Blue Chairs
Encyclopedia
Blue Chairs is an interactive fiction
game by Chris Klimas. It claimed the #2 prize at the Interactive Fiction Competition
2004, praised for its inventive style and rich storytelling. Subsequently, it received the awards for Best Game
, Best Writing and Best Story at the annual Xyzzy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Individual Puzzle, Best NPCs, and Best Individual PC.
The piece opens at a party
, where a man offers the player a bottle of a mysterious green fluid. After drinking it, the PC passes out, but is shortly awoken by a man bringing a phone message from a long-lost love. The game then explores the player's experiences of what may be a hallucination
, and may be reality.
Notable segments include a fantasy about being elected President in the desert, some "wine" which enhances dancing skills, and a network of tunnels hidden in the back of a freezer.
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
game by Chris Klimas. It claimed the #2 prize at the Interactive Fiction Competition
Interactive Fiction Competition
The Interactive Fiction Competition is one of the best known of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours playing a game before deciding how many points to award it...
2004, praised for its inventive style and rich storytelling. Subsequently, it received the awards for Best Game
XYZZY Award for Best Game
This is a list of XYZZY Awards results, grouped by award rather than year. The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given by the publication "XYZZYnews" to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film...
, Best Writing and Best Story at the annual Xyzzy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Individual Puzzle, Best NPCs, and Best Individual PC.
The piece opens at a party
Party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, or recreation. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing as well....
, where a man offers the player a bottle of a mysterious green fluid. After drinking it, the PC passes out, but is shortly awoken by a man bringing a phone message from a long-lost love. The game then explores the player's experiences of what may be a hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
, and may be reality.
Notable segments include a fantasy about being elected President in the desert, some "wine" which enhances dancing skills, and a network of tunnels hidden in the back of a freezer.