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Jason Rohrer's Sleep Is Death

Campfire_Burning

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Campfire_Burning

Campfire_Burning

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http://www.sleepisdeath.net/

Sleep Is Death, the new game from Passage creator Jason Rohrer, is a two-player title that blends the interactive fiction of tabletop role-playing games with the mechanics of point and click adventures, and wraps it all up in 8-bit sound and graphics. Using an Internet connection one player is the protagonist, and interacts with world as if it were a game. The other player controls all other elements of the world, from scenery to sound, objects to characters. Together, the two of you take it in 30-second turns to craft a story.

There are lots of examples of these stories on the website, from the slide show detailing what the game's about to the glowing previews from various gaming websites. Obviously this isn't going to appeal to everyone, but for the people who frequent the Fighting Fantasy and RPG threads in Off-Topic, or various threads in the Creative Design forum, this could be a dream come true.

The game's currently available for pre-order. Each purchase nets you two copies - one for you and one for a friend - and allows you both to download the game a week before the proper release for a discounted price.

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Qazimod

Qazimod

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I tweeted about this yesterday morning; it's a brilliant concept, and reminds me of those RPG things I hear about where one player's a dungeon master and scripts an experience for the others. Pre-ordered, in any case; it looks brilliantly entertaining.

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Campfire_Burning

Campfire_Burning

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I thought sleep was only the cousin of death?

I'm pretty sure the title is a metaphor for the quick-thinking creativity the game relies upon. Rohrer said he didn't give the name a more generic yet descriptive title because he wanted to colour people's experiences with it.

I had two other people (aside from Michael and Qazimod) who pre-ordered it as soon as they heard about it, and since every order comes with two copies of the game it has the potential to be really big. All the hands-on previews of it have featured completely different styles of story, from existential examinations of good and evil, to absurdist comedies, to a period tale told partially in flashback with the player playing two generations of the same family. In an interview with Edge Magazine Rohrer talks about how he playtested it with his wife, having her play as him in a role-reversed episode from their own life where she'd had to be hospitalised after a severe asthma attack and he was worried she might die when he was away from her bedside. The scope of the thing is incredible.

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Campfire_Burning

Campfire_Burning

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I'm one of the impulse pre-orderers; I think this has so much scope I can't wait to give it a shot! Not sure what to do with my second copy of the game; I presume if I want to play with my wife I'll need to install one on my iMac and the other on my MacBook, so won't have one to give away.

Can't wait to see how it handles connecting you with someone; I presume you'll need to connect directly, rather than using a lobby or meeting randoms? Not sure if that's a waste or not; while there'll be a lot of tat out there, I quite like the idea of randomly playing something very moving with someone I've never met.

You can connect over the Internet using IP numbers. It sounds a bit unwieldy - there's talk of having to open ports and such - but it was designed to be played by two people in the same room, directly connecting their computers together. Rohrer's reasoning behind this is both to foster those kinds of intimate stories between friends (while avoiding dodgy stories from randoms about talking penises) and so each player can hear how the other reacts to his or her last move.

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LongHairStu

LongHairStu

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I think this would work for my Mum. I'm away the next couple of days, and if I leave it to her she may not get it done, so I guess I'd better take the plunge... No big loss if it doesn't work out with me and her, I'll just come back here and request an online game.

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elmo

elmo

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Play it with Dad Turners

I might let him have a go at some point.

One thing that i worry about though, how long will it take the game maker to knock something together? I've got a feeling it might take a little while.

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Qazimod

Qazimod

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Well you're only allowed 30 seconds per turn whether you're a creator or player, so I'm guessing you just search for items from the database and throw them into the mix along with a bit of logic and narrative. Thinking about it, it might feel a little like Scribblenauts' title screen with regards for freestyle object generation...

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Campfire_Burning

Campfire_Burning

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Judging from the preview on Rock Paper Shotgun you can change the length of time you require for turns. All the other previews have had it set at 30 seconds - this one mentions it being set at 60.

You can both set things up in advance and generate them on the fly. One example of on-the-hop object generation is shown in the RPS preview, with Rohrer drawing a blue oval on the lid of a toilet to make it look like the player has lifted the lid. But presumably now both the players have an 'open toilet' object in their libraries, that they can use in any future games.

A couple of the more recent previews have reused assets from some of the earlier ones, but while the rooms, objects, scenarios and characters are the same, the stories that unfold are different. So you could plan out a story with specially-created rooms, objects and characters, and plan as much as you can in advance, or you could just use things in the library and wing it.

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Retroid

Retroid

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So this is like an 8-bit, two-player, Second Life, played 30 seconds at a time?

No, not really. The other player creates the mechanics during the 30 seconds he has to respond to the other player. So the player can do anything he wants in any depth at all. Say if the player decides to pick up a sword, put it into a wall and climb on top of it, the other guy would have to put a sprite of him on top of a sword stuck in the wall within the 30 seconds he's got.

People are the mechanics behind the game.

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Campfire_Burning

Campfire_Burning

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No, not really. The other player creates the mechanics during the 30 seconds he has to respond to the other player. So the player can do anything he wants in any depth at all. Say if the player decides to pick up a sword, put it into a wall and climb on top of it, the other guy would have to put a sprite of him on top of a sword stuck in the wall within the 30 seconds he's got.

People are the mechanics behind the game.

Or have him slice his fingers off in the process.

Or have the wall scream and then berate him for stabbing it.

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