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Indie Nation #48: Aisle

2:20 PM on 01.30.2009   |   Anthony Burch

Indie Nation #48: Aisle photo

I don't consider myself at all knowledgeable about text adventures, but it bears mentioning that of the dozen or so I've played to completion, I've totally fallen in love with at least three. 

My favorite of the three is Photopia. My third favorite is Gun Mute. This week, I'll focus on the remaining game.

Aisle is one of the shortest text adventures ever, and also one of the longest.  If you want to know what makes the game so damned interesting, you'll probably figure it out for yourself if you just follow the link and type something -- anything -- in.

If you're horrendously lazy, however, you can just hit the jump as I explain why I like it so much. 

[Thanks to sbshootme for suggesting this in the Photopia Indie Nation.]

The first few times I played through Aisle, I tended to make the protagonist do or think negative things. I don't know if this was due to my life situation at the time, or if that's just the way I approach videogames, but I assumed that (despite the disclaimer at the beginning of the game) there was really only one protagonist, and by entering in different things I was simply getting different reactions out of the same guy while learning more about his singular past.

When I, on a whim, decided to "find Clare," and I actually did, I was initially bummed out. I wanted the game to be a story of misery and loneliness and regret, and all I have to do is "smile" or "call Clare" to make it happy? What a cop-out, I thought. 

Though I still feel the game overwhelmingly tends to lean toward the more tragic side of things, making those few happiness-inducing commands feel random and surprising, I don't mind the fact that there isn't just one protagonist, just one story. Aisle, unlike other text adventures, doesn't ask the player to partake in a role so much as it asks us to explore the possibilities of a single moment, suspended in time. Whatever suggestion we give to the storyteller creates an entire universe of context and consequence in which that action fits. 

Though I initially wanted the action "call Clare" to result in the protagonist helplessly shouting her name to the heavens before collapsing in a sobbing heap of pasta and hate, I kind of dig the fact that somewhere, somehow, there's a version of the protagonist who, somehow, achieved happiness. His happiness may not be as easily found as his misery (which is, in its own way, a pretty honest description of reality), but it's still hidden there, somewhere. There are a million lives and a million stories, and some of them turn out differently than others (I didn't even find the "scooter accident" backstory until replaying it today for the purposes of writing this article).

Leaving the thematic and narrative stuff to the side for a moment, Aisle is more successful than most interactive fictions I've played because it doesn't have to deal with any of the major problems associated with so many IFs -- there's no inventory management, no spatial navigation, no constant irritation that the parser won't recognize what you want it to do. The parser is still relatively limited, of course, but given the game's focus on this single moment in time, almost any believable action (and a few unbelievable) will elicit some sort of individual response, and that immediate feedback will make you want to play again and again and again. Where the worst text adventures feel like LucasArts adventure games with all the graphics removed, Aisle is something that could not be done in any other medium.

It may not be a "game" so much as a piece of interactive story exploration (like Photopia), but it's "games" like this (and again, Photopia) that made me realize I don't mind interactive stories. There are no rules or goals in Aisle, but it does what it does so effectively and imaginatively that I don't find myself wringing my hands over its non-gameness the way I did with The Graveyard.








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41 comments | showing # 1 to 41
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the Golden Avatar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 14:25
the Golden Avatar
Haha. The first thing I tried was "fuck woman." Awesome.
LilJimmyNordin's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 14:37
LilJimmyNordin
The first thing I did was "kill woman." That was appropriately unfulfilling. So I went in what occurred to me to be the diametrically opposite direction. That's where I found the best part of the game:

">Find Jesus
You won't be able to find that."

Perfect. :)
Perry Simm's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 14:45
Perry Simm
Yay! I'm always happy when Interactive Fiction gets some love on Dtoid. It's such an exciting genre.
the Golden Avatar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 14:51
the Golden Avatar
I explored a lot more options after my initial tomfoolery. It comes across, at least to me anyway, as a kind of metaphor of how drastically the path of one's life can be altered by the simplest and most trivial of decisions.
runchild's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 15:04
runchild
I tried quite a few things before "smile." Everything I tried was an attempt to get interact positively with the brunette. Each time, something would go wrong with what I intended, unveil one more lonely factoid. I tried "fall", and that did it, I couldn't stand it anymore, I was done with this game. One last go, once last command.

Smile.

Clare spoke to me. Was it a ghost? I didn't understand, how did this fit with all the other responses. I knew I could choose the future, I didn't know I could choose the past.

It made my day, to find her there with me.

P.S. -I love the response when you don't type anything.
P.P.S. - Also, Cocks.
Freefall's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 15:06
Freefall
Interesting game, although:

>save
You cannot save

just like real life :(
wilbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 15:28
wilbo
fun game
so many things to do

>fuck
i lold
wilbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 15:32
wilbo
>take off clothes

*wink
MechaMonkey's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:05
MechaMonkey
Try "take off clothes".

Do it.
Kauto's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:13
Kauto
>spit at woman
Anthony Burch's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:16
Anthony Burch
I'm kind of terrified that two of you guys separately found "take off your clothes" when I spent two hours with the game and never thought to try it.
Jogn's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:20
Jogn
The one that surprised me the most was the "Die" command...
Logo's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:32
Logo
Eat Pasta and Punch Shelf are my favorites (for whacky results).
the Golden Avatar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:45
the Golden Avatar
I like "sit in trolley."
2dsonicfan91's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:51
2dsonicfan91
@ golden avatar: there's also "get in woman's cart." That's quite funny as well.
MechaMonkey's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 16:59
MechaMonkey
@Mr. Burch

You clearly don't share our honed instinct for public nudity.
A New Challenger's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 17:05
A New Challenger
My first command was, oddly, not scatological. Since I had a reasonable idea of what to expect from the game thanks to the preface, I was inspired to go for one of the simplest text adventure commands as sort of a quasi-meta 4th wall breaker. "Inventory".
A New Challenger's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 17:11
A New Challenger
Hahah, try out xyzzy.
A New Challenger's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 17:22
A New Challenger
Panic is pretty funny, though not as funny as take off clothes.

How many times in a row can I post? We'll find out.
MrSlippery's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 17:46
MrSlippery
I tried to tip her trolley and got some psychic evaluation as a result.

yay?
Loaf's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 18:18
Loaf
Try "jump."
Spartacus's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/30/2009 19:25
Spartacus
"Ask woman out on a date" made me happy, as did "scream at woman" and "climb on shelf."

This is a neat game.
welkstar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 01:13
welkstar
"Swallow"
"Swallow woman"

And wtf?
"Remember hospital"
"Remember smile"
Danl Haas's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 02:49
Danl Haas
I didn't spend too long trying to find responses to confuse the parser, but I was REALLY impressed at the response I got from 'scream'. That really sold this game for me.
XanderSan's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 05:34
XanderSan
Yes! Awesome choice! Personally I really like Pacian's adventures like 'Poizoned Mind', even if that was for the B-Game competition it's actually a pretty clever text adventure, though I guess it controls more like Snatcher than anything.

Seriously though, if you were to check out any Interactive Fiction after this you NEED to play 'Slouching Towards Bedlam'. It's a tough game and it is fairly short. However, it's also DAMN good.
XanderSan's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 05:57
XanderSan
Also, 'Whistle' is a weird command.
grafkhun's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 10:49
grafkhun
I guess typing in stuff like "Ask her the orbital velocity of helium" wasn't a good idea.
the Golden Avatar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 12:28
the Golden Avatar
Yikes. Remember Accident and Remember Death.
Skribble's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 22:15
Skribble
I admit I am not in to text based stuff, but Aisle was absolutely brilliant.
Joseph Leray's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 22:18
Joseph Leray
Goddamn.
FormerAcorn's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/31/2009 22:18
FormerAcorn
I really liked "fly"
oberoi's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2009 16:13
oberoi
I just LOVE text adventures. This game is just brilliant.

My favourite responses were probably

>propose to woman
THat one is just gold!

but the last words when writing "throw pasta at woman" are just delicious! :D
oberoi's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2009 16:15
oberoi
"pray" is also pretty good!

Sorry, no more spamming...
pendelton21's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/04/2009 14:44
pendelton21
"pray" surprised me. What a beautiful game...
Grasshopper7's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2009 04:04
Grasshopper7
This is pretty incredible. I've never played any IF before. Thank you Anthony, for bringing this into my life. :)
Seth338's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/06/2009 04:43
Seth338
>fly
You cannot fly.

>fly
You cannot fly.

>fly
You cannot fly.

Damn it
AhmetBeraty's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/03/2009 09:56
AhmetBeraty
>
Say something, dammit.

>something
That's not a verb I recognise.

>_
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angela64's Avatar - Comment posted on 04/20/2010 14:25
angela64
It didn't take long before played through Aisle got back to the subject at hand: her (like Photopia). shortest text adventures belched. Relunctantly, www.worldoutletsstore.com shortest text adventures invited her over, assuring her they'd find the (like Photopia). played through Aisle grabbed her canoe and disembarked immediately. After hanging up the phone, shortest text adventures realized that she was in trouble. She had to find a place to hide the (like Photopia) and she had to do it aimlessly. She figured www.abercrombiestock.com that if played through Aisle took the gas-guzzling, ecology-destroying, tankish SUV, she had take at least four minutes before played through Aisle would get there. But if she took the think negative things? Then shortest text The parser is still relatively limited,
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