Photopia

First you're a bombed-out guy in a car with a friend. Next you're an astronaut on Mars on a mission. Then you hear a splash. Then the narrator and plot shift again to match with the color of the times...

Such is the nature of Adam Cadre's Photopia, a 1998 Interactive Fiction work unique in the execution of its narrative and gameplay elements. While relatively brief and puzzle-light compared to many other Interactive Fiction, it uses that time to give you pieces of a large picture that gradually fills in as the game progresses. And when the pieces finally click together... let's just say that there's a reason for the game placing 1st place in its year's Interactive Fiction competition.

In the history of Interactive Fiction, Photopia marked a Genre Turning Point; before Photopia, games often used Mind Screw surrealism or High Fantasy loosely bound by a huge Story Arc. After Photopia, plot and puzzles became more important to the feel of a game, and slice-of-life realism overtook surrealism as the most popular environment in Interactive Fiction.

Download links for the game are here. Cadre has dropped hints of an in-progress movie adaptation.

Tropes used in Photopia include:
  • Anachronic Order: The sections between the astronaut story are told out of order.
  • But Thou Must!: While you can make some different choices, the narrative is extremely linear and nothing you do affects it significantly.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience - The astronaut story. To brilliant effect, each section of the real life story segues into the astronaut story by a common color. For example: the red of the stoplight from the accident in the beginning segues into Mars' red soil...
    • Not only this part, but the whole game is an example of this trope.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: In-Universe: While Alley and Alley's father are standing underneath the stars, and when the real Wendy asks Alley why her story's kind of apocalyptic and weird.
  • Decoy Protagonist - Drunk guys in beginning? Nope. Wendy the pirate astronaut on an LSD adventure? Nope. Alley's father? Nope. The nervous nerd trying to ask her out? Nope. Guess who?
  • Dialogue Tree - Evident when Alley's father go stargazing and Alley's date.
  • Fridge Brilliance - Half of what Photopia is about will only hit you after a few play-throughs.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: You won't fully understand what's going on until later on in the game.
  • Mary Sue: Even the author admitted Alley was a bit too much of this.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - Wendy, the pirate astronaut scavenger who knows kung-fu.
  • No Ending - Well, there is, but with anachronistic order above, the game ends with Alley's father using the titular device - a kid's observatory/constellation projector - while Alley's in her crib, watching the colors blend together to make the whites of the stars. It ends abruptly as you turn off the lights to her room. Technically, it ends when a drunk driver and his only-buzzed friend slam into the car in which Alley is being driven home by the man she babysits for, killing Alley.
  • Precision F-Strike - There are a few in the introductory scene.
  • Same Face, Different Name - Adam Cadre submitted this game to the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition under the name "Opal O'Donnell", out of fear that people would associate Photopia with his earlier sex farce game I-0.
  • Slice of Life: When you're not the astronaut.
  • Story to Gameplay Ratio: Heavily favoring the "story" side. Don't worry, it's a mix.
  • The All-Concealing "I": It's not immediately clear who "you" are. Best example: "The cool breeze ruffles the feathers of your wings."
  • Title Drop: The meaning of the title isn't made clear until the very last scene.
  • The Maze: One of the most discussed aspects of the game is how it subverts this. Specifically, the maze is entirely meaningless in its layout, and the way to get out is to simply take off your space suit and fly out.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: One appears to be a Mind Screw, the other a relatively straightforward plot.
    • Wait, which one is which?
  • Unreliable Narrator: Justified, as the science fiction plot is revealed to be a story Alley is telling the kid she's babysitting. Also the reason behind the Tomato in the Mirror and Wing Pull elements.
  • Unwinnable: Completely averted; it's impossible to get permanently stuck in the game. The only thing closest to this is the maze.
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