There must've been about six or seven years since you graduated now. Your friend says that it's rare to be friends so long afterwards, or maybe that's just them. For you it doesn't feel strange at all, you have friends who've been together longer than that, even if you begin to feel that you have come to grow apart.\n\nThat's probably the reason why you hesitate.\n\nAt least a little. But it was so long since you last saw each other, sometime during the summer, some festival, no it was at the beach, you had a picnic and went swimming.\n\nIn a way, you've found each other again, you've come closer than you were before, even if you have less in common. Maybe that's what you mean with growing apart. That you don't have the same interests anymore. But you still like to hang out, not in spite of it all, but maybe because you've become different.\n\nYou lived away for so long, and... wait, what are you doing now? Okay, you don't want to bring it up... sure.\n\n\n//[[Look at your memories.|TrueStart]]
<<silently>>\n<<set $friend = not>>\n<<set $jam = not>>\n<<set $school = not>>\n<<set $date = not>>\n<<endsilently>><html><h1>The ruling party</h1></html> by kristoffer zetterberg\n\n\n[[BEGIN|TrueStart]]\n\n\nmade for Ludum Dare 28
Then you sit down at the computer. Realizing just how the game should turn out, especially the intro, the part you usually have trouble with. You start with the rooms; build them from your memory, try to get to your friend's messy one, your date's dorm room with books everywhere, your old classmate modern, enlightened three-room apartment. And your own bed, desk, the small window overlooking the community. Streetlights, concrete.\n\nIt's already dark when you begin to put in the dialogue in the game. You want to make it seem a natural part of the experience, the way you always experience it. Temporary, fleeting. [[Unsure of how long the lines will stay in your memory.|ENDING B]]
You remain in bed. You send some texts and tell them that you can't make it. You don't tell your former classmates why, just that you're busy. After all, you've grown apart.\n\nYour friend understands you; they would've done the same. They laugh behind the letters and say it's typical of you to go this hardcore.\n\n[[Maybe so.|jam end2]]
Don't ask me, it's not me you're dating.\n\n\nYou remain in bed for a while, call her and ask if Wednesday works.\n\nNo, but Monday.\n\n[[Fine with me.|jam end4]]
But how about your date, they ask.\n\n[[Nothing was settled, so it shouldn't be a problem. Additionally, the game is partly to her, though that may just be a poor excuse?|jam end3]]
Let's keep this short. You're going on a date, you met her on a dating site, not in some grocery store – that's too cliché, which you want me to mention, naturally.\n\n[[There is nothing unusual in meeting people through dating sites.|a date2]]
.passage {\n font-family: Helvetica,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,sans-serif;\n letter-spacing: 0.1em;\n font-size: 1.8em;\n color: rgb(238, 238, 238);\n background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\n text-align: left;\n line-height: 175%;\n}\n\n#passages {\n border-left: 0px !important; \n margin: 150px 0px 0px 125px !important;\n}\n\n.passage {\n width: 600px;\n min-width: 26em;\n height: 33%;\n min-height: 33%;\n}\n\n#sidebar {visibility:hidden!important;}\n\n#footer{display:none!important;}\n\n#toolbar{display:none!important;}\n\na.internalLink, a.externalLink {\n color: Magenta;\n font-weight: normal;\n text-decoration: none;\n}\na.internalLink:hover, a.externalLink:hover {\n color: Magenta;\n font-weight: bold;\n text-decoration: none;\n}
//back button func//\nHistory.prototype.display=function(d,b,a){var c=tale.get(d);this.history.unshift({passage:c,variables:clone(this.history[0].variables)});\nthis.history[0].hash=this.save();var e=c.render();if(a!="offscreen"){removeChildren(document.getElementById("passages"));\ndocument.getElementById("passages").appendChild(e);if(a!="quietly"){fade(e,{fade:"in"});}}if((a=="quietly")||(a=="offscreen")){e.style.visibility="visible";\n}if(a!="offscreen"){document.title=tale.title;document.title+=": "+c.title;window.scroll(0,0);\n}return e;};\n
<<set $friend = true>>... and you lived happily ever after!\n\nGOOD ENDING\n\n\nBut... that's not the way, you can't predict the future like that. I should at least know something about it all beforehand.\n\n[[All right. I guess... restart?|TrueStart]]
<<set $jam = true>>... and you lived happily ever after!\n\nGOOD ENDING\n\n\nBut... that's not the way, you can't predict the future like that. I should at least know something about it all beforehand.\n\n[[All right. Fine. Restart?|TrueStart]]
<<set $school = true>>... and you lived happily ever after!\n\nGOOD ENDING\n\n\nBut... that's not the way, you can't predict the future like that. I should at least know something about it all beforehand.\n\n[[All right. Sure. Restart I guess?|TrueStart]]
<<set $date = true>>... and you lived happily ever after!\n\nGOOD ENDING\n\n\nBut... that's not the way, you can't predict the future like that. I should at least know something about it all beforehand.\n\n[[So you want to restart? Really?|TrueStart]]
friendship, poetry [[A|CREDITS]]nd beer
So you chose this anyway. And of course you won't ask the most important question, about Frankenstein.\n\nWhat's wrong with making a game or meeting your friend or your old classmates, it would have made it a whole lot easier for me.\n\nYou really ask too much of me.\n\nDon't think I'll sit here and describe everything just because you expect me to; you don't need me after all. Please tell the last part yourself if it's so important to you, I'm leaving.\n\n\n[[... well, then... I really don't understand what that was all about, but anyway, we meet up at a restaurant and order one fish tacos each, then we discuss Anita Sarkeesian's latest video because as usual I begin talking about my game development, and we drink some cheap wine. We're talking a lot about each other too, of course, but you don't want to hear anything about that, right?|date end2]]
sharing the night with some old [[C|CREDITS]]ompanions
everything I do comes [[B|CREDITS]]ack to you
saved the [[D|CREDITS]]ate
You actually met earlier this week, watched a movie, but you weren't exactly looking as much as discussing politics and religion during most of it. What marks they've left on you. Or if it was just one on these that has, and the other about the possibilities.\n\nYou share an interest in the arts, mainly the stories, later they texted you and asked if you perhaps should write something together. It would probably turn out great, they say, like, inspire each other to a text that occurs in the meeting. Online or irl. Or maybe it'll be really bad.\n\nAnd then: But it doesn't really matter how it turns out. A creation serves its own purpose.\n\n\nThey suggests Saturday. But you have so much else to do so you're not sure yet. But Saturday works best, and then they'll go home for the holidays.\n\nIt's not like you're in a hurry here, yet it feels like you should meet them again soon. That feeling. That you don't know where you're going and need to talk to them about it. And you know that it's the same for them.\n\nYou also mentioned that you had plans to go on a date this Saturday, but really want you to meet them first and ask for advice. Because you're not sure yet, and they've been in that situation so many times before so there's no one better to ask about it than them. You can always call before, if you need to, but it's not the same.\n\n\n//[[Look at your memories.|TrueStart]]
Keep telling yourself this while I continue on with the story. \n\n\nYou met each other IRL for the first time last week, you clicked, you want to meet again, Saturday worked good for her, but you're a bit unsure yourself as you have other plans (which may be better, but don't mind me).\n\nYou've seen pictures of her dorm room, she's studying to be a doctor, but the bookstacks along the walls have more to do with romanticism and French literature than anatomy and diseases. It's an odd mix. The light is subdued, many colors, variegated. The curtains are often drawn; she likes the electric light better. That, you have in common.\n\nExcuse me, details are so compelling, what I want to say is of course that there are things that indicate she's got her interest to cut up people from Frankenstein.\n\n\n... no, okay, that was mere speculation on my part. But you should definitely ask her.\n\n\n//[[Look at your memories.|TrueStart]]
But you can only choose one.\n\n\n[[I want to meet my friend.|friend end1]] \n[[I want to stay at home and work on my game for the jam.|jam end1]]\n[[I want to hang out with my old high school friends.|school end1]]\n[[I want to go on a date.|date end1]]
You get onboard the train; send him a text so that he knows you're coming. Asks where it is the get-together's going to be, which bus goes there.\n\nYou're already in town when you get the answer that he, who since high school has been one of your best friends, only just left home and will be there shortly. Bus no. 6, he says, then the address. You get on the bus and know that you'll get to way before him, even though you were deliberately late to make it all the more exciting, especially for those who didn't know for sure if you were coming or not, but also for yourself as you have no idea about where you're going.\n\n[[But you get off the bus; find the right address at once and knock on the door. Obviously only two others managed to get there before you.|school end2]]
<<if $friend and $jam and $school and $date>><<display "choices">><<else>>Saturday morning. What are your plans for the day?\n\n\n[[See a friend.|GOOD ENDING1]]\n[[Enter a game jam.|GOOD ENDING2]]\n[[Meet up with your old high school friends.|GOOD ENDING3]]\n[[Go on a date.|GOOD ENDING4]]\n<<endif>>
The ruling party
... and you lived!\n\n\n[[END|ENDING D]]
You all continue from where you left of, last time you met.\n\nThere's a lot of laughter, especially after he's arrived. You buy some pizza, as usual, and look at old home-made movies that are more embarrassing than he and you want to admit. And you do all this without thinking anything of the bad that's been, for the movies only show the good parts.\n\nThe bad stuff doesn't fit in the movies, it's not about them. [[You wouldn't be sitting here if they were.|ENDING C]]
//Look at your memories first.//\n\nAfter that, go ahead... choose. I don't mind. It's not like you're doing this for me anyway.\n\n\n[[A friend.|friend]]\n[[A game jam.|a game jam]]\n[[Your old high school friends.|old high school friends]]\n[[A date.|a date]]\n\n\n[[Okay, I know what I want to do now.|you only get one]]
<html><h1>The ruling party</h1></html> by [[kristoffer zetterberg|http://withoutpillow.tumblr.com/]]\n\n\nthanks and inspiration:\n\n[[Chris Cornell|http://paperdino.com/]] \n[[kat chastain|http://xmaslemmings.tumblr.com/]] \n[[Leon Arnott|http://l.j-factor.com/]] \nMathilda Hagman \nNier and Drakengard \n[[Pierre Chevalier|http://www.lilinx.com/]]\n[[thecatamites|http://harmonyzone.org/]] \nXavier Rudd \n\n\nmade for the Ludum Dare 28 compo\ntheme: You Only Get One
By the way, another beer?\n\n\nAnd like that it went, [[on and on.|ENDING A]]
Oh, right, you're doing that too. But it is good to keep yourself occupied; it makes it all easier.\n\n[[But will we have time to write the text today?|friend end3]]
I think we'll let it emerge by texting, like you said. Then we can work on it during the holiday, when I'm gone, and finish writing it when I get back.\n\n[[I think it's a good idea. That means it'll be two different drafts that we'll then merge. The best of both worlds, you say and laugh.|friend end4]]
You buy Chinese food and sit there talking till you miss the train. You insisted that you had time to grab another beer and then began to discuss how the text would look like, how different your styles are and if it's possible to find some kind of format where you both can express yourselves equally, but without making it sound strange.\n\nOnline or IRL.\n\nThat's why you missed the train.\n\nYou can sleep on the couch, they say.\n\n[[I guess I should have time to finish the game anyway.|friend end2]]
kristoffer zetterberg
You've participated in some jams before.\n\nAnd you know that if you want to make the game you want it you'll need to work on it all weekend.\n\nYou have a great idea around the theme, about different stories that you'll hear the beginning of, but then you can only choose one to hear the continuation of. Something about not being able to have the cake and eat it.\n\nYou imagine beautiful graphics and a simple acoustic guitar in the background.\n\nYou imagine the last chorus of Xavier Rudd's //[[Set It Up|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUhtyrzhcNM]].// But it makes you so sad.\n\nYou imagine being able to walk around in the memories and then get to decide which you like best. You imagine that it's your life it's all about.\n\nAnd right now you can only choose one thing.\n\nThe last time you participated in a jam the story turned out a little one the short side, but you got it almost exactly the way you wanted. It took the entire weekend. You're unable to write and program projects that are too big. It's not your kind of language. Your language is slow.\n\nWhen you perform spoken word, you do so slowly. With many pauses. Some have their place in the pauses, in the interspaces', between the lines. It's the same with your games, with the development process.\n\nAnd even if you want other things too, you really want to get this game to be as good as possible. There must be some space left between the lines.\n\n\n//[[Look at your memories.|TrueStart]]