My third game is Messages From The Universe Graveyard by KADW.
At this point I am running alongside Harren who has also just finished Turnadot and decided to go south as well.
In many ways Messages From The Universe Graveyard is an old skool hypertext: you traverse a non-linear web, through links and lookups, and continue until you feel you have seen it all or seen enough. In this work, you explore a series of abandoned worlds. In this way, it’s much like the feeling of Myst— coming to uniquely themed zones and trying to fit together in your mind what must have once happened. As you go along, you read messages left by the original inhabitants, by nomads and exiles, heretics and saints, passing through. And you also read the messages of fellow explorers who have drifted through the dead worlds. They often can guide you to new places, or you can just follow the clues in the text.
I loved this game. It was a real feeling of exploration: I continually felt that I might have found all there was to see before trying one last thread which kept it going and going, discovering many new zones often nested within one another.
But more than that, I loved the messages. The different fictional characters, and the real explorers, and those who I wasn’t sure which was which. I recognised several names like @cchennnn and @mathbrush— both of whom have their own games that appear in this marathon!
And I added to the message logs myself, of course. There are many theories give by fictional and real characters in the logs about what the Universe Graveyard really it. I settled on one of the more mystic, psychophenomenal theories, and I developed and expounded it myself as I travelled around.
Some hints:
- Don’t be afraid to just try numbers with known meanings in our world.
- You don’t have to be completionist about reading logs, but many of them do reward reading and responding.
- Soak in the different characters (real, unreal, unknown). Develop your own perspective on the place as you go and let others know your thoughts.
I hope to return there again some day, and hopefully see messages beyond my own.