Exploring the 'Best Games': Blue Lacuna, by Aaron Reed

Playing Game Hints
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(As a first note, I’ve heard the author is on the job market. I would recommend him to any employer; if you want another sample of his work, try the excellent Hollywood Visionary)

Blue Lacuna is a massive game finished (I believe) as a doctoral dissertation. It was intended to be the largest parser game ever, if I recall, and it certainly has few contenders. The only games with similar amounts of content that I know of are the time travel puzzler Finding Martin and the Anne McAffrey-like World’s Apart, but Blue Lacuna most likely contains more content in its branches than those.

This is a game that tries to be everything to all people. It is a simulationist game, with weather, day/night, and nature modeled in a detailed way. It is a giant puzzler, with old chestnuts like color-coded machines and combinations locks. But it’s also made friendly for newcomers, with a Twine-like keyword system, puzzles that are all optional, easy navigation, elimination of the compass, and helpful tips when errors are made. It is also a conversation game with over 1000 topics. It is also an epic sci fi story.

How well does it succeed? A game of this scope, written by one author, will inevitably fall short in some areas. There are several bugs in the game, such as disappearing NPCS, but none that really halted gameplay for me. I found the opening dull, and that the game picked up a lot more in the later half, which was very well-done and exciting. I felt like the pacing didn’t mesh with my general rushed attitude toward games.

Overall, though, there is no way to deny the importance of this game. Blue Lacuna has been influential l, and playing it is a real epic experience. I love been downloading and playing most Best Games the day I write the essays but I knew this one would be a beast, so I downloaded it a week ago and have been working since. I felt a real accomplishment finishing it.

What does it do right?

==Depth==

The game is as deep as it is long. The author has streamlined the game by removing inventory in general, and focusing on looking, walking, and manipulating some machinery. In thatbscope, everything is extensively detailed. Room descriptions are always changing based on time of day weather events, past game events, etc.

A remarkable landmark system is used to travel. Movement felt quite natural, and Go To was implemented for people and things.

The PC has 1200+ topics, stat tracking, independent behavior, etc. Most app4oaches to interaction with him are considered and accounted for.

All of this depth is much harder to accomplish in such a long game.

==Strong NPC==

The main NPC does what you’d want NPCs to do. They come up with plans, and execute them. They change in mood over the course of a conversation. They have long term memory. They can be funny, sad, happy, or crazy. They have a big story arc. In many ways they are the protagonist of the game.

This is one of the most detailed NPCS in any game.

==Setting==

Blue Lacuna has great world building, but the best parts take some time to get to. The game express3s itself through dreams and visions, nature, and machinery. It is a very Myst-like environment, but with the addition of the big NPC.

The two factions, Heart and City are well-done each with their pros and cons. I definitely support heart more, but city makes sense, too. The biology of technology are interesting as well.

In many ways, Blue Lacuna reminded me of a world’s Apart another epic sci fi game set on an island withwarring factions that appear to the PC in dreams. Both do an excellent job of world building.

==Conclusion==

Blue Lacuna has a rightful place in the list of Best Games. It is not perfect, and no one will be satisfied with all of it, but there’s so much good here that everyone will like part of it. The extreme depth and well-done NPC are it’s main attraction, together with the storyline that slowly unfolds.

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I really like the idea of warring factions that appear to the PC in dreams. Imma have to steal that for a game sometimes, only with Horses. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I just replayed Blue Lacuna after nearly a decade.

It was a bit easier to see the structure now that I have more experience writing larger games of my own. I wanted to write some thoughts about it (with a few mild early spoilers).

What struck me this playthrough is how deliberately the game separates out the interesting plot points. We’re used to commercial video games separating out plot points just by interspersing them with travel or combat or other basic game mechanics.

IF games, in contrast, tend to either be pure plot (like many choicescript games) or to space out plot points with puzzles.

Blue Lacuna doesn’t really do either. If you took all the puzzles in the game and placed them in front of the player, they could be solved in an hour or two. Similarly, if all the dreams and ending areas were available at once, the player could finish them in an hour or two.

The rest of the game, in fact the bulk of the game, is neither plot nor puzzle, but just an island-life sim game featuring Progue.

Puzzles require the player to traverse many locations, as do the nightly plot points, so the player has to cross the same areas over and over again. But these regions change, with high tide and low tide, night and day, lunar cycles, animals that only come out at certain points, etc.

Progue will do random stuff, and will often run into you when the game gets slow (it’s even in the code! there’s a boredom meter).

So the vast majority of the game is just wandering around and seeing the island over time, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.

This is a really interesting design concept, and other ‘giant’ games don’t really do it. Counterfeit Monkey is packed with lots of plot and puzzles, and Hadean Lands is almost a pure puzzler with intriguing snippets of plot dripped out here and there. Mulldoon Legacy, Curses! and Finding Martin are all huge puzzlers with recurring plot points that get stronger as the game progresses. And Worlds Apart is mostly world building.

I can’t really think of other parser games that have detailed world simulations like this that change over time; maybe Scott Adams Savage Island, or the game Gotomomi. Oh, after searching, I think Ryan Veeder’s Fly Fishing game has similar levels of changing detail (in real time!)

Overall, I enjoyed replaying. My realizations about its size made it a lot less scary to replay; I realized that there are only a very few puzzles (spoiler list of all puzzles): (open door, adjust pipes correctly, following bees, crossing bridge to island, sound cave, getting to powered pyramid) and plot points follow a predictable pattern (mid-game spoilers) sleep under all the windsong trees, and (optionally) watch a blue flash each night. A lot of other things that seem like puzzles aren’t really (like finding the second ear of the head), as it’s just time-gated.

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Thanks for these posts. I may have to play this soon.

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