You are a security guard at the Game Museum; you are currently in a night-shift.
You love games, thus getting this job right after you've graduated.
You got bored with your sentry duty, just didn't feel like sitting on the chair looking at the meme on Instagram, so you stumbled around the museum pretending you are patrolling.
Meanwhile, you walked into a new exhibition. This is a game history exhibition with a theme of a haunted chateau. Although you've been a security guard for a month, you had never looked through this section since it comes out.
Therefore you read the display boards and items as you were patrolling.
All in a sudden, a gigantic rocky arched caught attention; you approaching it alongside the corridor. You touched the rock, it is so realistic...
You just stepped under the arched naturally but oversee the sign of "step in prohibited" on the wall next to this mystic arched door.
As soon as you are under it, the floor seems to be moving. You can't hold yourself and try to get out of here, but a crack seperates you and the corridor; it seems so close you just can't reach it......then you fall into the crevice with the door.
Fall into the [[crevice]]When you regain your consciousness and open your eyes, you find out you are sitting inside of a jungle, like the one in Mexico, kinda feel like in Maya. Following the twitter sounds of unknown species of birds (maybe), you have come to a chateau. It looks like a dilapidated 15th century type of castle,the atmosphere is abnormally creepy since it is bedimmed by those towering fir trees around, and those remnant of knight statues, too.
This scenery reminds you of the exhibition--this is the haunted chateau--and now you are in.
You want to go back to the reality but you can't find that arched door; you can only find some clues in the [[Chateau]].You are in the chateau. In front of you is a statue of an unknown creature, well you aren't even sure if this is a creature.
[[Look around the room]] or [[Go to the lounge->Lounge]]
This is the check point
*Saving is important unless you want to challenge yourself XD:
" If we decide that we won't be saving what we do......we are choosing a way to play, an attitude."*This is a library in Baroque style, every corners consist of a manner of elegance. Particularly a book in a dark-brown leather cover, is solely put on the shelf in the middle of library.
You wipe off the dust on the cover and start to read.
Surprisingly, this book is thick but only the last page has word and photo on it.
It is a photo of a woman, you aren't certain about it since there is no annotation pointing at her or its background......though words are seemed to be referring to the photo:
"This is an evil existence, one way to seal her power is to re-open the magical arched by identifying her name, say the spell that make up with numbers, and find the artifact; this way you can return to your world and defeat this merciless creature. Her name can't be mentioned here, otherwise she will destroy this piece of the only few clues......when you meet her, just stand still because she can only identify your position by hearing any sounds you make; never try to fight her, good luck!"
Pretending you are in a game of defeating a legendary devil, though you can never be able to fight her......sometimes it happens, there is always an inbalance in the game; it could still have a balance problem in a specific matchup when accomodation is made, like in this matchup, you vs the condemned devil.
Return to the [[Lounge]].Everything in this room looks exactly the same as in the exhibition.
The long dinning table has a lot of dishes, with no food on the plates,but a bunch of independent games' names instead: *Braid, Stanley Parable, Cuphead, Gone Home, Stardew Valley......*, At the end of the table, there is a white candle and a card.
The menu-like paper card has some words on it:
"Independent games, which similar to independent films, are always produced by individuals or small companies. The budgets tend to be much smaller, with crews as small as a handful of individuals and scaling up to several dozen or more people; and since indie games development takes a lot less resources and risk, it serves as a locus for innovations."
You have to answer the following question in order to hit the next room.
Was *Minecraft* an indie game?
[[Yes]]
[[No]]You are searching around the room; when you walk pass the statue, you notice a line of words behind it, it says:
"This is a castle of video game history for curious gamer, as you enter arched door, you have begun the advanture here."
Under is a quote defining "advanture"...
*"Player explores a challenging simulated and fictional world to understand this world and to exhibit this understanding through in-game actions"*
You as an enthusiast gamer, although confused, you start to be interested in this old chateau; probably you can learn something. Now you
[[begin-->Lounge]] your journey in the castle.
You now have two options:
So would you go to the [[door on the right hand side->Library]] or [[door on the left hand side->Dinning room]]?
*(Your choices will alter your ending, no turn around)*Yup, you're right!
*Minecraft* was an indie game designed by sweden game designer Notch (Markus Alexej Persson). Since it was originally made by one designer back into 2009, so it was definitely an indie game.
Now you can enter the [[First floor corridor]].Oops, you got it wrong!
*Minecraft* was an indie game designed by sweden game designer Notch (Markus Alexej Persson). Since it was originally made by one designer back into 2009, so it was definitely an indie game.
You have been sent back to the [[Lounge]].This corridor is so dark with only a few dim lights, and seems to be endless; you count the rooms on both side and you see roughly 20 rooms already where you have not yet seen the end of it.
[[Move forward]]?
[[Stand here]]As you are moving toward the corridor, every room is closed besides the room next to the staircase stands ajar. You peep in and see a lot of tools and closets, this room seems to be a storage room.
So you carefully push the door and get in the [[Storage room]].Oh cmon, you gotta go anyway or die in the chateau!
Go back to the [[First floor corridor]].
Wait, you saw a painting on the left.
It is a painting of a horrifying monster, her name is Helzka which looks kinda like the bubble head nurse in the game *Silent Hill 2*.
Why is her picture here?
Who knows.
Sometimes an abstraction in visual can increase your tendency to look for more about this character.It is a storage room as you can tell from the tools all over the place; you skim around the room and you find a note pasted on the closet in the corner.
On the paper it says "video games use world building to add depth to their interactive environments. By collecting the smithereens of informations everywhere, the player's imagination assumes the existence of a larger, more complete background for his or her characters and actions. Likewise, this chateau is also adopting the concept of world building to get adventueurs connected with the history of games and this adventure. Your destiny is still unforeseeable, go find your way to the end."
At the end of the paper, there is a number "5" written in blood.
Suddenly, you hear a sound of shackled footstep outside of the room, it is getting closer...... Regardless of who it is, it doesn't seem to be a friendly existence. You are facing a dilemma here: whether rush out to the[[staircase]] or hide in the [[closet]].You run out from the room immediately, as you are pacing to the staircase, you see the creature through peripheral vision--a 9 ft tall monster holding a mace full of iron nails; it looks like some kind of zombie in Resident Evil.
The creature is glimping toward you, not so fast.
When you reach the staircase, you can go up to the [[second floor]] or go down to the [[basement]] of the chateau.You hide into the closet nimbly before the sound has reached the storage room. You peep at the door, panicking.
The door is opened because you didn't close it when you come in, so you can see a silhouette on the opposing wall in the corridor--an enormous creature with its foot chained, holding a mace with a lot of sharp nails.
You are praying that it will let go.
Unfortunately, you pray doesn't get positive response--the creature steps into the room. You can now see it clearly: the same description as you assumed, plus a pair of eyes of fierce, frankly it has more than a pair on its head; and this monster is approximately 9 ft tall.
You close your eyes and keep praying to jesus hallelujah, hoping that the monster will not notice your presence. As you can hear, the footstep comes closer to your side, stops at a distance of 1 meter, it seems to be looking for something. You hold your breath as long as you can, you literally pee your pants.
10 seconds later, the monster turns around, it doesn't notice you in the closet. You take a gasp of relief......though, your little movement seems to be heard by the monster; it instantly turns right at the closet, you know you're so done that you try to open the closet and maybe run away. Don't be so silly, you can never escape from it face-to-face; the mace with thousand iron nails has fallen on your body before you can react.
This is not *Outlast*, hiding in a locker/closet won't help.
[[Respawn->Dead cycle]]You've escaped from the monster and now you are on the second floor of this chateau. A big picture of Mario wearing the tail, looks like a nobleman who actually own this chateau. Under his portrait is a small paragraph where the words are made of gold!
"Mario is a character from the game of the same name. The game *Mario* is one of the early games that bring the whole industry into the lime light. To claim that a game is a ‘classic’ is ultimately to make a judgment about its cultural status, value, or meanings; thereupon *Mario* deserves the title of "classic game". Not only the character Mario, everything in it should be claimed classic, legendary."
Not only this portrait, there are 8 more pictures of classic games as you glance around the area. However, something catches your eyeball despite of these interesting pictures--a shaft of light at the [[end of the hallway]].You have come down to the basement; it is even darker, and the atmosphere is giving you chill with those intermittent water drop sound.
"Generally, visual and gameplay are not the only thing that make up a good video game, sonic elements contribute a lot too, like a sound track of music, or even some voices and sounds in the background." You think of this quote from the exhibition as you are hearing the water drop.
You then search for some light source since it is way too dark down here, you literally can't see you fingers. Suddenly, all the candles around light up by themselves in a weird, gloomy blue flame. What freaks you more, is the scene in front of you: 9 scattered human-like figure covered with white cloth where blood can be seen.
You are stunned by this scene, you can't even move your little pinky.
The figures start to move...
One of the figure suddenly removes the white cloth, it looks like a nurse.
You instantly recall your memory on this creature: the devil in the chateau. You know you have to lock it back into the hell in order to escape. The devil moves to your position, but then it stands still. You again remember the way to not bring up her attention; you stand there too, despite of the fear in your deeper mind.
Maybe a minute has passed, the nurse-like devil move away from you......after she's gone with another figures, you know this is probably the only opportunity, you prevail your own fear even though there is a chance that she can hear you and prey you in a second: you use up the last strength in your body to dash to the darker place.
The devil hears the sound immediately and turns her back to you again......
[[RUN!]]You have come to this end with the guidance of the light; you encounter the origin of the light: it's a diamond console in a glass showcase. When you trying to get a closer look to it, you hear some noice from the staircase you have just come from. "It's probably that monster," you conceived.
Though the diamond console has an unimaginable charm to you that you want to [[take it]]...or should you just [[leave]]?You open up the case and take the console with you, sneak into the room next to you.
When you gaze into the console, you see a number "1" in the middle. And you flip it to the back, you also find out the name of this unique console--victorious console.
As you are playing with the console, the light of reflection from the console reveals a little space under a clock. You go to see it quickly and realize it is a secret staircase going to somewhere, so you decide to [[take a look->basement]].You carefully walk along the path back to the staircase, where you see nothing. Maybe it's your paranoid thought after seeing the monster. There is the same stair going up to the third floor.
However, you didn't realize the stair is actually broken, as you are climbing up, you miss a step and fall into a darkness.
You died...You do not respawn to any check points...instead, you are back into the closet, hearing the same sound of shackle; seeing the same shadow of a giant monster.
A whispering sound echoes around your ear: "A glitch in a game can freeze your screen, and more importantly, it drops your gameplay into bad infinity......just like now, you are in a dead end."
End...You don't know what is in front of you, but one thing you sure is that the devil is chasing behind you.
Soon you have come to the end of the basement, and an arched is right here; you recognize this arched is what teleported you into this world.
Now this is the time to go back:
What is the name of this devil and the spell?
[[Aaddan, 1704]]
[[Llorrine, 2910]]
[[Homai, 3756]]
[[Helzka, 1958]]
[[kamazka, 3993]]It's wrong! You are teared into pieces by her!
Back to the [[check point-->Chateau]]It's wrong! You are teared into pieces by her!
Back to the [[check point-->Chateau]]It's wrong! You are teared into pieces by her!
Back to the [[check point-->Chateau]]You got it!
Helzka is falling into the hell in pain...and the arched door which you access it with the diamond victorious console is shining with bright light, you aboard the platform and teleported.
[[I'm back!]]It's wrong! You are teared into pieces by her!
Back to the [[check point-->Chateau]]You are laying on the floor in the exhibition, where the manager of the Game Museum is shaking you intensively.
Meanwhile, two young mans sitting in front of the screen, playing a game, and discussing how camera is focusing on character's environment instead of emotions or actions.
......you are only the character in a game that he's playing......