En Garde is an Online Glulx interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2018 by Jack Welch. As Faute De Servo, this game was entered in French Comp 2018 where it took 2nd place. The English translation of the game, En Garde, was submitted to IF Comp 2018 where it tied for 14th place.
When this short game begins, your character can't remember where or who they are. To add to your confusion, instead of typing commands, you'll be clicking unlabelled colored buttons where each button corresponds to a command like "east" or "eat". Explore your environment, learn who you are and what happened to you, then solve the remaining problems and save a troubled world.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 8 (English translation) of the game.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.
Firstly, you'll need to play this game online or on a local server. It uses Vorple which requires the HTTP protocol. You can't play it with WinGlulxe or via the file protocol. Sorry.
Secondly, this game is played by clicking hyperlinks. Initially, these hyperlinks appear as unlabelled buttons in different colors on the left side of the screen. The colors are randomized per game session, so I can't direct you by color, only by what each button means or by the buttons' order.
The game begins with a zombie's viewpoint, but the player doesn't know that yet.
The blue place
The first button means "east".
> east. (1st.)
Corridor
The second button means "west".
> west. (2nd.)
The blue place
The third button means "eat".
> eat. (3rd.)
The zombie eats the mouse and somehow absorbs the mouse's thoughts. You are still a human zombie, but now you're controlled by the mouse and have the mouse's perspective. The rooms are relabelled accordingly.
The scary place
> east. (1st.)
Great Hall
The fourth button means "open". The fifth button means "north".
> open. north. (4th. 5th.)
The wolf's den
The "wolf" is actually a dog. The sixth button means "south".
> open. eat. (4th. 3rd.)
The zombie eats the dog's brain, and now mouse and dog co-pilot the zombie. Locations are now seen from the dog's persective. You'll learn his name is Lucky.
My home
The seventh button means "push".
> south. (6th)
Dangerous Passage
> push. east. (7th. 1st.)
The little room
> push. west. (7th. 2nd.)
New corridor
> south. (6th.)
The tiled room
> open. eat. north. (4th. 3rd. 5th.)
New corridor
> open. north. (4th. 5th.)
The kitchen
> open. open. eat. (4th. 4th. 3rd.)
A third mind joins the collective, a slice of brain from Julien the guard, although we don't learn his identity immediately. We now see the building from his perspective. Also, the buttons are finally labelled with words and lose their distinctive colors. A new eighth button, "unlock", is added.
The prep lab
> south.
Corridor, level one
> unlock. west.
The Locker Room
> unlock. north. north.
Stairway (second level)
> unlock. north.
Airlock
You've found a scientist. And there's now a "talk" option.
> talk. talk. talk. talk. talk. eat.
Isabelle's mind is absorbed and she joins the group and we now see the installation from her perspective. A tenth and final button, "repair", is added.
> south. south. south. east.
Level 1: Biocontainment
> push. east.
The elevator
> push. west. unlock. south.
Molecular Synthesis Laboratory
> open. repair. north.
Level 2: Physiological Experiments
> push. east.
The elevator
> push. west. west. north.
Stairway (first level)
> open. repair. south. east.
Level 1: Biocontainment
> push. east.
The elevator
> push. west. south.
Molecular Synthesis Laboratory
You drink a cure on entry. Head for the airlock:
> north.
Level 2: Physiological Experiments
> push. east.
The elevator
> push. west. west. north. north. north.
Airlock
> push. talk. talk. talk. talk.
*** YOU HAVE WON ***
Mentioned:
The following text appears at game's end when you win the game:
> about
This game was originally created as part of the 2018 French Interactive Fiction Competition. The English translation of the game was submitted to the 2018 IFcomp. The game was written in Inform 7. The source code is available on github and is provided under the MIT license. Please report any errors by email to
email redacted.> credits
- Organizers of both competitions.
- Graham Nelson for having conceived and written Inform.
- Authors of the extensions used in this work and its previous versions : Éric Forgeot, Emily Short, Erik Temple, and Juhana Leinonen.
- Ben Collins-Sussman, who painted the cover.
- Proofers and beta-testers: Éric Forgeot, Stéphane Flauder, Brian Rushton, Hugo Labrande, Denise Jobin (original version). Lara Welch, Ben Collins-Sussman, Andrew Schultz, Valentin Koptel'tsev, and David White (English version).
- Corax and Michael Gerwat for accessibility recommendations and testing.
This walkthrough is provided free of charge since the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations. Please consider it a thank you for your support!
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