Hello again, I am now stuck on the horror caves section and would appreciate some hints. I’ve gotten the scrolls from the burning room and the insect room, not sure how to progress from here. I know there’s a stalker in the dead end room, but haven’t managed to interact with them. What do I do with the Virox spell?
Have you tried flying around different places?
Virox[/spoiler] will always kill you. You can make that death useful, but not with [spoiler]the stalker
Specifically, that spell is for killing the enormous underwater creature.
Thank you! I did try flying but didn’t try going north. I think I tried going down, died, then mentally crossed out flying in the vast chamber as a possibility.
I’m now in the destroyed recorder timeline and think I’ve found a bug. Antonio in Cryostorage doesn’t seem to be properly implemented (? is that the word?) since examining him or giving him things doesn’t work. Was briefly confused when “give salt to Antonio” returned an error, but simply “give salt” did the trick.
Also this is a nitpick but there is a typo in the zoo, specifically the goat’s left horn description: “The buck’s left horn is about the width of your armOn it hangs a logic ring…”
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Thanks for the bug reports! The antonio bug was because I only told the game to recognize the name ‘yang’. I just changed it to recognize either ‘yang’ or ‘antonio’. I also fixed the typo. This will be in the next version.
Would you like to be included in the credits?
Sure, glad to have helped!
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I’ve now come back and played through the other two endings - thank you for such an impressive game! It was my first parser game in a while and I had a lot of fun with it.
One last question, what was in the rift in the train station? Couldn’t activate it apparently because it was too dark, and I never figured out how to get another light source.
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It leads to the central hub, same as the others.
But, there really is no way to open it. I could add another light source, but it could mess up the timing as the player is supposed to get pretty far before accessing the cave dimension. The easiest thing would be to just make the tool glow when on the higher settings like ‘connector’.
Thanks for finishing it and sharing your thoughts.
If I can figure out a way to add light, and if I can find a way to fix the ‘midnight bug’ (where events break down if you start them before midnight and end them after midnight) I’ll release version 3. I really appreciate you and all others who have shared bugs!
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This is an amazingly fun game, bravo!! I’m stuck on what to do after getting the seventh shard…I’ve revisited everywhere I can think of looking for the eighth and last one, but must be missing something! A nudge in the right direction would really be appreciated.
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Oh, that’s great!
The shards are dynamically allocated, so where they show up is different from game to game. Every area has a shard in it, behind an octagon door. There’s a good chance that there’s just one octagon door you found a while ago but forget to go back to.
They can be found in the following locations:
Spoilers
- In the attic of the haunted house
- In the gift shop of the wax museum
- In the police station off the train
- In the very first room of the spell region that has the crystal in it
- In one of the locker rooms in the robot area
- In the cave under the cabin
- In the penninsula in the zoo
- In the black pillar in the monuments region, in front of the library
There may be a portal you saw earlier in one of those spots that can now be opened.
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Oh thank you! I think it must be the one in the zoo. Appreciate your quick reply (and for the most fun I’ve had in IF since swiping my Dad’s Infocom games). 
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Thanks, that’s really encouraging, and I’m glad it worked out!
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Just finished the game! (Digital standing ovation) 
It was a beautifully done, thought-provoking, and importantly, fun. Your descriptions made all the environments feel so alive, making me want to examine/look at every nook and cranny. I think my favorite part was the murder mystery (loved linking the clues for deductions) but the horror cave spell puzzles were a close second. [Were all the stone people in the village inactive nano-bot avatars of the people onboard the future ship?]
I only got to complete the ‘heroic’ ending as for some reason none of my saves would restore, but I think that was the canon ending anyway. I played the game entirely on the Frotz app over a few days recovering from flu, and it was the perfect remedy. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into making this.
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Thanks! The murder mystery was the most fun to work on. And thanks for voting in the ending poll!
Your guess is absolutely right about the stone.
I’m sorry about the save corruption! I know you likely won’t want to play more after such a long game, but if you want to ever explore the other endings, the commands xyzarawn and xyzidris should take you right to the endings. You found the best one, though.
Thanks again!
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David Welbourn has made a walkthrough for this game, which was quite a bit of work (he said it took several months):
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I just realized through reading the walkthrough that there’s an actual hint to the cannons puzzle! I had that bug in the library, so I never saw the manga and got through it just by trial-and-error and documenting what each cannon did.
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