Photopia

First you're a bombed-out guy in a car with a friend. Next you're an astronaut on Mars on a mission. Then you hear a splash. Then the narrator and plot shift again to match with the color of the times...

Such is the nature of Adam Cadre's Photopia, a 1998 Interactive Fiction work unique in the execution of its narrative and gameplay elements. While relatively brief and puzzle-light compared to many other Interactive Fiction, it uses that time to give you pieces of a large picture that gradually fills in as the game progresses. And when the pieces finally click together... let's just say that there's a reason for the game placing 1st place in its year's Interactive Fiction competition.

In the history of Interactive Fiction, Photopia marked a Genre Turning Point; before Photopia, games often used Mind Screw surrealism or High Fantasy loosely bound by a huge Story Arc. After Photopia, plot and puzzles became more important to the feel of a game, and slice-of-life realism overtook surrealism as the most popular environment in Interactive Fiction.

Download links for the game are here. Cadre has dropped hints of an in-progress movie adaptation.

This game contains examples of:

 * Anachronic Order:
 * But Thou Must: While you can make some different choices, the narrative is extremely linear and nothing you do affects it significantly.
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience - The astronaut story. To brilliant effect, each section of the real life story segues into the astronaut story by a common color. For example: the red of the stoplight from the accident in the beginning segues into Mars' red soil...
 * Not only this part, but the whole game is an example of this trope.
 * Contemplate Our Navels: In-Universe: While Alley and Alley's father are standing underneath the stars, and when asks Alley why her story's kind of apocalyptic and weird.
 * Decoy Protagonist -
 * Dialogue Tree - Evident when Alley's father go stargazing and Alley's date.
 * Fridge Brilliance - Half of what Photopia is about will only hit you after a few play-throughs.
 * Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: You won't fully understand what's going on until later on in the game.
 * Mary Sue: Even the author admitted Alley was a bit too much of this.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - Wendy, the pirate astronaut scavenger who knows kung-fu.
 * No Ending - Well, there is, but with anachronistic order above,
 * Precision F-Strike - There are a few in the introductory scene.
 * Same Face, Different Name - Adam Cadre submitted this game to the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition under the name "Opal O'Donnell", out of fear that people would associate Photopia with his earlier sex farce game I-0.
 * Slice of Life: When you're not the astronaut.
 * Story to Gameplay Ratio: Heavily favoring the "story" side. Don't worry, it's a mix.
 * The All Concealing I: It's not immediately clear who "you" are. Best example:
 * Title Drop: The meaning of the title isn't made clear until the very last scene.
 * The Maze: One of the most discussed aspects of the game is how it subverts this. Specifically,
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: One appears to be a Mind Screw, the other a relatively straightforward plot.
 * Wait, which one is which?
 * Unwinnable: Completely averted; it's impossible to get permanently stuck in the game. The only thing closest to this is the maze.
 * Unwinnable: Completely averted; it's impossible to get permanently stuck in the game. The only thing closest to this is the maze.
 * Unwinnable: Completely averted; it's impossible to get permanently stuck in the game. The only thing closest to this is the maze.