Kentucky Route Zero: A Game In Five Acts | ACT FOUR!!! OUT NOW!!

TychoCelchuuu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCz9T5NgYJQ



From the developers of Wikipedia vs. Predator and this guy comes Kentucky Route Zero. The game is five acts long and so far Acts 1-4 are out.



The game was funded on Kickstarter and it's "a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky and the mysterious folks who travel it." It's one of my favorite games of all time. It's hard to describe how good it is.



Basically everyone who plays this game loves it. It's out on Steam and also on the official site.



Check out the related free short games: Limits & Demonstrations, The Entertainment, and Here and There Along the Echo.

HeirTransparent

I backed their Kickstarter in Jan. 2011 and had pretty much given up on ever seeing this game released. Good to see they have a projected release date. Seems like a really neat concept. I guess I have a thing for weird games.

TychoCelchuuu

Article on Rock Paper Shotgun with not much more info. But hey, it's a thing.

TychoCelchuuu

It's on Greenlight now.

Linespider5

I appreciate the fact that this game didn't fall off the face of the earth, but at the same time I get a strong sense that the overall look and feel of the game has significantly changed. Which, may be fine. The original trailer only gave hints of what the game was about, so I don't really have a leg to stand on if I try to say things are different now...

The new version does look a lot slicker now and more professionally made, but I liked the original version a lot. It looked really intimate, you know?

TychoCelchuuu

Definitely. I wasn't a huge fan of the original art style and I really like the new look, but it's certainly very different now, and I could imagine someone having fallen in love with what it used to look like and not being too thrilled with the slightly more generic style that it has now. At least the game itself is still likely to be just as weird.

TychoCelchuuu

Great interview with one of the developers.

TychoCelchuuu

Whoa. Act 1 just got released. I don't have free time all of a sudden but if anyone else wants to play it and tell us how it is that would be sweet.

cooljammer00

Looks great but I know dick all about it.

Adda

They just got a load of IGF finalist nominations as well so they will get a free pass onto Steam if they choose to accept it.

TychoCelchuuu

Rock Paper Shotgun interview with spoilers.

Linespider5

Just plunked down for this last night. Only played a little, but...I like it. I like it a lot. The atmosphere it really wonderful at the unconventional art direction really shines.

Feels a little like Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and a little like David Lynch in his mellower moments.

TychoCelchuuu

A new game by the developers is out: Limits & Demonstrations. It's set in the same universe/with the same awesome art/etc. And it's very short and also its free. Here's an article on it.

TychoCelchuuu

This is on Steam now. It's weird to see the PA thread so quiet - everywhere else I've posted about the game, people have really loved it.

TehSpectre

How is it? I like quirky point & clicks.

elevature

They've been talking this game up a whole lot on Idle Thumbs. I'm not a huge point and click fan but I'm interested in this one.

TychoCelchuuu

TehSpectre wrote: »

How is it? I like quirky point & clicks.

I have not heard a single bad thing about it from anyone who has played it. If you have 15 minutes to kill, Limits and Demonstrations is a good way to get a bit of a taste of what you'd be getting into with Kentucky Route Zero.

Linespider5

I don't know how deeply planned the whole thing is, or if the developers are just inviting people to read into it as much as they want, or whatever, but...

...from what IS shown and demonstrated in the first Act, there is a lot of care and intent placed in the project. I really want to know more.

Bastable

It's soothing and thought provoking, lovely game.

TychoCelchuuu

The latest Idle Thumbs episode is about this game, among others, and from what I hear it has no spoilers aside from some very early stuff and an easter egg.

TychoCelchuuu

25% off on Steam!

Linespider5

I snagged the whole set when they first made the offer.

Speaking of which...the Second Act should be coming sometime in the next few weeks. I'm really curious how the next Act will build on what they've started.

TychoCelchuuu

Breathe In The Road: Cardboard Computer and Kentucky Route Zero on Polygon.

Linespider5

I don't say this so much anymore, but the people on Polygon really set up an intriguing layout for their article.

I'm kinda, uh...politely waiting for Act 2. You know. I'm sure the stress and people's expectations have to be a bit hard to weather, especially if something's not working right as expected or some assets died on the table or something, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for any group of people working on an ongoing, personal project (ahem) that may unexpectedly become difficult or challenging at a point in development no one saw coming, or...whatever...but I hope we get that new stuff soon.

Politely waiting for Act 2.

EDIT/Update:

Cardboard Computer's Twitter says Act 2 is delayed by a couple of weeks. :-(

Linespider5

From the KRZ Newsletter for April:

Act II

Our goal for Act II has been to release it by the end of April (our general development goal is three months per act). All this exciting but unexpected work setting up distribution, going out to IGF, and troubleshooting for a larger number of players than we anticipated took up a lot of our time in the last few months, so we're pushing the release of Act 2 back a few weeks, into mid-May.

Hopefully...soon?

In the meantime, Cardboard Computer has released a teaser image for Act II that harkens back to some classic optical illusions, and possibly an 80's Ford Escort: (note: large image is large) kentuckyroutezero.com/newsletter-april/KrzAct2ForestPrint.png

Stay tuned.

TychoCelchuuu

Act 2 is out now!

Linespider5

Oy. I know it's finally out, but I also happen to be in mid-move, recovering from the crazies of getting all my stuff into boxes and getting the boxes across town and then getting the Internet up and running and my gosh I'ma drop and sleep for four hours now and...

I want to thank Cardboard Computer for being cool and automatically setting me up with a Humble Store key set, seeing as how I bought the Complete edition what feels like an age ago and never really had any sort of profile to auto update the future Acts.

Really looking forward to playing this tomorrow.

Lalabox

Level 3 of that building was everything I could have possibly hoped for it to be.

Linespider5

Oh, wow. Act 2 reconnects with the world from Act 1. nice

Thirith

Sad to see there's this little discussion of this absolute gem. The art direction and writing are magnificent - although definitely not according to everyone's taste, I'd imagine. Such a wonderful mix of unsettling, nostalgic and many other feelings I don't even have a name for. I remember seeing an early trailer for this on RPS and disliking the visual style a lot; after they changed it, though, it's become one of the most visually striking games I've ever played.

I do wonder where they'll take the game - but since it's not heavily based on plot, I'm not too worried about them botching the landing. It's a cliché, but KRZ is definitely more about the journey than the destination.

cooljammer00

I probably would have jumped on this at 12 dollars if it had won that sale vote.

desc

How I love this game. 8->

Serious_Scrub

cooljammer00 wrote: »

I probably would have jumped on this at 12 dollars if it had won that sale vote.

Good News! It's now a steam daily deal for 50% off.

Drake

I played through the first act in the first chapter today.

It is hitting all the notes I wanted it to hit and it is doing so sublimely. It's like being in a Tom Robbins novel.

Ynuu

This game! I'm really enjoying it, making my way through Acts I & II a second time now to see what's seeped in.

A bunch of things I'm thinking about and some spoilery details from Act 1:

So, Weaver Marquez. I didn't pick up on this at all the first time, I think in large part because I didn't choose any of Shannon's more non-sequitory [seeming] responses in that first conversation, but it seems like she's pretty dead. Might be pretty dead. Just a bunch of suggestions in that direction, like when Shannon first meets Conway she can ask if he's from the power company or if he believes in ghosts. I feel like I might have just been hugely unobservant the first time through, not heeding Weaver's demand that I pay attention. Still, though!

If you follow the ghost line of conversation, you talk a bit about haunting, about whether or not a person can be haunted - like they're half there, half somewhere else sort of thing. Shannon also talks about Weaver in the past tense a lot, or rather starts to do so and then kind of interrupts herself. Weaver is described as just 'appearing' places. And the sink in the house she's staying in doesn't appear to have been used for a long time. That was probably a less subtle suggestion.

The conversation you have with Weaver also kind of hints at this. The "I never learn new things" bit in particular, if you happen across that piece.

Then, there's the mine, which is less about Weaver specifically and more generally death and poverty. First of all, and I read this somewhere else on these forums, but the mine is really rather creepy if you leave the lamp off. I highly recommend it. Also, that last question at the end, whether or not you answer with Conway or Shannon about exploring the mine changes things, I wasn't expecting that. If Shannon answers, you explore one of the mine passages a bit (what I did the first time) and come across some pretty disquieting stuff.

With Conway, you just sit on the trolley for a bit. Turning off the lamp yields dividends here as well, with another bit hinting at Weaver being a ghost.

Anyway, just some thoughts. Probably others picked up on this much easier, but I thought it was all pretty cool to see on the second time. Having so much exposition in conversation branches has given me a fairly different impression of things the second time around, it's pretty neat. I'm excited about going through Act 2 again now, given the amount of 'I don't know what's going on here but I like it (#floor3)' all up ins.

Linespider5

Weaver:

Possibly very large spoiler:

Yeah, there's a real specific line she has in Act 1, where she mentions her sister and says something along the lines of, "We used to be the same age but she's older now" and that kind of puts it right where it sounds like it might go. I kinda think they're all dead in this game, maybe. The old guy mentions an awful crash involving a truck when you speak with him the very first time when the game starts. I think everyone's dead.

Ynuu

Oh, right! I remember getting that line the first time through but I didn't pick up on the other bits, so I thought it was just an odd phrase. Good catch!

Act 1 & II, big ole spoilers and such:

Ah right, the bit about the truck full of whiskey bottles or something. I suppose they could all be dead, that'd be a way of explaining some of the oddities. At least the people involved with the Zero - Weaver, Joseph (incidentally, Lula mentions he has a cat (which is nowhere to be seen in Act I when you're talking to Joseph) and you can, at one point, observe a cat outside of the Bureau. Granted, there could be more than one cat in Kentucky, but-), Lula, and Ezra. Dunno about Shannon and Conway, though.

I'm not sure what to make of the museum, though. It's not on the Zero but it's got its share of weirdness. I think it might actually be a normal place (if founded on a weird premise), and Ezra/Julien act as a kind of Charon figure. Like, the people he 'takes to the forest' (which incidentally nobody but him ever mentions that I remember) are sleeping, and the people that don't come back (like Dr. Truman) are dead. Nobody really wants to talk about Dr. Truman to the Museum Staff, maybe it's impolite to speak of the recently dead.

Ezra is almost certainly dead as well, though. He ran off playing one day while his family was sleeping at a bus station (I might be running things together now but I'm pretty sure that was his story) and came back to find them gone? He searched for them for a while then kind of settled into his role at the museum, where he'll stay until everyone else decides to stay in the forest. Or something like that.

Also he has a giant bird as a friend and mode of conveyance. Not so much a sign of being dead, but if all the other weirdness translates to death, then maybe.

It's interesting to note that, if the people on KR0 (or everyone) are dead, they certainly don't act like they know it. Excluding Weaver, anyway. I really don't quite know whether to treat KR0 as a death thing or more like Neverwhere, but I'm certainly enjoyin' the mystery of it.

I'm also not sure what to make of the lone guitar player you can run into out on the road; he's come up at least once in each act so far, I feel like he might be important. I kind of laughed the first time I ran into him and I dropped a dollar into his cup of whiskey.

And there's gotta be something about the Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces - a mindlessly bureaucratic organization stuffed inside a cathedral stuffed inside an ethereal highway of indeterminate existence. It's like a turducken of imagery I don't quite grasp.

Linespider5

Yeah, if it's what it seems, everyone's sharing a collective blind spot on the nature of their situation.

Ynuu

Indeed.

I also just remembered Limits & Demonstrations exists, so I went back and played that. Lots of related imagery. Even more confused now. The bit with the magnetic tape strips is quite interesting with Act I & II under my belt though, having originally played it with no other knowledge of the game.

Linespider5

I don't even know when it'll be considered polite to ask about Act 3. Even money on September is my guess.

Mike Danger

So, this might not be kosher but...is there anywhere I can read all of the newsletters to date? I think they said somewhere they talk about how they do the graphics, which I'd love to read (even though I probably wouldn't understand most of it)