, Coloratura, you'll have to affect and manipulate the confused Blind Ones to return to your resting place of peace.
Coloratura is played much like other interactive fiction titles by typing in a command and hitting [enter]. When at a loss, you can type "help" for assistance or even "hint" for help with whatever puzzle you're tackling. Where this game deviates from traditional interactive fiction mechanics is your ability to 'color' people at times to affect their mood. The list of colors available can be accessed at anytime with the "colors" command (or "colours", even). Additionally, there's no inventory to deal with, unlike the author's previous interactive fiction game, Divis Mortis, leaving you with no option but to find other ways of manipulating the world around you.
There is more to this survival title than just stopping the humans from keeping you from anything but total bliss. The story, as it unfolds, will not only having you feel for the gender-neutral protagonist, but will also have your 'aura' toward the humans changing from revolted orange to fond blue. While Coloratura has a story those familiar with interactive fiction fans will likely enjoy, those new to the genre should keep an open mind considering the non-traditional gameplay. With total game time around two hours, Glasser's latest story weaving is a colorful, emotional ride for a well spent afternoon staring at words.
Download Coloratura (Mac/Windows/Linux, 1.3MB, free)
To play the download version of this game, you'll need both the game file and an interpreter. Download Coloratura followed by an interpreter for your OS: Gargoyle for Windows, Zoom for Macintosh and Unix.
I really want to play this game, but the online version doesn't work on my browser and the download link takes me to a 403 Forbidden page. :( Help?
Sorry Jade. Have you tried clearing your cache? Tried another browser? I'm not sure what browser you're using or what problem you're getting that doesn't make it work.
The download link uses mirror.ifarchive.org which redirects to a bunch of places. I think it doesn't get updated often enough and at least one of the places that it redirects to has since gone down (hence the 403 problem). Refresh this page and try again and you will probably get a different redirect which would work.
This appears to be heavily inspired by the short story "The Things", which is a retelling of John Carpenter's "The Thing" from the titular alien's point of view. Very interesting.
Finally managed to download this game! Refreshing the download link did the trick.
Fantastic. Has anyone found more than two endings for the epilogue?
Mantus -
No! I only found one ending:
where you grab the tape off the dead medic's body after an unsuccessful resuscitation and report the incident, ensuring others will hear the tape.
How did you get the second ending?
I too got the same ending for the epilogue. I did have several "bad" endings but I wonder were there any alternate good endings (before the epilogue)?
I had a very happy ending where instead of just being dropped in the ocean, I took Mercy with me, and we were able to sing together forever inside the Song.
That was a really fantastic game. Very well written, immersive, unique, and simply beautiful. A pleasure to play.
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