fin de sickleburg

"fin de sickleberg" is an interactive gothic short story about a man undressing for bed after a night at the opera. It is incredibly brief, takes place in one room, utilizes a limited set of verbs, and has three possible endings, each revealing a little more about the player character than the last (if reached in their intended order). To say much else would spoil the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the prose, and the limited verb set kept the possibilities manageable enough that finding all three endings was relatively easy. That is not to say I had no issues with the endings...

The first ending came easily enough; following the most logical course of actions got me there quickly. My second play-through was a bit more awkward though; I ultimately resorted to trying every verb on every noun, which resulted in my reaching the third and juiciest ending ahead of schedule. On my third play, I wanted to see if the sequence of events had any effect so I (Spoiler - click to show)jumped straight ahead to the command that had yielded me the previous ending; this took me straight to the second ending, which was a bit more vague and inconclusive than the third. I was a little disappointed that endings 2 and 3 were so closely related and reached in such a similar manner, especially considering the brevity of the story. Reaching them in the wrong order probably deflated some horror that should've escalated instead, but oh well... I found the first and third endings sufficiently creepy anyway.

I'd recommend this if you like gothic/horror/weird fiction and/or short text games that can be experienced in a few minutes.

Fin de Sickleburg is very short one-room game by Caleb Wilson, author of Lime Ergot. It's so short, in fact, that to say anything about the subject matter would be to give too much away. This one has multiple endings and a limited verb set, which means that you have to get quite creative with the way you use the commands to find all three endings. The writing is well-crafted, creepy and atmospheric, and very fitting for the Gothic horror genre. Each of the three endings reveals a little more about the player character and the game world, so it's well worth making the effort to find them all. It took me less than ten minutes. Good fun if you're a fan of Gothic horror and have a few minutes to spare.

This is a very short game: a ten minutes or so. It has three different endings, it's a easy game, well written, almost simulacionist, replayable untill getting all the endings.
This game reminds me "The phantom of the opera" and has a Fallen London flavour becouse of its overtones.

-Jade