Ian blogged about Book and Volume on Water Cooler Games, offering some welcome insights – Ian was one of only four testers to finish the game on his own.

N. B. Horvath writes about Book and Volume: “interesting plot structure … well-fleshed-out city setting with a distinct atmosphere, like in A Mind Forever Voyaging only goofier … you have to fiddle with tons of things in order to make progress.”

I’ve gotten several bug reports (mentioning minor bugs, which I’ve since fixed) and other emails from people who completed the piece. One person wrote in email that he spent 8-10 hours exploring, mapping, and solving it, which is about the amount of time I had estimated people would take. (Players who are more dogged about winning and less interested in exploration might finish in as few as 6 hours, I suppose, and with hints, it can take less time.) Some people have already been seeking and receiving hints on rec.games.int-fiction and on ifMUD. Brian Kerr, who completed B&V, writes on his blog, “I’d recommend this game to anybody, although it is fairly dense and telegraphic.” Greg Lastowka wrote about B&V on Terra Nova, and the Turbulence networked_performance blog picked up the news from here.

Some people have told me that they’ve put Book and Volume aside to look at when they have more time or when they’re traveling and will be on a plane or train for a while, and I appreciate that – this type of thought indicates an awareness that the piece is not something to be briefly clicked and glanced at.

If you have delved in already, thanks, and I hope you enjoy the piece. If you haven’t, and you’re looking to reflect on consumerism (and other matters) during Buy Nothing Day today, I’ll invite you again to open and occupy Book and Volume.

I did intend that people would start over a few times in Book and Volume; I guess it doesn’t bother me to do so when I play. I know several good games, from Deadline to Varicella, that ask this of the player. It’s rather difficult to simulate an urgent situation, and to simulate a city at different times of day, without simulating the passage of time in a meaningful way.

My hope was that I would create something fun and meaningful, not something that was overly frustrating or frustrating in a way that didn’t end in fun. I do understand that people approach IF in different ways – some players, I know, have explored exhaustively, and weren’t prevented from doing this by the ticking clock, but I can see how this could irk you and others.

There are some hint requests and hints flying on rec.games.int-fiction, if your interest in the Book and Volume is reawakened. Thanks again for your take on the game.

[Spoilers in this paragraph]: I have no idea what the helmet does except for letting me read that message in F9, no idea woh to talk to about evacuation, no idea what that button does in the Cave or what pressing or holding it does, what to do with the floor lifter (I lifted the floors in all the server rooms (I think), and looked, nothing there, was hoping I could find a coin to play the arcade machine but didn’t.)

I think that in order for the player to be motivated enough to bang his head against the wall again and again to work out the solution, he needs to have already had some fun with the game, so that he feels a certain trust, that the author has him in good hands and that this is going to be worth it. I don’t have that feeling, since the earlier gameplay gave me no real agency and no puzzles to solve or anything. It was just, do these things within the allotted time (and we don’t tell you how long that is, or really where the objectives are even though your character is supposed to know them, so you have to stumble around, contradictory to your character’s established fiction… take too long doing that and you get fired, sucka!!!)

Because I don’t have that “I’m in good hands” feeling, after the game has killed me about 10 times, my response is “Whatever.” and to stop playing.

It’s a bummer, because I like the writing style, and it seems like there’s an interesting fiction here. But I couldn’t really explore the fiction becuase the clock was ticking all the time… I tried to find different ways to interact with all the apparitions, etc, but after my first play-though when I got punished for that by being fired, I stopped.

I was never rewarded for doing any “non-mandatory” task, but I was often killed for doing non-mandatory tasks. So I stopped trying to do them. This seems to be in direct conflict with your stated game design goal, so I really think some reflection is in order there.

And random, timed death with absolutely new clue that was coming is no fun. I have no idea whether I have to restart the game from scratch or if I can continue from a saved game. And if I did either, I don’t have a clue how to proceed to the ‘end’ because I don’t have a clue what an end might be, or whether what I’m doing is moving towards an end. I like the idea of there being a game behind the game, but it’s just, imo, a little too subtle.

From various sources of online chatter, it seems that some people are playing and enjoying the game, which of course delights me. I’m looking forward to hearing what people have to say about the piece.

Also, Book and Volume is slated to be featured in an issue of The Iowa Review Web that will be out early next year, one that GTxA’s own Scott Rettberg is editing. The issue will include an interview about the piece that Jeremy Douglass (of Writer Response Theory) did.