User:Thijshijsijsjss/Gossamery/I Doesn't Exist

This entry contains spoilers

• Find it here on Steam and here on itch.io

I doesn't exist is, by its own claim, 'a modern text-adventure game'. Released October 2023, it provides an text-interface familiar to anyone who has played a text adventure before, and gradually introduces other visual elements and mechanics beyond the limits (and genre conventions) of the machines of time this genre was at its commercial peak. For example, after an undertale-like tutorial (already a rarity for the genre), the player finds themselves in a cave. Entering the canonical command look around will trigger the upper part of the screen to show an animated pixel-art view (much like a fancier version of The Hobbit (1982)'s illustrations).

The game explores themes of isolation, control and anxiety. By ways of narratological metalepsis, a conflict between the 'terminal-narrator' and 'playable character' occurs, causing the gameplay to become 3-dimensional, lose the terminal interface, and in that way, move beyond its text-adventural inspirations. There 's seemingly little branching going on, and the theme is not explored in depth / intimately (like Nicky Case's Adventures with Anxiety (wiki entry). But as a translation from the classic text-adventure to a game able to stand its ground in the current gaming and fiction landscape, it is a worthwhile project to look at.