External Links


Full Version, Release 4 *
Contains BlueLacuna-r4.gblorb
Requires a Glulx interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Spring Thing Release *
Contains bl-preview-1.gblorb
Incomplete "Sneak Preview" version.
Requires a Glulx interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
* Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.

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Blue Lacuna

by Aaron A. Reed profile

2008

Web Site

About the Story

You have always been different.

One in a trillion have your gift, your curse: to move between worlds,
never settling, always alone. To Wayfare. Yet there are others like
you, and something stronger than coincidence binds you together, bumps
your lives against each other like charged particles.

Now you feel the Call again, and know another of your kind is in need.
But when you arrive there are no answers. Just an old man with fraying
sanity and secrets buried deep. A tropical paradise more alive than it
seems. And a conflict left unresolved that could change the course of
two civilizations forever.

There are no easy choices, wayfarer. Your decisions will shape the
fate of many things. Three worlds. Two lives. And what your own story
will become.


Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

HonestGamers

Lacuna is not a stoic environment. Tsunamis and storms strike the island. The pale moon of the night turns into the blistering sun of day. All of these things can affect the locations on the island, changing what you can do or see there. They aren’t completely random, either. What actions you take influence what is introduced into the story and when. Around the time you start to feel like there’s nowhere else to explore, a character will arrive with something to tell you, or you’ll stumble across a clue for the puzzle you’ve been working on, or a woodland creature will inadvertently reveal a new path. All of this is done as subtlety as possible, so that it never feels like a solution was thrust upon you, but that you were simply in the right place at the right time.
See the full review

IF-Review
Risks and Experiments
Blue Lacuna doesn't make it to the horizon as an artistic work, and I don't even think it's entirely successful just as a game (it's a little short on beta-testing, and the puzzles are a mixed bag), but it's important in a way most recent games aren't: if you're interested in IF as a genre, you should play Blue Lacuna, and there's nothing I'd rather say about a game than that.
See the full review

Jay is Games
Emergent or branching narratives have been seen as a red herring in game development for a while. [...] This is really where Reed excels. After the prologue, you find yourself on a nearly-abandoned island. Your only companion is a mad hermit, a man who talks in broken sentences and shouts at the ocean. Throughout the game, your interactions with him (or even actions in his presence) shape his opinion of you, his relationship with you, and how the eventual ending plays out. Depending on your actions and conversation with this man, the game could play in vastly different ways.
See the full review

Play This Thing!
The result is that it feels gratifyingly spacious, as less ambitious IF cannot, and there is room for emotional effects to build gradually.
See the full review

G4
IndieCade 2010 Wrap Up
There's no better way to describe this game than by calling it a beautifully written interactive novel. If the creators of Zork or Witness had a copy of Blue Lacuna travel back in time and appear on their computers, they would have wept openly.
See the full review

Page Update History

v.24: 12-Mar-2013 15:32 - JTN (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
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v.22: 05-Feb-2024 13:59 - Cerfeuil
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v.21: 11-May-2022 09:20 - Simon Christiansen
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v.20: 30-Sep-2021 17:03 - Dan Fabulich
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v.19: 30-Sep-2021 14:55 - Dan Fabulich
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v.18: 30-Sep-2021 14:54 - Dan Fabulich
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v.17: 31-Aug-2020 01:55 - Zape
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v.16: 31-Aug-2020 01:52 - Zape
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v.15: 31-Aug-2020 01:50 - Zape
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v.14: 29-Jun-2020 16:24 - Zape
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v.13: 08-Feb-2017 15:38 - MathBrush
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v.12: 03-May-2014 17:12 - aaronius
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v.11: 16-Mar-2013 16:10 - Edward Lacey
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  v.10: 12-Mar-2013 15:32 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links
v.9: 30-Jan-2013 13:19 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links
v.8: 07-Jun-2011 00:24 - cas
Changed download links
v.7: 01-Jun-2011 03:35 - Zack Kline
Changed version number
v.6: 24-Nov-2009 14:47 - Eriorg
Changed author
v.5: 18-Nov-2009 18:02 - Michael Roberts
Changed download links
v.4: 05-Mar-2009 02:44 - aaronius
Changed cover art, version number, download links, external review links
v.3: 01-Feb-2009 16:01 - Eriorg
Changed download links
v.2: 01-Feb-2009 15:59 - Eriorg
Changed download links
v.1: 04-Apr-2008 16:22 - aaronius
Created page