That House is also available for free on Github Pages.

What's That House?

That House is a text-based adventure game I programmed in the context of the course "Digital Publications", given by Isaac Pante at the University of Lausanne. It has for subject death and its acceptance. You play as a person who recently died in a car accident, who (re)visits a place once familiar, and learn to accept their own death. The story is recursive: you will play through the same selection of scenes multiple times, each time bringing something new, either in unlockable content, or backstory. The game features:

• A story-rich scenario with liberty of exploration
• A recursive story, where each iteration bring something new
• A personal take on death and how one can deal with its inevitability
• Text animations to help visualize what can and cannot be interacted with
• Full liberty of control: write commands from the input, the DOM, or clic interactive texts
• References to works such as Midnight Mass and Thornhill's The Dark Pool

How do I play That House?

BEWARE, SPOILERS AHEAD

The game can be downloaded from this Repository. Once you've got it on your computer, simply open the index.html file in your preferred browser and you're good to go. Now, here are a few useful things to know about That House:

1. The game is recursive, and thus will repeat in a series of acts.
2. The element you can interact with are highlighted with an animation.
3. You can either enter command directly by writing them, from the input or the DOM.
4. You can also clic on a command at the bottom of the screen and then at an object in the text to create a working command.
5. Only the words highlighted can be interacted with.
6. Sometimes, the solution is to leave.
7. Pick-ups unlock further content automatically. No need to enter them in your commands.
8. A command is either "leave", or a composition of 2 words, like "look book". Adding more words won't help.

The game has a series of command, which are described as follows:

1. LOOK allows you to, well, look at items and objects
2. USE is the generic interaction with an object. Use it to turn an interruptor on, or to pick up an item.
3. GO is the command to move from a scene to another. To go through a door, enter "go door".
4. LEAVE is the only command used as its own. Use this to go back to the previous scenes.
5. HIT is the first unlockable command, obtained in act 2. Hit things, break them. See what suprises they contain.
6. INSPECT is a more thorough look at an element. It is used to get more details out of the decor, and sometimes find secrets...
7. WAIT makes you wait in front of an object for some times. Patience is a virtue!
8. ACCEPT either makes you realize the state you are in, or unlocks puzzle solutions. It is also the final command you'll need to enter to complete the game.