NAME

       passage - a game about the passage through life

SYNOPSIS

       passage

DESCRIPTION

       Passage is a video game written by Jason Rohrer about navigating the maze that is life and the obstacles,
       rewards,  disappointments,  challenges,  relationships  and  the inevitable departure that is part of the
       adventure of life.

       Passage is an art game. As a result, some people love it and some people hate it. Check out the links  to
       places it has been discussed on the website for some of the reactions.

       The  mechanics  of  the  game  are  fairly simple. Your "score" is related to two things; exploration and
       treasure. Treasure pieces are represented by blue stars that you find in the  treasure  chests  scattered
       about  the maze of life's challenges. Some chests will be empty, so you must learn which sequence of gems
       on the front of the chests means treasure is inside.  You have the option to team up with  a  spouse.  If
       you do, exploring life will be more rewarding but some treasure will no longer be reachable.  As in life,
       your  spouse  will  die  and  that death will slow you down.  In the end, you will die alone after your 5
       minutes is up.

       The most interesting part about this game is the emotions it evokes within the player of  the  game.  The
       ultra-low-res  pixel  art  helps here, by not being too distracting and by leaving plenty room for viewer
       interpretation.

       The followup to Passage is Gravitation, another art game by Jason Rohrer.

USAGE

       Passage has no command-line options.

       The arrow keys move the player around.

       The Esc key is used to quit the game.

       The game resolution and use of fullscreen or a window can be set by editing the files in /etc/passage.

SEE ALSO

       The website and discussion: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/

       The game creators statement: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/statement.html

                                                   March 2008                                         passage(6)