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[Jordan]

An extremely experimental little work of interactive fiction with pictures, about existence and Korea.

Basically, I wanted to try to make something that was about simple existence and being, over against plot. I'm not sure that it succeeds very well, but I'd be interested in discussing where/how/why it fails with anyone who's willing to give it a play.



The game requires a free Glulx interpreter to run:

• For Windows: download WinGlulxe
• For Mac OS X: download Zoom
• For Linux: download Glulxe for Linux

Once you've installed a Glulx interpreter, go ahead and download Being There. You'll need to unzip it, then open it with the Glulx interpreter.


Thanks a lot to anyone who's willing to provide feedback!

P.S. If you do play this, it would be extremely helpful to me if you could save the transcript of your play, and send it to me. That way I can address bugs you encountered while playing. (You can generally find your transcript by going to File->Scrollback, or some similar location within the Glulx interpreter. You'll need to do that before you actually quit the thing.)

[adam_smasher]

I'm downloading this now, and I'll definitely try to give you some feedback on it, because it sounds great, but...somehow it feels like an invasion of privacy to share my transcript. It sounds kind of weird, but I just don't feel comfortable sharing an IF play session.

Is it just me? Do people in the IF community often exchange scrollbacks?

[george]

It's quite common when testing for an author, but probably more unusual otherwise.

[adam_smasher]

Okay, I'll PM you a link to my transcript. Don't share it with anyone

A few typos - missing words or letters.

When I was lying on the grass at one point Typo "with you[r] feet in the air"

In one of the descriptions: "as well [as] some man-made lakes"

Drinking from the stream: "the water rushes into [your] mouth"

It also reacted kind of funny when I said something silly ("eat all of it") trying to eat the kimchi.

Anyways - thanks for the nongame - I really enjoyed it. Evoked a strong feeling of nostalgia - memories of chilly autumn days at the park and such. The photos were lovely. I loved all of the different interactions you programmed in - it was quite compelling just exploring this mysterious, kind of magical world. Made me feel like I was a kid again.

[Jordan]

Thank you very much for the kind words Adam Smasher! Very encouraging to get that kind of feedback, as I just wasn't sure if the thing was succeeding on any level.

Also, thank you very much for the transcript. I know it seems a bit awkward to share, but a shared scrollback is really the only way to resolve a lot of issues in interactive fiction pieces -- as the author, it's incredibly difficult to even know how people are playing the thing otherwise, which is quite different from most "conventional" video games. Very much appreciated.

[Jordan]

Thanks largely to adam_smasher's transcript, I've uploaded a new version with some fixes, improvements, and new implementations.