Developer Neven Mrgn, one half of The Incident developer Big Bucket Games, has released his new text-based dystopian sci-fi game, Blackbar.
The game, which was co-developed by James Moore of Panic, has similar traits to old text-based adventure games and interactive fiction. Players will become Vi, deciphering a series of letters from Kenty, an employee of the fictional Department of Communication. Letters are filled with blacked out words that must be filled in to progress through the game, eventually leading to a larger conspiracy.
Blackbar is a text game: a sci-fi story of a dystopian future told through the medium of word puzzles. Reminiscent of text adventures and interactive fiction, it has a unique mechanic centered around the concept of censorship. Censorship is frustrating, but the human spirit can beat that frustration by turning it into a game.
You'll pick up and understand Blackbar instantly; however, its challenges will keep you searching, thinking, and trying for days.
Our sister site TouchArcade played Blackbar and thought it was a fun and "incredibly interesting" game:
I'm expecting many more twists and turns throughout the story, all based around deciphering the censorship you're being subjected to. It's incredibly interesting so far. As strange as it sounds, just trying to discover what the censored words are is actually really fun too.
Blackbar is available for $2.99 for the iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]
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Top Rated Comments
A latte at my local coffee shop costs $3.85. That drink entertains me minimally for about 45 minutes.
This game which 2 people put months of work into costs $2.99 and is playable for a couple hours and really tickles your brainparts.
Here's what i put on reddit about it:
If I put my hours into a piece of work, I charge for it.
the only way to change the 99c glut in the app store is to change it. I charge what I do for my work mostly because that's what it's worth and partly to keep away anyone who would pay less.
I got to the screen where I had to enter the character's first name to comply and did so. I thought the ending was pretty weak.
But then I went back and instead of putting in Vi, I put in "NO".
Try it.
you probably won't find anyone who will help you with this one it's close to The End.
Thanks, that did it!
Just a general observation -- some blanks can be filled in with different words. I quit the program and restarted and some blanks had different words than I used. So there is some flexibility.