A Castaway Adventure of the Verge Survey Service · TIFE Core 2.3.0
Press MAKE LANDFALL on the cover to start. The cover is also where you
choose whether to enable spoken narration and station ambience; both can be changed
later from the ACCESSIBILITY panel in the footer, and neither is required
to finish the game.
You begin inside Escape Pod 4, on its side, on a salt flat. Everything a pod carries,
it carries in one place. Try OPEN LOCKER.
Type a command into the line at the bottom of the terminal and press ENTER, or use the buttons. Choosing an action button shows you the valid targets for it, so the whole game can be played without typing.
| Movement | NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST UP DOWN IN OUT, or N S E W U D |
|---|---|
| Actions | LOOK EXAMINE TAKE DROP USE OPEN CLOSE SEARCH READ TALK WAIT |
| This story | SPLICE PRIME VENT CULTURE CLIMB SWIM LISTEN SIGNAL |
| Information | INVENTORY JOURNAL QUESTS ACHIEVEMENTS STATS SCORE |
| System | HINT HELP SAVE RESTORE TRANSCRIPT RESTART |
Short forms work: X for EXAMINE, I for INVENTORY,
L for LOOK, Z for WAIT.
The game is turn-based and waits for you; nothing happens while you think. One command is one turn. Looking, checking your inventory, reading the quest log, asking for a hint, saving and restarting do not consume a turn.
Each turn resolves in a fixed order, which is also the order it prints in: your command is echoed, the action is carried out and its text printed, the room is described if you moved, and then any consequences of what you did are reported last.
Exits are listed at the end of every room description, in the EXITS panel on the left, and as buttons under the command line. Some exits are shut until you have done something about them; the game always tells you what is in the way rather than simply refusing.
The station has twenty rooms in five regions. The chart in the right-hand panel fills in as you go and marks where you are standing.
One hundred and fifty points.
| Eight required tasks | 15 each — 120 |
|---|---|
| One optional task | 10 |
| Four optional objects | 5 each — 20 |
Nothing can be permanently missed. Every optional object stays exactly where it is until you come back for it, and no part of the station ever closes behind you.
You catch something on the way in. It advances one stage at four fixed points in the story, never on a turn clock — so exploring, reading, talking and taking hints cost you nothing at all. The fever ladder is shown under the chart. It will not kill you, but you will not be allowed up the beacon mast until it is dealt with, and the interlock at the foot of the ladder is not open to persuasion.
Make a signal. Climb the beacon mast, clip on, and SIGNAL. Landfall,
shelter, signal — in that order, exactly as your standing orders said.
Three places in Hollowtide will kill you outright: the tide race below the
seawall, the main bus on the turbine floor before it has been isolated, and the mast
platform if you reach for the beacon head without clipping on. All three are described in
the room text, and all three are warned about again by a placard or a character before you
can get to them. If you die, the story ends and you may RESTART or
RESTORE a save and carry on.
There is no other way to lose, no time limit, no hunger, no lamp timer, and no way to make the game unwinnable.
Use SAVE MANAGER in the footer, or type SAVE name and
RESTORE name. Saves are kept in this browser only, under a single local
storage key, and nothing is transmitted anywhere. RESTART begins the story
again from the pod; it costs no turn. Restoring a save after a death clears the ending and
lets you carry on.
HINT gives you a three-step ladder for wherever you are standing: a nudge,
then a specific pointer, then the exact command. Ask again for the next step. Hints are
free and cost no turns. Every room in the game has one.