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[Pacian]

Ladies and gentlemen.  Prepare yourselves for the one game to dare to simulate the futility and meaninglessness of life.  Prepare yourselves to discover that you have a...

Poizoned Mind

Be the first to play the game the critics are already calling "an upcoming release" and "the best videogame my son has ever made."

• 200+ different dialogue events – discover the world as it's seen by a transsexual beauty, an angry punk, a drugged-up biochemist, an Elvis impersonator, a cat, and even Death himself.
• Original score* by Ludwig van Beethoven.
• Small file size (~2Mb zipped) ensures sufficient space remains on your hard drive for family photos and love letters.
• Interact with the environment using the 'z' key, just like a Japanese shoot-em-up.
• Unparalleled lyneWrap™ technology allows text to span several lines.
• Unprecedented player choice, none of which affects the outcome of the game.
• 1 easily accessible ending.

Can you answer the greatest questions facing humanity?

The answer is: no.



*Score not actually original.

[Terry]

Awesome! I can't wait to play this already! :D

[Melly]

But will the cat and Death square off in the ultimate battle?

If not, I'm not interested.

[Derek]

Oh, God... I... am... so... all over this.

[Pacian]

But will the cat and Death square off in the ultimate battle?

If not, I'm not interested.

I'm sorry, but I am an artist.  I WILL NOT COMPROMISE MY VISION!

Update:  Death Vs. The Cat special mode... implemented.

[Melly]

That's fucking awesome.

But I don't want it anymore. I'm looking for ninjas now. Needs more ninjas.

(Kidding. )

[Pacian]

Death looks kinda like a ninja, if you squint.

Activate the Ninja Vs. The Cat special mode by first activating the Death Vs. The Cat special mode, and then poking yourself in the eye.

[Korba]

> Sing

[Pacian]

Oh, you'll be singing soon enough! Poizoned Mind is now 99% complete.

Implemented features include:

• 8 unlockable Non-Player Characters or 'NPCs'
• 32 unlockable conversation options
• A grand total of 8x32=256 dialogue events - some as long as 291 characters in length!
• 15 unique actions to perform – many of which result in random death!
• 4 different items to examine and offer to the NPCs (who probably won't accept them because I couldn't be bothered to code a proper inventory system and there's only one item I know will always be in a certain place in the vector)
• A few options to make completely exploring the game a little more forgiving for the WIMPS among you.
• Still only 1 easily accessible ending. Just like life.

It now just requires a little polish and a few extra options.

Now allow me to scintillate your brain-sense with this screenshot of Poizoned Mind's advanced dynamic context-insensitive conversation engine.  Prepare yourselves to be convinced that a line of text is a living, breathing human being!

[Average Higgins]

• 15 unique actions to perform – many of which result in random death!

Just what I wanted to hear!

[Radnom]

Does DEATH speak in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS?

[Pacian]

Not since Terry Pratchett got that restraining order out on me, no. 

[Pacian]

I was hoping to keep stringing you all along until the competition closing date, but this is my first game (yeah, how many people have said that about their entries?), so I'm a little concerned that it may not work or otherwise experience problems. Click on the little image below:



And then post your complaints here.

The last phase of alpha testing focused on making all the locations, items and topics unlock properly, so there are probably any number of typos and rubbish bits of writing - hopefully only adding to its B-game charm.

EDIT:

Little more info:  This is a win32 program that I've been able to test on computers running Windows 98 and XP. Had a report from the first person to try and run it on Vista that they've had difficulty, possibly due to general computer illiteracy.

[shinygerbil]

Just to let you know, it runs OK in Wine. I'll give more feedback once I finish it! :D

[Pacian]

That certainly boosts my confidence on the whole 'Does it work?' front.

I've just compiled Version 1.01, which changes the scoring system to include how many items you've found. If you have version 1.0, you don't need to bother downloading this, as long as you know that there are five different items in the game. Real thinking man people will not be using the optional scoring system anyway.

[Melly]

This game transcends awesome in how it shows how worthless and meaningless we all are. Congratulations.

EDIT: Oh my God you actually put the Cat vs Death thing in! That's fucking awesome!

[Pacian]

I aim to please.

Actually, I wasn't even sure anyone would find it.

[nayon]

It works for me on vista, but it causes flickering sometimes

[Terry]

This one isn't getting nearly enough attention. It's definitely one of the highlights of the contest! 

[Xander]

This was awesome. Very awesome. I meowed to 8 different people in the SAME GAME!

Oh yes..

EDIT: I also stroked the cat endlessly to see if anything would happen. It didn't, but I still feel good about it!