The demo ends with a resurrection, of sorts. Temple, garden, or no context at all, it doesn’t affect how events play out, but it affects the context in which those events take place, and thus in some small way it affects everything. This is the magic of the Ink Engine: Small choices, so small they’re insignificant, that still manage to have widespread repercussions because they affect the way the player thinks. Thus I missed both “Temple” and “Garden,” relying on my own instincts to tell me the story of these ruins. There’s a path around the side, and I made a beeline for it-assuming, rightfully, that the gate was locked. Maybe the player doesn’t even spot this translation at all. The first word, for example, probably means either “Garden” or “Temple.” Aliya gives you a few possibilities to work with. That means using the environment to inform your efforts. As Inkle’s Joseph Humfrey told me last year, “You’re sort-of doing the process an archaeologist would if they looked at cuneiform.” IDG / Hayden Dingman Still, it’s in a language wholly foreign-because it’s invented. It’s likely the first translation players encounter in this build, and a relatively simple one, only three words. As you approach the gate into the ruins, an ivy-covered placard on the wall beckons. Then Aliya and Six take their accumulated knowledge and jet off to the next adventure.īut even where the framework is the same, context can differ wildly. And at the end of the demo? You likely come into contact with the preserved consciousness of an ancient being, or maybe just their memories. Up the hill from your ship there’s a large complex of ruins, which you explore at your leisure, and probably translate more than a few words in an unknown language. Playing as space-archaeologist Aliya Elasra, you arrive on an abandoned but verdant planet with your robot companion Six.
Having now run the demo four times myself, I believe him.
At GDC, Inkle’s Jon Ingold told me he’d seen four people run the demo and it played out four different ways. There’s something about Inkle’s games though, the way every tiny choice branches in a dozen different ways, the way the Ink Engine resurfaces small decisions in interesting ways.
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