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)