Finding a partner to play The Last Night of Alexisgrad

One of the games is apparently an experiment in two-player IF, which I haven’t seen in IFComp before. For convenience, I’ll copy the explanation from the game intro:

Summary

In this two-player piece of interactive fiction, you and your partner will each take on the role of one of the leaders of the two forces vying for control of the city of Alexisgrad. One of you will play as the Republic’s newly elected Dictator , a woman who suddenly finds herself powerless in a city that is crumbling around her, forced to make decisions about liberty or safety; history or future; country or people; survival or duty. The other player will take on the role of the King’s army’s General , a man ready for a fight which it does not seem the Republic is able to give him, appearing to leave him not with the question of ‘whether’ he will take Alexisgrad, but ‘how’ he will take it.

Players must follow two very simple rules in order to make sure that the game can be fully enjoyed (and not just break horribly…)

  1. Each time that you press on a link (the cyan coloured text), your partner must also press on a link. That way you will always be at the same part of the story relative to each other. Of course this will mean you will have to be in touch with each other, verbally, over a video call, through an instant chat messaging service, etc.
  2. At regular intervals you will be given codes and asked to input codes. You must tell your partner your code and then you must select your partner’s code (which they should tell you).

There may be points where your partner gives you a code but the game is not asking you to input one. If this happens, assuming that you have followed rule 1 correctly, then it is safe to ignore it. You will never need to remember a code beyond the screen on which you are given it.

You can go back or forward at any time by pressing the arrows on the left-hand side of the page.

You can save your game at any point by simply clicking the ‘save’ button on the left-hand side. It is recommended that you and your partner save your games at the same point. The save will remain safe on your browser until either you clear your browser’s cache or you create a new save.

The two sides of this interactive narrative are made to be read independently. Aside from the codes, it is recommended that you don’t share information with your partner until you have completed the narrative.

I promise you, it sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. Just take one click for each of your partner’s clicks and share codes whenever the game gives you one. Good luck!


If I’m understanding this right:

  • This is an adversarial, real-time game.
  • The game itself provides no mechanism to coordinate matches except for the codes that must be put in by hand.
  • Therefore, players need to be in continual contact with each other to ensure that they’re moving together through the game. Moves should be one-to-one, though there are no formal turns.
  • The only communication needed between opponents is text chat. Video is unnecessary, and screen sharing is definitely unnecessary, since each player has private information. A PM thread here on the forum should work.

It seems likely that many people don’t have a wide circle of real-life friends who could be plausibly asked to play an hour-long Twine game with them, so I thought a thread here would be a good way for people to find opponents.

For those interested in playing this game during the Comp, I suggest commenting here with a range of dates/times that work for you. Make sure to specify your time zone, and state if you’d prefer to take one side or the other. Alternatively, if someone has already posted a time slot that works for you, contact that person by PM. After finding a partner and making a game appointment, please edit your post to make this clear.

4 Likes

I’m open to playing a game starting at any of the following times. Times will be stated in Central Daylight Time (UTC – 5), followed by the equivalent 24-hour UTC time in bold.

Tuesday, October 5: 12PM–6PM (17:00–23:00)
Wednesday, October 6: 9PM–10PM (October 7 02:00–03:00)
Friday, October 8: 12PM–3PM (17:00–20:00)

EDIT: I have a game set up.

I’d be interested in a ‘play by mail’ game with someone; skipping through without reading it looks like a game might consist of 10 or 15 choices total, with a lot of text for the first couple of choices. So I’d be interested in a game where we just message each other as soon as we’re done with a segment but it’s not expected to finish the game in one sitting (but at least getting one chunk done each day).

If anyone’s interested, let me know!

3 Likes

[quote=“mathbrush, post:3, topic:52735”]
If anyone’s interested, let me know!
[/quote]

Yes, I am interested. That’s a much more viable option for me.

EDIT: I also have a game set up.

I am also interested in that email way as I live in Europe UTC -1 zone.

  • Jade

I’m also looking for a partner to play this one, but would also need to do it in a slower, play by email/dm style rather than all at once, I think. I’m in the Pacific time zone, if that’s helpful. @Jade, if you’re still waiting for someone I’m glad to partner up, but otherwise happy to play with someone new!

1 Like

Ok, email me with the code given by the game when you start the gameplay. And tell me your first PJ option.

1 Like

In my quest to review all IFComp entries, I’m interested in this. I am in the Central time zone. While I’d prefer to run through quickly if possible, I’d also like to start earlier rather than later for longer/email (or even forum PM) style play, so we can get a full game in.

Also, is there any non-spoilery way to assess how to play this game on your own? Yes, it’s two-player, but for people who want to review but aren’t able to connect, it’d be nice to have a way to experience as much as possible.

I’d say probably the best way to play on your own is to have two windows up, one for each side. If you want to experience as much as possible then read them simultaneously (swapping back and forth so that you’re keeping pace with both). If you want to just experience sort of what it’s like to just play one side, then the best way to play would be to pick random choices on the side you’re less interested in and using the codes that gives you, while still keeping the two windows going at the same pace. Unfortunately playing just one side and picking random codes runs the risk of breaking the game (you’d probably be safe, but I can’t guarantee it).

I will say that neither is the way the game is designed to be played. It will definitely work (unless there’s a horrible bug I haven’t found!), but the game will definitely lose quite a bit of what it’s going for (successfully or not) as a social experience.

I will also say that it’s not too long, with fewer choices than most single player games (to accomodate for the extra branching that a second player brings), so playing it over PMs shouldn’t take a long time.

1 Like

When I played in real time with someone, the first game took about half an hour, and the second game less than that. It’s not a huge commitment.

3 Likes

That’s awesome it won’t be a huge time sink. I think it would potentially be neat to have people willing to replay, so others can judge/review.

Although I’m wondering if having experience is a huge advantage in winning (if indeed LNoA can be won) or if an experienced player can sandbag a bit, or whatever. If there’s not too much time investment, I feel it’d be good to give a game like this votes, since it just feels like one people might want to try, but they can’t find someone to play with.

Anyone who played/wrote LNoA, is this a reasonable strategy?

The way that I’ve tried to write it, it’s not about winning or losing so much as expressing and exploring a character’s way of dealing with victory/defeat. If you’d played a lot you would know the actions that were most likely to end in the most favourable outcome for your character, but you can never fully control it from either side, and I believe the main purpose behind replaying would be to see more, rather than to attempt to ‘win’. I’m a very competitive person but I think I (if I hadn’t written it…) would see replaying as an opportunity to explore more of the story, rather than a chance to ‘win’.

So yes, sounds good!

Also remind me not to admit it took me a minute to realise what ‘LNoA’ stands for… I’d say it’s been a long day but it hasn’t.

1 Like

Haha. It hasn’t really for me but I was too lazy to type it out and too thoughtless to properly cut and paste it, so hooray, acronyms.

Thanks again for the general overview. I’m interested, though I suspect any further questions on my end might risk spoilers. I’m looking forward to finding someone to play The Last Night of Alexisgrad with.

1 Like

Oh no LNoA is definitely the better way to say it! Someone else called it Last Night and I’ve been calling it that in my head since. And yeah, there is more I could say but it would be spoilers and I don’t want to cross that line…

1 Like

After reading the post-mortem, I’d be interested in giving this game a shot, probably via Discord/forum PMs/some non-call method. Anybody here interested?

I could play if we are able to get in contact.