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Kentucky Route Zero - A Game in Five Acts

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I just finished this and though it was fantastic. Great art, music, writing, everything. I was curious about one decision in the game though:

At the end of the mine section, there's a dialogue choice where you can either have Shannon tell Conway to wait while she goes back into the mine or have Conway say he'll wait. I chose the latter. Do you get to play as Shannon if you pick her dialogue option?

Yes! So what happens if you pick the option to wait there? Do you just sit still for a few moments and then the scene ends?

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Yes! So what happens if you pick the option to wait there? Do you just sit still for a few moments and then the scene ends?

Basically. You can examine a few things in the cart and get some more vague Conway back story, but then after a while the exit option appears and the game doesn't proceed until you click it.

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Basically. You can examine a few things in the cart and get some more vague Conway back story, but then after a while the exit option appears and the game doesn't proceed until you click it.

If you didn't choose to wait..

I just had Shannon find some miners helmets, after which point it cut to Conway leaving the mine. Weirdly enough after I quit and restarted from that point Conway's gait had changed to look like he was limping, wondering if a previous choice affects how he walks

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Hmmm. All this is making me want to go back and play through the game again. Seems like there're more meaningful choices than I originally thought.

How did you avoid limping? In my game Conway hurt his leg during the cave in.

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Oh man there is a lot more to this Act than I thought. My recommendation is to keep on replaying the game, as this is by no means a linear adventure game. Lots of secrets to be found by going back and talking to people you know.

I'm going to try and replicate the stuff that happened in my game Koholint and see if it wasn't glitched or something because the reason I quit was the game freezing after I clicked on the truck.

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Hmmm. All this is making me want to go back and play through the game again. Seems like there're more meaningful choices than I originally thought.

How did you avoid limping? In my game Conway hurt his leg during the cave in.

I don't think you can avoid that. I picked the two dialogue options that indicated he was fine and it still happened.

I really liked waiting in the mine cart for her to return. The pause in between the 'look' options felt very natural. Like Conway was sitting there, maybe a little nervous in the dark, waiting for her to return and to keep himself busy he just slowly looks at whats around. It reminds me of waiting for someone to get changed or come out of the bathroom in a house you've never been to and you aren't comfortable in, and kinda silently standing in one spot just looking around the room.

Thats my vibe I get though. Can't wait for the rest of the series.

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What an interesting game this is!

After watching Patrick and Ryan play through a bit of the first chaper during their Quick Look, I had to see the rest of the chapter. I chose the $7 single chapter option, mostly because I have never played a game like KRZ before, though I don't really agree with either price point. $25 seemed too steep of an initial investment from a curiosity standpoint, while $7 per episode of roughly an hour of playtime doesn't seem quite right either. Perhaps I'm just being cheap.

This game is oozing with atmosphere. I love the art style, the kind, southern dialogue choices, the foggy mysteries, and so much more.

I'm happy to see that it has been greenlit! I was just fixin' to post the link here to hopefully get some more votes, but no need.

I'm really looking forward to seeing more from this game! As for now, another exploration through the first chapter...

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There's so many things that ACT I did great. * sigh*

I love the dreamlike atmosphere and construct of the text-only episodes on the road and the eeriness of the interactions with most characters: it feels like if Conway had more time or could ask the right questions, he and I would find the thread that links all those things together; but it's always floating - unfocused - slightly out of reach. No other game/movie/book has evoked dream logic so well to me.

I love the impromptu change of POV.

I LOVE the art style and the sound design. And the insane craftsmanship and artfulness that can be found in the joint work on camera movement, lighting and set design (the transitions between all the states in the farm is sickeningly genius).

I love the fact that the dialog systems recognizes that there are only so many questions and topics a single conversation can possibly allow. I love that this design guarantee the pace and tone of character interaction. I love that this design knowingly leaves wide holes in the characterization and background, yet, because the options are there, it doesn't feel arbitrary at all.

I love the horseshoe go-to pointer animation. There's a few kinks in mouse position detection and there are few glitch in the camera framing system, but that's all.

Basically, it's FAN-TAS-TIC and I think it is on par with Journey and Windowsill as a pure, un-contrived game experience

I regret not backing their Kickstarter; but back then, the game felt completely different; and I would love to know how that change came to be.

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Did anyone find Carraway in Act One? I met him at Equus Oils, but he found his car and I didn't see him again, though it's possible he's a character for the later Acts.

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Have been excited for this for a while, since seeing that awesome trailer a ways back. It got Greenlit on Steam so I only have to wait a little bit longer to check it out. RPS compared it favorably with Gabriel Garcia Marquez which is a huge endorsement for me. Glad you have favorable opinions as well.

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Yes! So what happens if you pick the option to wait there? Do you just sit still for a few moments and then the scene ends?

Basically. You can examine a few things in the cart and get some more vague Conway back story, but then after a while the exit option appears and the game doesn't proceed until you click it.

Just wanna add to that:

After you've examined the cart and go outside there's a shack there that wasn't there before, that has some diaries in it - they're records by Shannon's aunt and uncle (the academics, Weaver's Parents). If you pick the Shannon option and go see the helmets, the shack isn't there when you come out of the mine.

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Just wanna add to that:

After you've examined the cart and go outside there's a shack there that wasn't there before, that has some diaries in it - they're records by Shannon's aunt and uncle (the academics, Weaver's Parents). If you pick the Shannon option and go see the helmets, the shack isn't there when you come out of the mine.

That's so great.

Dialogue options in games are so strange. Usually, I have no desire to replay a game for the conversations options I didn't choose the first time, because usually I can guess more or less how those other options will play out in the game's narrative. Games like this one, and I think the Walking Dead as well, do such a great job at making legitimately divergent story lines that they more than justify going back and reexamining everything.

Impatiently waiting the second Act now.

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Dialogue options in games are so strange. Usually, I have no desire to replay a game for the conversations options I didn't choose the first time, because usually I can guess more or less how those other options will play out in the game's narrative. Games like this one, and I think the Walking Dead as well, do such a great job at making legitimately divergent story lines that they more than justify going back and reexamining everything.

In that way it's like Walking Dead, it's true. But it's interesting how non-obvious it was. The Walking Dead is very "THIS IS A CHOICE! LOOK! IMPORTANT CHOICE HERE!". Which suits it because it wants you to feel like your choices are stressful, critical. The first time I played through KRZ, it seemed like the dialogue options I picked had no effect on the story anyway, so I assumed they didn't. Whatever question you asked, it seemed like you got info about the other two options anyway, so I felt like it was almost more of a stylistic thing: What attitude do you want to give this character? Are they interested in other characters or on-mission?

But replaying though, I realised not just how different the dialogue was, but how many other 'choices' I'd missed. It seems like almost the opposite of The Walking Dead - only a couple of the choices that affect the scenes you see are direct dialogue options, or obvious choices in any way. I think I missed more than half the content of the game the first time just by choosing to do minimum the game has suggested you do, (just going where it tells you, being slightly afraid that diverging from instructions would lead to some bad end), rather than be a bit more curious. So I just missed whole scenes that could have been part of my narrative, missed seeing things that could be seen in other ways.

It's great in that it's not a game that's all "AHA! Gotcha!" for trusting the game, but at the same time, it rewards you a lot for being curious (suspicious?) about exactly where you are and what's going on.

When I realised that the game was so quiet about choice and opportunity costs etc, it gave me a little whoa moment when I wondered about all the choices in my life that seemed so inconsequential but might have made things go very very differently. I think that maybe explains why I liked Walking Dead's fairly constrained story - I like to think that there are too many over-arching forces on my life for any one little choice to have thrown the overall outcome too much.

Yeah, can't wait for the next one.

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The idea of it being stylistic rather than deterministic is a good one! As opposed to feeling the stress and being Lee in The Walking Dead, I feel like the narrator of Kentucky Route Zero, not necessarily a diegetic agent in the form of some character - which in itself is a nice illusion. Sure, I am controlling Conway but the two different viewpoints suggest a slightly larger scope: like this is more about the mythology of Route Zero (which, whenever mentioned in text, was actually subtly animated - that was a nice touch!).

I can't help but think there is a certain detachment from the characters. Maybe that's just because we haven't spent that much time with them yet. I am really interested if there are more characters and if the current one remains persistent throughout the different episodes.

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And here's the follow-up to that interview where they talk more about Act II (coming in March, hopefully!): http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/23/what-lies-ahead-for-kentucky-route-zero/

My favorite part of both interviews was when they discussed the literary influences on the game. One of the reason I enjoyed the first act so much was because it perfectly captured the feeling of reading a Southern gothic novel, the atmosphere, dialogue, everything. Can't wait for the next installment.

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I really enjoyed everything about the first episode. Even though seemingly unnerving at some points, the spooky atmospheric style never really had me concerned that I was ever in danger of having something jump out at me, which I tend to not mind when I am playing games that call for it. Even the small addition of the horse shoe indicator added a nice touch to the style. Really looking forward to the next installment.

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I finally got the game and... I kinda expected more blue grass music, instead I got eerie ambient sounds.

You want game this reminds me a bit of? Home, but with dialogue options. I got a little lost trying to find the tackle shop the girl mentions and found

a museum that seemed abandoned, I kinda broke into a room but couldn't do anything with it, I wonder if take effect in the next act of the game? I also found two half naked men pushing a plane...

If this game really is like Home I expect how you play the game will change how you think about the game... My opinion is

it's haunted, it might only be because I chose that option early, which would make more like home, but having the route appear out of nowhere was pretty Silent Hill-y for me. Has anybody played it skeptic and had less spookiness?

So will this game continue with the adventures of the duo with the doggie or will it be different people each act?

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You want game this reminds me a bit of? Home, but with dialogue options. I got a little lost trying to find the tackle shop the girl mentions and found

a museum that seemed abandoned, I kinda broke into a room but couldn't do anything with it, I wonder if take effect in the next act of the game?

There's a little more to it, let me know if you want more hints

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There's a little more to it, let me know if you want more hints

What more is there to do? My character fumbled in the darkness and couldn't find a thing there.

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What more is there to do? My character fumbled in the darkness and couldn't find a thing there.

Go some other places on the map until one gives you instructions & sends you back to the museum

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So "Kentucky Root Zero" could totally be a diet root beer.

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