- Platform: IBM PC Compatible
- Release Date: 1998
- Genre: Adventure
- Style: Text-Based Adventure
- Similar Games: Zork (Macintosh)
Game Description
Photopia is a story within a story, perhaps yet within a story. You are Wendy Mackaye, first female astronaut on the Red Planet. Or, perhaps you're Alison's father, explaining astrophysics and element formation to her. Maybe you're Mr. Mackaye, driving Alison back home after she babysat your daughter. Each of the stories are separate but they're all joined together and make up the whole of Photopia.The game is a text-based adventure. Photopia tells Alison's story through the points of view of the people around her. You can interact with the game through its parser by typing in commands for the person whose point of view you're currently sharing.
There is no score, so your goal is to complete the game by successfully moving through all the scenarios. The game does not allow you to talk to characters about topics of your choice or give them commands. Instead, you talk to the character and then choose from a numbered list of topics provided.
This freeware game has a color scheme that can be turned on at the beginning of the game. Each section has a default foreground and background color scheme that complements the scenario.
Created by
~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Roots & Influences
Photopia was written in Z language, originally created by Infocom for Zork and its other games. Certain elements of the game were inspired by the movie The Sweet Hereafter.~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
Photopia starts off with a short dialogue: "Will you read me a story?" "Read you a story? What fun would that be? I've got a better idea: let's tell a story together." This quote reverberates very strongly throughout the game for a variety of reasons.The game plays itself out through many short vignettes, each easily completed in ten moves or less if you know what to do. The vignettes link to each other thematically but they're set in their own environments and each tell their own mini-story. Within each vignette, there's not much room for a puzzle. Most of them can be solved by simple exploration while others rely on successful resolution of dialogue with a character.
Because conversation is handled in multiple-choice menus, though, there's not much wrong that can happen once you initiate conversation with someone. Eventually, you'll run out of other conversation options and will have to choose the one the game wants you to in order to advance. There are a few places where you may get stuck but that's not due to puzzle design. Instead, you'll be stuck because you can't come up with the one word the game is looking for or don't know what to do because the game gives you absolutely no direction.
Since the vignettes play out in a linear fashion, the story is generally not moving along at any pace until you hit on the correct command. So, you just have to try things until you find the action or combination of actions that lets the scene proceed. Photopia's illusion of freedom, when it does give you one at all, is cursory. In that sense, the game's opening quote rings hollow.
Technically, Photopia lets you tell the game's story together with it but only grudgingly accepts your input and always guides, if not actively pushes, you to its desired scene conclusion. This makes you feel more like a spectator watching a panorama of scenes unfolding rather than an active participant within the game.
The real game is in trying to piece the game itself together, finding meaning in apparently unrelated vignettes and trying to figure out the "why and how" of Photopia. That's as fascinating as actually playing a game because Photopia layers its vignettes over each other cleverly. At first, the different scenes seem disconnected, as if each was happening in its own isolated world. But, at some point in the game, you will finally manage to make the connection and it's a very powerful moment. After that happens, you also realize the opening quote does ring true but in a different sense.
Photopia stands out in another way. You can set the game to use its own color pattern when the game begins. The different color schemes really add to the flavor of the scene. For example, the first scene starts with the words "The streetlights are bright. Unbearably bright." The game presents this particular scene with a harsh white background with black text, to simulate the unbearable brightness of the streetlights.
For most gamers, Photopia's story will leave a very poignant impression. It's a beautifully constructed piece of work of which any fiction writer would be proud. As a game, it's a big failure. What you get out of Photopia depends in great part on what you put into it. If you're looking purely for a puzzle game, you'll be badly disappointed. But, if you decide to simply enjoy the storytelling experience, then Photopia can be a very moving piece of work.
~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Enjoyment
The game's ability to immerse you into its rich and moving storyline is neatly cancelled by its inability to immerse you in any gameplay whatsoever.~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Graphics
Even though Photopia is a text-based adventure, the background and foreground color option deserves a rating. Sometimes the color scheme enhances the setting but, more often than not, it makes the text difficult to read.~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Sound
None in the game.~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Replay Value
Although {*Photopia} insists on telling a story (and the same story, no matter what you do), it can be worthwhile to go through it again and explore some dialogue options for interesting results.~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Review: Documentation
None in the game.~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
Production Credits
Created by: Adam Cadre
~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide
