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Violet


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Rating: 4.4/5 (362 votes)
Comments (99) | Views (48,154)

Emily ShortVioletViolet is a richly engaging one-room puzzle game from this year's annual Interactive Fiction competition.

The problem? You're a graduate student working on your dissertation, but you haven't gotten any writing done in months. Your girlfriend Violet has put her life on hold, waiting for you to finish, and she's getting fed up. If you don't get a thousand words written today, your relationship is over and she flies home to Australia. Unfortunately, your office is full of every kind of distraction, from the window overlooking campus hijinx to the computer on your desk, always ready to show you the latest blogs and web comics instead of your chapter-in-progress. So you have no choice but to shut out everything that's causing you distraction so that you can turn in a few hours of solid work for once.

Best of Casual Gameplay 2008Having been through graduate school myself, I found this cut close to home. The way the protagonist keeps half-intentionally sliding into other tasks... or getting distracted by totally irrelevant noises... or remembering books that s/he really ought to read before writing anything... it's all too familiar. The main difference between me and the protagonist of Violet is that I didn't have such a nice office. (I wrote the lion's share of my dissertation in a university district cafe, accompanied by copious amounts of bubble tea. Possibly due to the sudden loss of revenue, the cafe shut down about a month after I finished.) No surprise at all that Violet's author Jeremy Freese is an academic by profession.

The implementation is strong. Like last year's competition winner Lost Pig, Violet abounds with interesting responses even to silly or unexpected actions. There are built-in hints, too, which is helpful, since a few of the puzzles are a bit on the tricky side. To keep you focused, the status line reminds you what's currently standing between you and writing progress.

There's also some flexibility in the game, which makes it fun to tinker with even after you've finished the first time. While Violet is too strongly herself to be mutated, the player character's gender is up to you — you can play as a male in a straight relationship or as a gay female. That choice is not purely cosmetic, either: some of the backstory and at least one of the puzzles is altered depending on your choice.

Analysis: On puzzles and implementation alone, Violet would be a solid, entertaining piece of work. What makes this game a stand-out is the way it uses the parser as the voice of a whole other person.

Critics of interactive fiction sometimes complain about how cold and empty IF can be — interactive characters are hard to write convincingly, objects are easy, and there has historically been a tendency to write large abandoned landscapes in which only journal entries and photographs bear witness to the people who once lived there.

That generalization is less true now than it used to be — there are numerous works of interactive fiction that are primarily about people rather than things (including another one of my favorites from this competition, Everybody Dies). Some of them involve fairly sophisticated opportunities for conversation and other kinds of interaction. Violet, on the other hand, never presents you with your girlfriend in the flesh. Instead, everything you do or think of doing is narrated in Violet's voice: not because she's actually present, but because the player character can't help imagining what she would say at every moment. The entire game thus becomes a conversation with imaginary-Violet.

A few people may find the voice of the artistic, perky Violet a little too precious: she has hundreds of pet-names for the player character, some of which are deeply absurd. Personally, I found that she was wry enough that I didn't mind the terms of endearment and the cuteness of her self-presentation. While I might not date someone like this myself, I found her persuasive as a person, and I enjoyed her company for the duration of the game.

Ultimately, though, the formal invention of having the game speak in Violet's voice would not be worth much if the story weren't so well-observed. Violet presents you with a player character whose problems are entirely grounded in the real world, and a girlfriend who is quirky but believable. Both of them come out as seemingly-real folks. I'm tempted to compare Violet to a romantic comedy, but that doesn't do it justice: your average romantic comedy is about cooked-up misunderstandings between people too dumb to notice that they are cosmically destined to be together. The main characters of Violet have real feelings for one another, and a real investment in their relationship — and underneath the goofiness and the cute pet-names, their problem is plausible and serious.

Play Violet

The links above point to JIG's internally developed Flash-based Z-Machine interpreter (thanks asterick!), with the story files hosted here by kind permission of the game's author, Jeremy Freese. Basically that means you can now play these games in your browser rather than having to download and run the game in a standalone interpreter.

If you would rather download the game, you may do so at the Interactive Fiction database. If you choose to download the game, you will need an interpreter to read the z-file, just like most IF games: try Gargoyle for Windows, or Zoom for Macintosh and Unix.

If you like "Violet," take a look at other Interactive Fiction we have reviewed here at JIG.

Walkthrough Guide


(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)

Whee! For anyone stuck, here is a rough guide.

You are trying to write. Sit down at your desk, open your word processor, and write. When try to write you will find the things distracting you are:

1) A lack of energy
2) The Internet
3) The book on the bookshelf
4) Julia's loud conversation
5) The smell of Julia's perfume
6) The wrong music
7) The zombie/pirate/alien/mole people war out the window
8) The pen
9) Your clothes
10) You need to pee

To overcome the lack of energy:

- examine desk
- open drawer
- get key
- get notebook (this will help later)
- open cabinet
- get balloon (for later)
- get bottle (of energy drink)
- open bottle
- drink bottle
- write!

To eliminate the Internet:

- unplug blue cable
- put cable in cabinet (be sure you have balloon and empty bottle)
- lock cabinet
- stand on stool
- put key on bookcase
- climb down
- break stool
- write!

To eliminate the book:

- examine the window
- get the lighter
- get the book
- burn the book
- try again to burn the book
- write!

To eliminate Julia's loud conversation:

- pull the tab on the balloon from the cabinet
- read the square
- charge platypod
- get the gum from the wastebasket
- chew the gum
- put the gum in your ears
- once the platypod beeps, wear platypod
- scrunch forehead
- jiggle head clockwise
- write!

To eliminate Julia's perfume:

- examine desk
- get framed picture
- break frame
- get clamp
- clamp nose
- write!

To overcome the wrong music:

- while wearing platypod, raise left eyebrow until you are listening to Primrose Meanwell.

To overcome the zombie/pirate/alien/mole people distraction:

- close blind (doesn't work)
- fix blind (you need to be on your desk)
- get on desk
- examine blind
- fix blind
- pull cord (covers half the window)
- get trophy
- examine trophy
- unfold trophy (into sign)
- cover window with sign
- write!

To get the pen:

- examine cactus
- examine sprinkler
- tidy pile (the one on the desk)
- get potato gem
- examine square (the rubber one)
- remove chip
- put gem in pouch
- shoot gem at pen (fails)
- get snowglobe
- throw snowglobe at pen
- (really) throw snowglobe at pen
- get figurine
- put figurine in pouch
- shoot figurine at pen
- get pen
- write!

To overcome your stained, itchy clothes:

- strip
- write

To overcome your full bladder:

- pee on cactus
- write!

Tada!

99 Comments

One note for those using our Flash-based interpreter to play "Violet":

You may receive a minor run-time error message when accessing either of two objects in the game...

The ethernet cable, and the platypod

The error message is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect game play at all. We are working to fix the issue soon.

Update: This issue should be fixed now.

Reply

Ha! "HETERONORMATIVITY OFF!"

A feminist-friendly game: +10 PTS

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I'm still trying to figure out what will happen if I play this game rather than write my (all too real) dissertation...

I think it might hit a little too close to home right now. Maybe I'll come back to it when I've finished the diss.

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Vogonviking November 18, 2008 5:08 AM

I think I've found a glitch...

I'm trying to put the cable into the cabinet but the game won't let me pick it up!

May I say 'Thank You' to the game writer for the hints! I love this type of game but I am hopeless without help!!

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Oh, wow, thank you! I love IF, especially the one room kind. Can't wait until I have the time to play this one through. Got off to a hilarious start in french class, but apparently, that wasn't such a great idea.

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This is pretty fun but I'm having trouble

burning the book

I typed exactly that (minus the "ing") and it won't happen. Help would be appreciated.

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@Suho1004 - Similar situation here. Oh, the irony of playing a game about avoiding procrastination, in order to procrastinate.

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Jeremy Freese November 18, 2008 9:57 AM

kenshiro:

BURN BOOK should work. The first time notes some concern about whether you really want to, but says you can if you want and if you type it again it works.

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I would date a girl like Violet. I'd go on a tirade about Boston girls, but I'd probably anger a few feminists and I know the site likes to stay kid-friendly so...

How do I get rid of the cable? Or get over my Internet addiction?

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Silent George November 18, 2008 11:14 AM

Fun, but kind of irritating having to remember

the weird commands for the platypod. "Scrunch forehead clockwise"? A little too precious for me to remember. And turning it off and back on does not, counterintuitively, get you those auditory commands again. Flow-breaking!

Still, well written and fun.

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So right now I can't seem to focus on writing because of...

Distracted by online wonders. Woo.

So I've tried to follow the hint and

Break the stool after locking the cabinet and putting the key on the bookshelf

But it's not letting me. Is it suppose to be like that or is there something wrong here? >_

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Never mind, I got it. The game is a built-in hint system. Pretty fancy.

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Very nice game and, as was already pointed out, unsettling well observed. I found me laughing while knowing it was (and with other things is) actually not that funny. Recomended!

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I agree with Silent George; I am having problems remembering the commands for the platypod. Can anyone help me out?

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Raise eyebrows (left or right) to change tracks.

Scrunch forehead to turn on.

Jiggle head to change volume (clockwise louder, CCW quieter - i think).

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I really enjoyed this, which is particularly good for the game since I tend not to enjoy wrestling with text parsers. Had to use several hints though!

I love the way the game explores the issue of procrastination and how much it can cost.

Two problems:

The

platypod

commands are hard to remember.

When you look at your inventory, the game seems to lag for maybe 15 seconds just before it outputs the final inventory item that you're carrying.

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Interesting game. I felt it was fate (and irony) that this game came up today. I'm writing om my master's thesis and have a dealine tomorrow, so of course I got distracted by this game and had to play it...

Now I just need to follow the examples I've learned and complete the ca 5000 words I need to write in 17 hours.

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I'm having trouble getting very far. I've managed to

unplug the ethernet cable

and

lock it in the cabinet

but

how do I keep myself from retrieving the key? I've tried putting it atop the bookcase, but I just keep taking it down again.

The hint system just tells me to

break the stool

but I tried that already, to no avail.

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I am having the same problem, ray9na. Anyone have a tip??

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@ray9na: as they say, if at first you don't succeed, try try again.

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Great game! Although one line from the game really caught my attention: "You groan, because you are like every other parochial American who refuses to give Australian hip-hop a proper chance." I find that funny, as I am American, and I have recently become addicted to an Australian hip-hop band. And I am playing this game instead of school work. Coincidences, coincidences.

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Same problem as ray9na and Jen here as well.

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it won't let me

break the stool

any help?

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ray9na:

Have you taken everything you might need out of the cabinet?

the only thing in there should be the cable

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As for the platypod instructions, I just

wrote them down

This is quite a helpful technique in most IFs.

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Trying to

put cable in cabinet

--realized to do that w/o any hints, but it keeps saying I need to pick it up first, and when I try to do that it says I can't. What the heck?

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As for the cable, you may need to

unplug

it first.

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Has anyone ever played "Kissing the Buddha's Feet?". It's a IF in a similar vein... Violet almost feels like a sequel to it. Both games are great BTW, If you liked this you should try that one.

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The_Corruptor November 18, 2008 2:49 PM

For all of you havuing trouble overcoming your internet addiction, remember that the game doesn't always know the word 'the'.

what you need to type, specifically is,

break stool

Now, I just need to

deafen myself, apparently

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the_corruptor: perhaps something to use as

an ear plug?

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I already put

key on top of bookshelf and took everything I need out of it

but

Violet doesn't let me break the stool

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Steph -

You may not have displayed yet that it's necessary to break the stool, or used it for everything it's needed for? Have you used it for anything yet?

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Kendy-
Have you

examined the stool?

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Wow, I have

locked the ethernet cable in the cabinet and put the key on top of the bookcase before breaking the stool

and

chewed the gum, put it in my ears, and changed the channel on the charged platyPod

and

fixed the blind, unfolded the trophy, and covered the window

and

broken the framed beauty and used the clip on my nose

and

burned the book

but I still can't

get the pen down from the sprinkler, even after the book fire

The hint system is telling me I need a

bow and arrow or slingshot

and I guess I need to

make one from the rubber square

but I have tried

cutting and stretching and making

and am fairly out of ideas.

Can anyone help?

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I think I've found a bug. I was trying to take the

cap

off the

bottle

and it thought I meant the one off the

pen

even though I didn't have it yet, and it let me do it as if I had!

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I can't seem to

move desk to window

Help?

Reply

Whee! For anyone stuck, here is a rough guide.

You are trying to write. Sit down at your desk, open your word processor, and write. When try to write you will find the things distracting you are:

1) A lack of energy
2) The Internet
3) The book on the bookshelf
4) Julia's loud conversation
5) The smell of Julia's perfume
6) The wrong music
7) The zombie/pirate/alien/mole people war out the window
8) The pen
9) Your clothes
10) You need to pee

To overcome the lack of energy:

- examine desk
- open drawer
- get key
- get notebook (this will help later)
- open cabinet
- get balloon (for later)
- get bottle (of energy drink)
- open bottle
- drink bottle
- write!

To eliminate the Internet:

- unplug blue cable
- put cable in cabinet (be sure you have balloon and empty bottle)
- lock cabinet
- stand on stool
- put key on bookcase
- climb down
- break stool
- write!

To eliminate the book:

- examine the window
- get the lighter
- get the book
- burn the book
- try again to burn the book
- write!

To eliminate Julia's loud conversation:

- pull the tab on the balloon from the cabinet
- read the square
- charge platypod
- get the gum from the wastebasket
- chew the gum
- put the gum in your ears
- once the platypod beeps, wear platypod
- scrunch forehead
- jiggle head clockwise
- write!

To eliminate Julia's perfume:

- examine desk
- get framed picture
- break frame
- get clamp
- clamp nose
- write!

To overcome the wrong music:

- while wearing platypod, raise left eyebrow until you are listening to Primrose Meanwell.

To overcome the zombie/pirate/alien/mole people distraction:

- close blind (doesn't work)
- fix blind (you need to be on your desk)
- get on desk
- examine blind
- fix blind
- pull cord (covers half the window)
- get trophy
- examine trophy
- unfold trophy (into sign)
- cover window with sign
- write!

To get the pen:

- examine cactus
- examine sprinkler
- tidy pile (the one on the desk)
- get potato gem
- examine square (the rubber one)
- remove chip
- put gem in pouch
- shoot gem at pen (fails)
- get snowglobe
- throw snowglobe at pen
- (really) throw snowglobe at pen
- get figurine
- put figurine in pouch
- shoot figurine at pen
- get pen
- write!

To overcome your stained, itchy clothes:

- strip
- write

To overcome your full bladder:

- pee on cactus
- write!

Tada!

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It's nice to play a game with a convincing Australian voice. The pet names are a bit over the top, but even that is in a typically Australian kind of humour.

I wish I'd had a Violet when completing my PhD.

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Denied, if you haven't already had a look at the walkthrough, I'll tell you that

you don't need to make the square into a slingshot; it already is one. Just load it and fire!

I rather liked the perkiness, maybe because I mentally translated it into sweeping sarcasm. This is a fun one, and the environment is pretty amusing too. The scenes outside and across the hall get pretty bizarre if you wait long enough.

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Yay, what fun! Three hours taken away from writing my real thesis... this hit really close to home.

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Oh, I laugh...as I put off grading papers, writing one of a myriad papers I need to write for grad classes...this was ME on Monday as I tried to finally write a 15 page paper for a course I took an "incomplete" in nearly a year ago.

I'm currently a "plucky wombat"--LOVE it! haha Just curious--would the endearments be the same if I had chosen to be heteronormative?

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For some reason I can't play the game. I get to the "Calm down." screen and then nothing happens. Am I just completely stupid and not clicking something vital? I think I've clicked every square millimeter of the screen.

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It will not let me unfold the trophy. I have tried like fifteen times and she gets mad at me. Help!

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Katie: try clicking on the game window, then press [ENTER]

wildflower: have you tried eXamining it first? If so, is it in your possession?

try GET TROPHY

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Wildflower,

You need to try to cover the window the normal way first. Once you've closed the blinds and you are still getting distracted, you should recognize the necessity to unfold the trophy.

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wow! this sounds like a great game to play instead of doing homework for my graduate program like i should be doing right now!

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It may be a glitch or it may be Internet Explorer. I'm using IE 7 on Vista and I'm stuck on the first page with "Calm down. All you have to do is write a thousand words and everything will be fine. And you have all day, except it's already noon."

Can anyone help me?

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hache - after clicking on the title screen for "Violet", try hitting [ENTER] on your keyboard.

It's an interactive fiction text game, so it's played with the keyboard.

If you're new to interactive fiction, you may benefit from this nice primer on the subject:
http://brasslantern.org/beginners/

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I don't know if this only applies to this puzzle, but there's more than one way to empty your bladder O_o

In wastebasket
In bottle (has to still be in your inventory)
On cactus (only if you have heteronormativity on)

Anyone know other solutions to this/other puzzles? Besides the ones the hint system gives you?

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The_Corruptor November 19, 2008 12:10 PM

For those of you who are interested in the game's easter eggs that are listed at the end of the game, but don't want to play all the way through multiple times here they are for you (one or two removed that I couldn't get working):

about
credits
copyright

open browser (multiple times)
open e-mail (multiple times)
open chat (multiple times)

quit
sing
score
secrets (multiple times)
topics
time
sorry
normal
short
verbose
think about (something)
remember
cry
wave
xyzzy

shake the globe, examine it, examine it...

examine me
examine julia
examine liquid
examine gum (twice)
examine zombie
examine pirate
examine ceiling
examine wall
examine floor
read notebook (multiple times)

interesting game failures:
burn pile
open door (whith julia there), multiple times
move stool to corner, stand on stool
make love to julia
examine book (repeatedly)
throw wastebasket at pen
do a bunch of things before you attempt to write the first time

look under desk
swallow gum
swallow key
delete browser
delete chat
burn coaster/platypod/cactus
put square in pouch
open vent
ask violet about (something)
put key in pile (after cable is in cabinet)
rip cable
do anything to the Jack
put (something) in nose
kick (something)
climb bookcase
take violet
warren egg
julia egg
petname egg

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@neon There's more than one way to take care of the book, too.

o Burn it
o Lock it in the cabinet with the cable
o Set it on top of the bookcase with the key

I haven't figured out any other alternate solutions to problems.

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This is the first thing I'm going to play once I finish up my prospectus presentation next week...

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i just finished playing it. i really liked the characterization of the parser. IF games that screw with the standard set-ups and relationships between parser, PC, and player are nifty, and this one worked well, though I'm so used to only seeing things in IF described from the 2nd person point of view that seeing both 1st and 2nd person statements would throw me a little now and then.

still, cool game. i always felt a little sad every time i had to

ruin one of violet's gifts

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Cheddarius November 20, 2008 8:51 PM

When I try to

Write with that one nondescript girl's music on (She's so nondescript I forgot her name. :D)

the game bugs and

Insists that the music is still too loud

Reply

Cheddarius, I don't think that's a bug.

Have you tried:

Ear plug(s)?

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Cheddarius November 20, 2008 9:33 PM

I'm pretty sure it's a bug... the game keeps hinting that

"You do not notice", "You pay no attention", "You are unperturbed", "You have no difficulty ignoring her", etc...

I've also read the walkthrough and various posts, and they say that the solution I've been trying should work.

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Cheddarius November 20, 2008 9:37 PM

Oh dear. I've come across another bug. I'm absolutely sure it's a bug this time:

When I scrunch my brow more than once, the PlatyPod just keeps turning off again and again. I can't get it to turn on.

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Yes, I believe you're right, that's a bug (probably in our Flash interpreter) in what it reports to you. It says that it turns it off when, in fact, it turns it back on.

Therefore, you can disregard what it tells you about the state of the power of the device.

If you try to jiggle head clockwise or anticlockwise, the volume is adjusted accordingly.

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Cheddarius November 22, 2008 5:50 PM

Could someone change the walkthrough to include the

earplugs

? I have no idea how to solve that...

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For a slightly darker and sadder ending, type in

make love to julia

and be prepared to (hopefully)

undo

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loved this story(game), very funny writing, tysm for all your great links Jay and the team!

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This is a very good piece of IF. It takes a lot for a game to grip me like this one. Please, you owe it to yourself to play this!

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Yes! I finally did it! Also, I noticed I entered a lot of the "bonus" commands listed at the end. In fact, the first thing I did with the key was to try and swallow it. Lol

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That was really fun! Wish I could apply that much focus to doing research.

I got stuck for the longest time trying to

break the stool. I thought I already put the key in place, but when I finally did an inventory I realized I had not. The game won't let you make a mistake like that.

.

Did anyone use the

thread

for anything? Did anyone even find the

vent?

No one has mentioned it yet. I wish I'd taken more time to explore it since it apparently it

houses the camera

.

Also, the spoiler above about getting the

pen

is not how I did it. Although I tried it that way.

Thanks!

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I would love it if someone told me the ending...I've tried six or seven times, but the bug where

the gum doesn't drown out the music stops me every time.

:(


[Edit: It's not a bug. You have to jiggle your head to the left to turn down the volume just a bit with the gum in your ear. Did you try that? -Jay]

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I thought I did turn it both up and down, and when it was down, I could hear Julia talking, and when it was up, it was too loud.

The first time I played it worked, but I lost, and forgot to save. But every time thereafter, nothing worked. I could try again, though.

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I think I figured it out. I had accidentally switched to being female, and I believe there is a different solution to the puzzle if you do so. I should read the reviews more thoroughly. :\ Thanks for the help, though.

(Sorry if this gets submitted twice, I'm not sure what happened when I clicked submit.)

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It doesn't work! D: D: D:

It's stuck on the first screen...why?


[Edit: Did you click on the title screen? Try pressing [return]. -Jay]

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Never mind! I feel stupid and didn't get that it was a text game. Wow.

I've never played a text game before because I always got lost in between cave 1 and cave 2 and decided to forget about it. I just played through this whole game. Therefore I think the game makers should be very proud of themselves. AND IT WAS FUN.

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zbeeblebrox December 8, 2008 11:32 PM

I dear, I fear I've broken something.
I'm at the "distracted by online wonders" section, and it won't let me pick up the ethernet cable.

I was able to pick it up fine *before*, but now that I actually need to, it says that it isn't something I can carry. Whaaa? It SO is too! It's unplugged and everything, I don't understand.

It's possible that in my early plugging and unplugging ventures, I may have bugged it out.

Hm. I think I'll try again, cuz this has been quite entertaining so far. Gonna have to be warey of that cable, though.

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Darn cable December 18, 2008 4:16 PM

If you can't take the cable, try writing again and then try to take it. Worked for me.

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All im getting is typing nothing else a black screen with words

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sunshine: Welcome to the world of interactive fiction!

Games such as this are generally comprised mostly of text. You read the descriptions, and you type in commands to interact with the story.

If you're new to interactive fiction, you may benefit from this nice primer on the subject:
http://brasslantern.org/beginners/

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how do you stop talking to violet?

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i need help how do you stop talking to violet?

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the platypod is EVIL
i can't charge it...
nor play it...
can someone provide another walkthrough?

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i cant take the empty plastic bottle out of the cabinet even though violet is telling me too she just keeps saying i dont understand
how do i get it out so i can finally break the stool?

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Not sure if I'm being stupid or my computer's playing up, but I'm stuck right at the beginning, on a black screen with white text saying "Calm down..."

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I cant seem to play the game. All i can do is click when it begins read the begining where it says all i have to do is write the thing in one day but its already afternoon.

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I seem to be having the same trouble as the two previous commenters.

The game loads fully and goes to the beginning screen, but the game gets stuck on the black-screen intro. All I can see is the "Calm down..." lines, and there's no where to click.

I've tried reloading, but it's just not going anywhere for me.

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For those you having problems on the black screen with white words,

don't click the screen with your mouse--try pressing a key on your keyboard.

[Edit: Spoiler added ~ Kayleigh]

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Heh, well here's something you don't see these days: a text-based adventure game. It was pretty good, even though I was pretty much stumped trying to figure out where to hide the key until I read some comments

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I got distracted quite a bit by the batte outside my window. As soon as the holes appeared, I knew that I had to tear myself away.

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im really confused...im still on the typing section but anything i type is wrong..what should i do?HELP!!!!!

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ce verb sa scriu acolo :))))))))

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Anonymous March 10, 2009 11:33 PM

I'm a huge procrastinator, so this really hit home for me as well. Loved Violet's commentary too. :D One question though:

Does peeing in the bottle receive the same result as peeing on the cactus? The walkthrough doesn't mention the bottle at all, but it still worked for me.

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MiniKirby123 April 19, 2009 4:31 AM

How do I stop talking to Violet??

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Pembertr0n May 30, 2009 6:10 PM

You can also just lock the book in the cabinet with the ethernet cord, without having to burn it.

Reply

See, this is why I love JIG. Normally, I would never have been able to play this game (because of downloading restrictions in my house), much less discover it, yet the Z-Machine lets me play them! Huzzah!

Reply
TheMusicGirl October 25, 2009 2:34 AM

What's a

potato gem?

It mentions it in the game, but I don't know what that is.

Reply
SamECircle November 8, 2009 11:25 AM

Okay, here's my solution to the whole I-have-the ethernet-cable-unplugged-but-I-can't-pick-it-up thing: type in

PLUG CABLE or CONNECT ETHERNET or something like that. Then,

UNPLUG CABLE, and the cable should appear

in your hands, at which point you can

put it in the cabinet et al

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That was fun! But apparently I'm a man...

Is there something specific you have to do to change genders?

[Edit: It says how in the ABOUT section: "type FEMALE or, more stylishly, HETERONORMATIVITY OFF". -Jay]

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Ahhhh thank you, Jay! I never even thought to type "about" in! This could be part of the reason I tend to stumble through IFs!

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I don't seem to be able to

get the pen: I shot the pen with the figurine in the pouch, but it broke half an inch away and now I don't know what to use

.

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Not sure why everyone likes this so much. I give the creator full credit for demonstrating that all IF doesn't have to be essentially "find object, use object", and the very creative use of perspective. It was also very nice that even though this is a "single-room" adventure, it did not feel as if this room was all there was in the setting.

However I was soured on the whole thing by the fact that several of the puzzles amount to little more than the author throwing on extra unnecessary layers to simple solutions in order to simulate a "puzzle". To justify it, the protagonist is made into a complete idiot. The internet cable puzzle is a prime example:

When the player finds a reasonable solution - disconnecting the cable and stashing it away - the author effectively grabs control of the protagonist back and undoes the solution because the poor character just can't live without his email, chat, etc. At this point the player is in conflict against the author, not the situation, and the protagonist winds up looking like an idiot. This gets exacerbated with every additional step needed beyond that.

The cutesy-pie nicknames were tiresome. They don't advance the plot and should be used sparingly if at all.

What saddens me is there is a REALLY good story buried in there and a very creative use of the IF genre to try and tell it.

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Anonymous October 1, 2010 9:57 AM

I think the negative comments are too harsh. This was a fun game. Fun. I used to work with an Australian girl, and she was exactly like this. Well done!

Reply
canadadian November 29, 2010 2:01 PM

I've found a bug -
At certain points in the game, like when I access my inventory, or right after I

break the picture frame

the game freezes. When it happens whilst looking at my inventory, the game will sometimes start up again, but with the other, the text gets to

Remember when I handed you the itinerary last night? Your response: "So I have tomorrow. What do I need to do?"

and freezes completely. I tried refreshing the page and playing up to that point again, but I got stuck at the exact same place. I'm playing on a Mac with Firefox, by the way.

[Try updating your Flash Player. If that doesn't work, I suggest you try downloading the game and play it in a standalone IF interpreter. -Jay]

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Try saying, "say hi to me"

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When I clicked "Play Violet" the game did not load and just opened another copy of this webpage in a new tab.

Reply

^ Scroll Up | Homepage >

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