Worldsmith
| title: | Worldsmith |
| url: | link |
| download page: | link |
| license: | Donation |
| genre: | Interactive fiction |
| developer: | Interactive fables |
| platform: | Web browser |
| release: | 2016 |
| features: | text, sound, visuals |
| last edit by: | Dark |
Description
For time beyond time, the Septem tower has stood in the manifold overlooking the universe below. Within the tower live the Anemoi; beings so advance they hold the power of life and death over all other life forms, can create and turn suns at a whim, and watch entire planets and civilisations flare and die in a breath of stellar wind. Greatest among the Anemoi are the worldsmiths, those magical artists who craft worlds out of basic elements in burning crucibles, seeding them with life and forging civilisations to take their place in the galactic accord. The time has come, Tagides Rings have reached their aphelion and now is the time of testing, the time when apprentice world makers gather to create their masterwork and be crowned with the title of worldsmith.
Yet all is not well within the tower, though the Body, the administrative arm of the Anemoi would have it that they are benevolent givers of life, is their domination of the technology of world creation quite as well meaning as they claim? After all why is some information, even within the great incunable, restricted? The Septem tower holds secrets, atrocities, cover ups and lies and mysteries upon mysteries to be unravelled greater even than the fate of entire civilisation.
Worldsmith is an interactive fiction game unlike any other you might have played before. Firstly, this is because of the game itself.
As a worldsmith, your first aim (indeed where the game starts), is to create a world, seed life upon that world, and then nurture that life to form a civilisation which will eventually leave that world and journey into space, without either destroying itself or ending with solar disaster. This involves first brewing up a planet from the base elements in your crucible, deciding how many earth, air, fire and water to add to the mixture, then placing that planet in the right eccentric about it's star, then! forming a life seed from a mixture of phlegm, blood, bile and etheric matter then! visiting your world and deciding how best to impart knowledge to your people, occasionally needing to turn your star an age or so to see how your world is doing.
All of this makes worldsmith's game play a long step from the usual style of fiction twisty little passages, indeed much of the game functions purely as a strategical one, especially since the elements you have to create worlds are limited, so you will need to use your resources carefully. Indeed, instead of playing the full game with it's in built story, you can play Worldsmith purely in game mode, on several different difficulties, in which you just play the strategy of creating worlds and don't need to worry about any of the wider story.
A wider story there is however, since the sceptom tower is a huge location, and there are several npcs to meet, quests to do and a world full of law to learn, even outside the complex matter of making worlds.
The second way in which worldsmith differs from standardised If, is in it's interface. Played entirely from your web browser, the game features many handy hyperlinks and hotspots to click on, for instance to talk to someone or an object, just click on the link. There is also a text box to enter the usual parser style interactive fiction commands too, something necessary for interacting with objects and indeed building worlds. Note in particular, that much valuable information, including the games' settings page, and the all important incunable (the instructional tome for all worldsmiths and their history, which you will need to consult on various matters from basic elements to Anemoi culture), appears in a panel at the bottom, as do settings and the games' help section. To access settings, help and the unfortunately inaccessible maps of your area, click on the buttons.
Fortunately, everything is text, all is quite accessible, though you might need to arrow around a bit once the text buffer gets large. The game even has background music as well.
Though originally released with a standard $5 price tag, you can now play worldsmith entirely for free by downloading at the above link from the itch.io website, though note that when you download, the page will let you make a donation to interactive fables if you wish.
Additional resources
Worldsmith has gained a great deal of attention from both within and without the interactive fiction community. Firstly, you can Read several reviews of the game here on the interactive fiction wiki.
World smithing is no easy matter, so The interactive fables team offer These helpful strategies which might help you if your civilisations aren't working out as you'd like.
If your utterly stuck in the game's quests, you can also check out This hints page though note that in best invisiclue tradition, the answers to the hints are in code and need copying into the respective box to read properly, thus preventing unintentional spoilage of the game.
Not only a very innervative interactive fiction game with a friendly interface, a massive and hugely detailed world to explore, but also an intriguing and ultimate strategy, perffect for power mad builders of all sorts, worldsmith is an absolutely unique experience which really shouldn't be missed.
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Updates: entry 28 Jan 23 and description 28 Jan 23