I Told You This Was A Bad Idea

The Terminal seems to be frustrated with you, but you don't remember a thing.

Despite the Terminal's limited ability to understand you, you must attempt to ask the right questions in an effort to find out about your history together.

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Created for NaNoTwiMo and TEXT jams. 

The theme was 'write what you know', which is sort of what you need to do to progress in the game. Sort of.

This is a bit experimental, so I'd love any feedback! In particular, let me know if there are any phrases you feel should be recognised, but aren't. I'll add any phrases suggested in the comments, no matter how ridiculous! (... Except if they're offensive or something.)

Special Commands: 

  • Type 'return to start' anywhere to restart the game.
  • If you get stuck in the main sequence (when the Terminal is asking what you want to know), type 'tell me something' to get some hints!
  • Type 'content warning' in the main sequence for content warnings (spoilers!).
  • Type 'main sequence' to jump to the main sequence, and 'end sequence' to skip to the end.

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Thanks to HiEv for the neat terminal style, and helping with formatting the text box.

StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
(40 total ratings)
AuthorJessica Padkin
GenreInteractive Fiction
Made withTwine
Tagsartificial-intelligence, Dystopian, Experimental, keyboard-only, Singleplayer, Text based, Twine
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Smartphone

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I Told You This Was A Bad Idea - Original.html 536 kB
I Told You This Was A Bad Idea - Update 1 (Source).html 544 kB

Development log

Comments

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(1 edit)

Someone please, give me VERY detailed instructions on how to get past the good ending termination sequence.

I'm trying to get the 'good' ending, but can't seem to figure out how to get it. I've reached the end multiple times, and I just don't know what I'm missing. I've said "Yes" to "Do you like me?", said "No" to regretting our plan, and "I miss you" at multiple different dialogues when I begin the end sequence of the game. I swear, I feel like I'm doing everything right, and nothing changes, it always leads to the Termination Sequence. Does anyone know what I'm missing?

The 'good' ending still leads to the termination sequence, but it's just more of a positive/hopeful tone than the other endings. It sounds like you're doing the right thing, so you might have already seen it (there's a spoiler-y description in the below comment thread if you want to check!).

I do keep thinking about updating this game, partly because the good ending is a bit awkward. One day I'll find the time...

Alright then, thanks for the feedback.

And also nice to know that I got to hear back about this from the creator, so thanks for that too. :)

(+1)

Please please please anyone, is there any way to save the AI? Someone said you could save it somehow by answering a certain way?? aaaah? 

when the AI asks if you will do it a favor, say 'yes', then after that say 'i miss you' from there you can choose how to respond, but if you're looking to save the AI, say 'yes' :)

(+1)

OH MY GOSH OF COURRSE I read back and now that you say so... that's the last thing the main character said to the AI oh my gosh. Ok but now the terminal is not connected anymore... did I just kill it lol 

(2 edits)

...i'd say somewhat, more like a coma with extra steps;

(SPOILER FOR OTHERS WHO HAVEN'T REACHED THE 'GOOD' ENDING!!)
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you're taking out the core hard drive (disconnecting terminal) to help the AI and yourself get out with the chance of both of you being caught much higher since taking the drive out of its casing triggers an alarm, but because you now take the hard drive with you, you have the possibility of rebooting them (the AI) so they have a fighting chance rather than just..well, being dead. that being said, if you can't reboot them... but i'm glad to hear that i helped you get the 'good' ending, and i hoped this helped understand it more in-depth ^^

(+2)

I loved that I was able to get the good ending, but I guess I'll never know if the AI got rebooted hahaaaa :') Reality be bleeped, my imagination says that my character (I have an AI person character long story short) was able to reboot the AI and they gathered all the people that wanted to overthrow the Council and then they did it and succeeded (since I think the AI said that he thought more people would come after this but instead they convinced them to join her and the AI instead hahaa) happily ever after people and AI live peacefully. Boom.Thank you so much though, it means a lot :) 

(+1)

PLEASE STOP MAKING ME KILL YOU >:( 

~Me, to the AI

(1 edit)

Love it. The concept and execution! Fist ending in 30 min. I'm in loooove 

sequel required 

noooo i got so attached :o aside from that, very cool concept! i really enjoyed it :

(1 edit) (+1)

theres only three endings i know.

1:the plan, go through with the plan and follow the ai's orders

2:reluctant, refuse to go along with the plan until he forces you to

3:early execution, whether through a fragment of memory or time travel, put in the code early

are there any other endings? and is there a way to find out your name?

edit, found out the fourth ending:by saying yes to certain questions the ai says you can get him to tell you about the red box containing him.

(+1)

Please can you be more specific I keep killing the AI I don't want to do that can you pleaaaase tell me about the fourth ending? What'd you say yes to? I said yes to everything, but I still have to kill it though I do get some new texts :') 

Me after the end

thats so real, actually

(+1)

thank you for making me nostalgic about the days when I was working and chatting with my AI buddy that never even happened 

(+3)

This game was pretty fun. It wasn't to difficult to figure out the story and if you weren't sure what to type out next the terminal hinted at what to ask. Surprisingly, a little sad considering it's all text based. Very surprised and enjoyed playing it! Check out my video of it below:

Thanks for sharing, watching your playthrough has given me some ideas for tweaks to make when I update the game! (For starters, I need to have the ending screen displayed for longer-- oops!) Thanks as well for your feedback, and glad you enjoyed the game. :)

(+5)

catch me cryin over this robot for the next week

very good game!!

(+3)

this is why I shouldn't get attached to things ;-;

(+2)

no, terminal

I love this concept! The commands were all pretty intuitive. Is there more than one ending?

(1 edit) (+1)

Thanks, glad you liked it! There are multiple endings, but they're not greatly different from one another-- it depends on when (or if) you decide to enter the code. Maybe I'll add to it if I get the chance, though!

Very interesting, text based adventures can be really fun or really boring. I think there's a good balance to keep text walls to a minimum here. With some playtesting there could be a bit more support for non-direct responses. Good job to make someone care about the AI support and personal history with it.
(Only one playthrough, probably with bad ending)