External Links

The web site has download and play-online links for each of the 18 updates.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

18 Rooms to Home

by Carolyn VanEseltine profile

Part of 18 Rooms to Home
Superhero
2015

Web Site

About the Story

18 Rooms to Home is an experimental work of interactive fiction. It’s a day in the life of Yesenia Reed, whose life is far from ordinary, no matter what she might prefer.

This story takes place over the course of 18 updates, which are presented in reverse chronological order. With every update, the story moves further back in time – so the first update includes room 18, the second includes room 17 and 18, the third includes 16, 17, and 18, and so on.

This is a work in progress, being published serially. As of August 27, 2015, Room 15 is the latest to be published.


Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling
This backwards, Memento-esque story structure might seem counterintuitive in IF, especially since it makes the player replay the story’s ending over and over. But Carolyn is doing something very ingenious with it. In Room 18, there is, as far as I can tell, only one way that the story can end. Room 17 introduces new information, skills, and possibilities, which in turn means a new possible outcome. Room 16 layers on yet a third (at least — it’s conceivable, I suppose, that there are even more variations I’m not aware of). Even when the player gets back to a room or prop she’s already seen in a previous episode, there are new possibilities.

This in turn does a great job of building up the player’s sense of consequence. Even when there are a lot of branches in a traditional-format story game, there’s no guarantee that the player will see all the variant endings, or that she’ll realize all the points at which branching could occur. But playing through 18 Rooms an episode at a time means learning exactly what is allowed to go differently, and why, as more and more past branch points are introduced.
See the full review

Page Update History

v.13: 27-Aug-2015 19:01 - Zape (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed forgiveness
v.12: 16-Jul-2020 18:58 - Zape
Changed download links
v.11: 16-Jul-2020 18:52 - Zape
Changed download links
v.10: 16-Jul-2020 18:49 - Zape
Changed download links
v.9: 16-Jul-2020 18:47 - Zape
Changed download links
v.8: 24-May-2020 15:24 - Zape
Changed download links
v.7: 24-May-2020 15:21 - Zape
Changed download links
v.6: 24-May-2020 15:15 - Zape
Changed download links
v.5: 27-Aug-2015 19:02 - cvaneseltine
Changed series name
  v.4: 27-Aug-2015 19:01 - cvaneseltine
Changed description, series name
v.3: 01-Jul-2015 15:58 - Doug Orleans
Changed cover art
v.2: 24-Jun-2015 00:31 - Doug Orleans
Changed description, genre, external review links
v.1: 22-Jun-2015 19:33 - Doug Orleans
Created page