Synopsis
Set in the 1920s in Paris, three artists share some drinks, gossips, and an afternoon trying out a new game: the cadavre exquis.
Warnings
The game includes mentions and/or depictions of the following: alcohol (ab-)use, drug induced hallucination (optional), mild swearing, violence, sex, unhealthy relationships, crime, depression. One ending (R9) also has antisemitic slurs.
About...
Exquisite Cadaver is a surrealist interactive game, whose gameplay is based on the French game cadavre exquis, a creative game where players build a sentence word by word, unaware of the others' addition.The demo currently includes 1/3rd of the final game.
You play as a down-on-their-luck writer, struggling with writer's block and their deteriorating relationships, meeting his friends for a drink. The mechanic revolves around the original cadavre exquis game, asking you to input a word of a specific type of words (i.e. adjective, noun, or verb) each round. While playing the game, you will also be faced with choices, affecting your relationships and the ending.
This project was first created for the 14th Edition of the Fortnightly Fiction Jam, limiting development to 14 days. That first version included a 2.000-word story, and an Endless Mode. This version is available for download on Itch and Github.
Since Summer 2002, the story is being re-written and expanded, so as to personalise each of the 30 rounds and flesh out the characters better. The interface has also been updated (and turned into a free template).
* While the game's language is English, the writing does include some French words and sentences, whose translation is provided in-passage for convenience.
Reviews
It gives insight on how an artist experiences the world around them and how they cope with their emotions. It's not only the aspect of art being like oxygen to an artist but the story also deals with a more realistic and down-to-earth aspect being the money and appreciation of their art by others..
- reyryan