DURING the recent Covid-19 crisis I’ve found myself with loads of free time. In that spare time, I came across a very interesting piece of interactive fiction called Invisible Parties. I wanted to make a post specifically about this game, not only because it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted to this blog, but also because this piece perplexes me.

The concept of Invisible Parties revolves around the antagonists, the Rebeccas, trapping you in a pocket dimension of sorts called, “the tangle.” The game is very dreamlike with the player traversing rooms seamlessly, despite some rooms take place in entirely different locations or times of day. From some of the context clues laced throughout the game, I found each scene might be a call back to either the Rebbeca’s personal experience, or even the other person, Jave, trapped inside this “tangle.” In a way it’s like you’re an outside observer to an interactive gallery of someone else’s memories.

The game is quick to remind the player it’s less about any serious philosophical analysis in this sense, but rather a way to pen a young adult fantasy story where people can access this “tangle,” for better or worse. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get through the outer shadow-like shell enclosing the secret to getting out of this instance. Part of this is due to most every person or object is set dressing with little in the way of interactivity. It felt like trying to find a needle in a fantastical hay stack to try to progress through the game. Even when the game drops a hint, it’s hard to convey to the system how you want to go about going to examine or travel to it.

In the end I admitted defeat, but thanked the game for its time seeing me.

All of this being said, the concept that’s present is one I’m fond of. Dreamlike landscapes as explorations into one’s own personal mind is what a number of my story ideas revolve around, or at least they are partly inspired by this idea if nothing else. A novel, Heart of Darkness is largely to thank for this inspiration for me. The book deals in some very adult, existential themes that the game isn’t going for, and it doesn’t have to. It’s still an enjoyable piece for what it is, I just wish I could’ve made it through to the end. I suppose I could’ve used a walkthrough, but I feel weird about using those.

This time around I have a few questions to pose about this piece and IF in general.

Do walkthroughs ruin the fun of what IF is? I ask this question because this is a game where I would need a walkthrough to complete it. However, I like finding the hidden aspects of a game, especially when a large part of IF’s appeal is in discovering these things for yourself.

Also, would it be okay for someone to take the concept a game introduces and build upon it in some way? I know for some ideas there is a kind of
“shared-universe” where people freely add to the canon of what is and isn’t accepted, or would you need to go out of your way to find the person who wrote the piece to clear that with them?

Until next time dear READER…