Hadean Lands
Overdue Interactive Fiction by Andrew Plotkin
Copyright (c) 2014 by Andrew Plotkin
Release 4 / Serial number 141017
http://hadeanlands.com/
(Jump to: Launching the Game ... The Map ... How to Play IF ... Performing Alchemy ... Licenses)
To install the game on Windows, click on HL-Windows-installer.exe.
On other platforms, you'll have to install an appropriate interpreter.
I recommend Gargoyle. This CD includes several version of Gargoyle;
use the links below (or look in the interpreters folder).
Unpack; install; run; select HadeanLands.gblorb. The game will
begin.
This CD includes a map — in fact, two of them:
map-labels.jpeg
and
map-nolabels.jpeg.
One version is labelled with the names of the rooms you will be
exploring; the other is not.
As a CD bonus, you can also view these as high-resolution lossless
PNG files:
map-labels-bigger.png
and
map-nolabels-bigger.png.
It’s up to you whether you use the map. It’s slightly spoilery; it shows you where you’ll be exploring before you get there. If you want to make your own map, great! But relying on this one won’t ruin the game. There’s plenty to do beyond simple exploration.
(Are there secrets not shown on the map? Maybe!) (...Probably!) (...Yes!)
In this game, you are the center of a story. You will type commands in simple English; the game will respond, and tell you what happens. Here is a sample transcript of a game session. (No spoilers!)
The game will start by asking you, “Have you played interactive fiction before?” If you answer “no,” the first room will run as a tutorial. The game will lead you through basic IF commands and your first alchemical recipe.
If you answer “yes,” the game will allow you to solve the first room on your own. (And all the rest of the rooms, too.)
Even if you’re familiar with IF, take a look at the Performing Alchemy section. This game has some special commands which you should take note of.
The simplest IF commands are usually one or two words:
But sometimes you need more:
In a more complicated scene, you might have to get more specific:
You will almost always be dealing with concrete things that you see in the game world. Work with what you see around you. If you try wild abstractions like “GO SEE A MOVIE” or “RUN FOR PRESIDENT”, the game will probably not understand you.
Here’s a handy reference card which shows the most common IF commands:
(Click for PDF version of the card. More versions and translations available at the People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction. Print ’em out and pass ’em around. Card text by Andrew Plotkin; design by Lea Albaugh; licensed CC BY-SA.)
If you are completely at sea, you can always try these commands:
Because these actions are so common, they have one-letter abbreviations: “L”, “I”, and “X”.
Again, your actions should focus on the objects and exits that you see in the game world.
The game world is divided into locations — usually called “rooms”, although they might be indoors or outdoors. A room is everything you can see at one time, and everything you can conveniently reach. Don’t worry about crossing the room, turning around, or standing near things; that sort of movement is automatic.
To move to a different location, you’ll usually type simple compass directions:
You can abbreviate these directions as “N”, “NE”, and so on; also “U” and “D”.
More specific commands sometimes make sense:
In this game you can go directly to any room or object that you know about:
You’ll automatically unlock and open any doors needed to reach your destination.
Go directly to the last room that you were in. This works even after a long “GO TO...” journey.
You’re probably staring at your dictionary and shuddering in terror (or anticipation!) of the infinite possibilities. Sometimes IF works that way. More often, you’ll run through a small list of common commands — some of which you’ve already seen.
Hadean Lands supports several commands which are specific to life on an alchemical starship.
If these lists grow large, you may want to be specific: “RECALL RITUALS”, “RECALL FORMULAS”, “RECALL FACTS”. (Or just “RITUALS”, “FORMULAS”, “FACTS”.)
You can go directly to any room or object that you know about. You can also “GO BACK” to the last location you were in.
Speaking incantations is one of the fundamental skills of a ritualist. Try “RECALL FORMULAS” to list the formulas that you have learned.
You can only use these commands after you have successfully completed the ritual at least once! In other words, the first time you do a ritual, you must follow the step-by-step instructions. After that, you can use the “PERFORM” and “CREATE” shortcuts.
You generally cannot create two of anything. If something already exists, “CREATE” will merely tell you where it is. (You could also try “RECALL” or “GO TO”.)
Early in the game, you will discover a way to return to the beginning, while still remembering everything you’ve learned. Type “RESET” to do this from anywhere in the game.
Once you have solved any puzzle successfully, you can solve it again with a single command. For example, the first time you encounter a locked door, you’ll have to go find the key and bring it back. But the second time, you can just type “OPEN DOOR”. The game will automatically go to the key, fetch it, return to the door, and unlock it.
In fact, if you “GO TO” a room beyond the door, the game will do the same thing. This may involve several steps. If a ritual is required to reach the key, the game will automatically do that too. And it works the other way: when you “PERFORM” a ritual, the game will go fetch the ingredients.
Of course, if you’ve thrown the key down a bottomless pit, you can’t unlock the door. You can’t “PERFORM” a ritual if one of the crucial ingredients has been used up in an earlier ritual.
If there are two ways to solve a puzzle, the automatic solving system uses whichever you’ve used most recently. If there are two ways to perform a ritual, the system invokes whichever you’ve done most recently. This might matter!
You can save any number of positions; you’ll see a list when you type the “RESTORE” command. Remember to save before shutting down the interpreter! It’s also wise to save every once in a while, in case you make a mistake or want to try something different ways.
(In the iOS app, your position is always saved. When you launch the app you’ll be where you left off. But you might want to use the “SAVE” command occasionally anyway, just in case.)
These are handy, but not as flexible as “RESTORE” and “SAVE”. Note that you have to type “RESTART COMPLETELY” to really start the game over. (This is different from “RESET”.)
A transcript is a text log of your game.
(In the iOS app, to see the list of saved transcripts, switch to the Journal tab and tap the Transcripts button.)
Hadean Lands is copyright 2014 by Andrew Plotkin.
The game was built with Inform 7, a free IF development system. Inform 7 was created by Graham Nelson.
Gargoyle is an open-source, multi-platform IF interpreter. The source code is available at https://code.google.com/p/garglk/. Gargoyle is distributed under the GNU GPL v2 license.
Twisty is an open-source IF interpreter for Android. The source code is available at https://bitbucket.org/sussman/twisty/. Twisty is distributed under the GNU GPL v3 license.