Being There

Being There is an extremely experimental little work of interactive fiction with pictures, about existence and Korea. Only requires a few minutes to play through, but you are encouraged to take your time.

Discussion and reactions: Notgames Forums, TIGForums, or the IFDB.

Source: GitHub

Some kind words:

"An Ode to Joy… the joy of living, the joy of experiencing and acting—that is what this game is about."
-Victor Gijsbers, author of The Baron and Fate

"Beautiful, beautiful little experience. I’ve played it a number of times and showed it to people and I love it dearly. Always gives me a feeling of hope and joy and wonder."
-Silas, Gametrekking.com

"I really enjoyed it. Evoked a strong feeling of nostalgia—memories of chilly autumn days at the park and such. The photos were lovely. I loved all of the different interactions you programmed in—it was quite compelling just exploring this mysterious, kind of magical world. Made me feel like I was a kid again."
-Adam, TIGForums

"I have played through it five times so far. The pictures seem alive and the actions are awesome… It felt like I was there. I just wish it wasn’t so short."
-Brendan Magnuson, my brother

"A touching travelogue… a love letter to Korea."
-Peter, IFDB

On the flip side:

"In the end, it really doesn’t say very much about either existence or Korea."
-Felix Larsson, IFDB

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The HTML5 release of this game is powered by Quixe: a Glulx VM interpreter written in Javascript.