Journey from an islet
A short interactive adventure by Mario Becroft
Copyright 2001 Mario Becroft.  All rights reserved.

The game may be played and redistributed unmodified for free. The game may
not be modified or redistributed for profit without the author's
permission.

MANIFEST

The unmodified distribution contains the following files:
journey.txt - brief introduction to the game and how to play it
journey.jpg - title picture about the game
journey.gam - the TADS binary game file
walkthru.txt - walk through
islet.jpg, sheep.jpg, snake.jpg, stars.jpg, sunrise.jpg - illustrations

ABOUT THE GAME AND HOW IT WAS WRITTEN

The time was late August 2001, and the deadline for the annual Interactive
Fiction Competition was looming, when a game idea suddenly slipped into my
mind and begged to be implemented. Thus began a frantic month of writing
over 8000 lines of code and prose in TADS, then pestering beta testers to
quickly try the game and give me their feedback, final last-minute bug
fixing... and here is the result.

It is the first text adventure game of any note that I have finished, and
for this reason and the fact that it was so rushed, it is bound to have
many imperfections. The puzzles are few and simple (though, I hope,
beautiful in places), the landscape is small and the prose unpolished. I
have had other, bigger projects in mind since before I began this one, and
one part of my mind wishes not to release this game for fear that it
spoils my reputation: but I am releasing it anyway, and I hope that this
note dispells any such ideas.

Due to the time restraints, the game is very short. I would have liked to
enlarge some of the areas, and I have ideas for a few more puzzles that
would add to the game, but I would rather try to perfect what is there
than add many features, each poorly implemented. So I expect that most
players will finish the game in under an hour, maybe under half an hour,
although I hope that the scenery is interesting enough to hold readers'
attention just as much as the few puzzles. For I wrote "Journey" as an
artistic scene as much as a regular game.

GRAPHICS

There are several illustrations that are part of the game. If you have a
TADS interpreter that supports HTML and graphics, then these will appear
in the game at the relevant places. Otherwise you may view them separately
using a JPEG viewer. But it's best not to look at the pictures before
playing the game (except for the title) as it may spoil the later
experience.

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

The game was developed using TADS version 2 and is supplied as a TADS
binary called journey.gam that can be accessed via the TADS 2 interpreter,
which is freely available for most computer systems. The game is tested
under the TADS version 2.5.5 interpreter under UNIX and HTML-Tads under
Microsoft Windows, but other versions should also work. The method for
invoking the interpreter and executing the game varies from system to
system, but is typically a command such as "tadsr journey.gam" .

Once the game is running, usual text adventure conventions apply. Some
brief help for new users is available within the game, and experienced
adventurers are also advised to read this as it explains a few special
issues specific to this game. Instructions for how to access the help are
shown in the game.

The game can be put in an unwinnable state, but to do so is difficult and
would not normally happen unless you go out of your way to do it. In case
the puzzles prove too obscure, hints on certain key points which should
set players on the right track are available within the game. Further
hints or a walkthrough are available on request from the author.

CONTACTING THE AUTHOR

I can be contacted via email to mb@gem.win.co.nz . In the event that this
address is no longer valid, you may also try mario@becroft.co.nz and
mdb@cyberspace.org . Also, the game has a WWW page at
http://gem.win.co.nz/mb/if/journey/ .

My postal address as of September 2001 is "Mario Becroft, PO Box 332,
Kumeu, Auckland 1250, NEW ZEALAND."

If you enjoyed the game and wish to send a post-card or anything else, I
will appreciate it.

Best wishes and I hope you enjoy the game!
- Mario Becroft, September 2001
