Key & Compass presents:
An Informal Time
by Anonymous

In this small, surreal, buggy experiment, you play as a self-aware protagonist in a barely-begun adventure game. You soon fall out of the game into Inform's compass, make your way through the world model, and confront the parser itself.

This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the work.

SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of a work of interactive fiction. Please make an honest effort to play the work before reading this walkthrough.

Map
Walkthrough
Extras
- Characters, Inventory, Score
Thank You to my Patreon supporters
Support me on Ko-Fi
External links:
- *This work* at IFDB, and IFWiki.
- Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Map

Walkthrough

Blank Room

> x lounge. x me. (err... That must be an error, right?)

> n. (You fall to...)

The compass (in the down)

NOTE: The paper must be examined, or the XYZZY command won't work.

> x lantern. take lantern. x paper.

> out. xyzzy.

World

> x clock. x counter. x walkway. x chandelier.

> n.

Contents

> x stick. take it. wave stick.

> x items.

> s.

World

> x clock. x sign. x attendant.

> x chandelier. x counter. x walkway.

> ask attendant about ANYTHING. ("The... the... compile... no...")

> s.

A to Z

> n. u. (The walkway crashes just as you get to...)

Errors

> n.

Compiling Room

> x pedestal. x book. ("Standard Rules" by Graham Nelson)

> x screen. take book.

An alarm sounds, guards are running to you from south. You run... and the book is fake... and you're back at...

Compiling Room (now with evil chicken)

> x screen. (The evil chicken says you'll never find the standard rules! Also claims to be the parser.)

> x chicken.

> i. i. i.

> smell —or— jump —or— drat. (+10000. The screen explodes.)

*** Generic ending! ***

As near as I can tell, that's also the only ending to this game.

Extras

Characters

An attendant is sitting in the World after everything crashes.
Some guards briefly chase you when you take the book from the pedestal.
An evil-looking chicken is on the screen in the Compiling Room when you return there without the book. It claims to be the parser, and it seems to have gone a bit mad.

Mentioned:

Graham Nelson wrote the Standard Rules.
A hollow voice says "Fool!" whenever you say XYZZY (unless you're in Compass and you have read the paper).

Inventory

a brass lantern. It's in down in the Compass.

Take it, get out of the down, and examine the lantern. Read the paper that's stuck to it.
I don't understand how the paper is coded at all, why you can't see it when you examine the lantern originally.
As near as I can tell, you don't really need the lantern.

a long stick. It's in Contents.

You don't need this stick for anything. You can ignore it.

the Standard Rules. It's on the pedestal in Compiling Room.

When you take it, guards chase you, and you lose it. But now there's an evil chicken on the screen.

Score

The response to SCORE is:

You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 10000, in several turns.

Points are awarded as follows:

10000 points when you smell, jump, or say a swear word in front of the evil chicken.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

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!

I create larger walkthroughs too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.

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Key & Compass presents: An Informal Time by Anonymous