Publisher(s) Self published Initial release date 1998 | Mode(s) Single player | |
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Genre(s) Interactive Fiction, Adventure Awards XYZZY Award for Best Story, XYZZY Award for Best Writing Interactive fiction games Galatea, Spider and Web, Lost Pig, Slouching Towards Bedlam, A Mind Forever Voyaging | ||
Photopia
Photopia is a piece of literature by Adam Cadre rendered in the form of interactive fiction, and written in Inform. It has received both praise and criticism for its heavy focus on fiction rather than on interactivity. It won first place in the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition. Photopia has few puzzles and a linear structure, allowing the player no way to alter the eventual conclusion but maintaining the illusion of non-linearity.
Contents
Planet photopia
Development
Adam Cadre has stated that Photopia was heavily influenced by The Sweet Hereafter, a film that prominently features a babysitter and a bus crash.
He submitted Photopia to the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition pseudonymously. He felt that his previous game I-0 would inspire certain expectations in players, since in that game the playable character is a young college student who could be instructed to undress. Years later, he dropped the pretense that there was a real "Opal O'Donnell" who had submitted Photopia for him, stating: "it started to bother me that v1.0 of the Phaq had lies in it."
Reception
Emily Short has described the game as "hugely influential" and "ground-breaking."
XYZZY Award news gave the game a positive review, calling it an "amazing piece of work".