The Story of the Lost Dot
The Summer of Demos - Day Twenty-Three
At the end of every story, there is the final full stop at the end of the final sentence. No matter what has come before, this dot marks the end of it. This is a game about the final dot from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that gets lost.
Falling down the text of “Alice” one paragraph at a time, you roll either left or right to touch letters to earn points based on their rarity and keep moving. You can also rewind time to prevent getting stuck in the recesses of some letters or to evade the asterisks that follow you. Between paragraphs there are also puzzle-platformer segments where your use of rewind may be key to advancing.
The demo only covers the first five pages of the book, and only a paragraph per page at that, but it’s already clear how creative Harha Studios are at reinterpreting the public domain materials : sink slowly into clouds clipped straight from John Tenniel’s illustrations and shove giant “a”s out of your way to keep rolling downwards. The concept could work with any number of books but feels fitting considering the surreality of “Alice”.
In a word : classic.
The Story of the Lost Dot is an upcoming literary platformer developed and published by Juhani Paaso and Markus Petäjä as Harha Studios for PC via Steam. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written by Lewis Caroll, with illustrations by John Tenniel. All images copyright of Harha Studios; all illustrations and extracts in the public domain.
This article is part of the Summer of Demos series, where I’ll be releasing a Demo Diving preview article each day in July. If you liked this article, be sure to share it with a friend or enemy. If you back me on Patreon, you get access to articles one day before they release anywhere else. If we reach £25/month before the end of July, I’ll extend the Summer of Demos into August.
- https://store.steampowered.com/app/2764580/Story_of_the_Lost_Dot/
- https://harhaservers.net/
- https://www.gutenberg.org/files/114/114-h/114-h.htm
