How to Play

Press GO ABOARD on the cover screen. Narration and ocean ambience are optional and are off until you ask for them; both can be changed later from ACCESSIBILITY in the footer.

You begin locked in an iron cell aboard a submarine vessel. Everything you need to get out is in the room with you.

Giving commands

Type a command into the bar at the bottom of the screen and press ENTER, or use the buttons. The button route is complete: choose an action such as SEARCH, and the CONTEXT row fills with everything you could search here.

Movement

Purpose	Commands
Looking	`LOOK`, `EXAMINE bunk` (or `X bunk`), `READ logbook`
Handling things	`TAKE lamp`, `DROP chart`, `OPEN locker`, `CLOSE locker`, `SEARCH desk`
Doing things	`USE air-gun`, `USE chart`, `WAIT`
People	`TALK NEMO`, `TALK NED`, `TALK CONSEIL`
Your records	`INVENTORY`, `JOURNAL`, `QUESTS`, `ACHIEVEMENTS`, `STATS`, `SCORE`
System	`HINT`, `SAVE name`, `RESTORE name`, `TRANSCRIPT`, `RESTART`, `HELP`

Type a direction — NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, UP, DOWN — or the single letters N S E W U D. The EXITS panel on the left always lists where you can go and what is through each door, and the DIRECTIONS row repeats them as buttons.

The chart on the right fills in as you explore: your current position is shown in brackets, rooms you have not reached yet stay masked, and a line is drawn only where a passage genuinely joins two places.

Turn order

Every action that changes the world costs one move: walking, taking, using, opening, searching, talking, waiting. Consulting your own records — looking, inventory, journal, quests, score, help, saving — is free. Some events happen because the ship has moved on, so if a way is closed, there is usually something to be done aboard before it opens.

Scoring

The voyage is worth 140 points. Points come from two places: objects recovered and carried, and the five set-piece scenes where you act at the right moment. The VOYAGE panel tracks your seven chapters, and DISCOVERIES tracks the twelve achievements. Your score and move count are shown in the top bar.

Winning

The story ends when you take the skiff clear of the Nautilus. Reaching the end at all is a win; reaching it with every object recovered and every scene played is a full 140.

Losing

There is no death and no unwinnable state in this story. You cannot be killed, you cannot lock yourself out of a puzzle, and nothing you need can be destroyed or permanently dropped. If something refuses you, it is a gate rather than a failure — read what the game says, and look for what is missing.

Hints

Press HINT (footer or SYSTEM row) for advice about whatever is blocking you now. Ask again for a stronger hint: the first is a nudge, the second names the place or object, the third gives the exact command. Hints used are counted in your LOG, and nothing else is penalised.

Saving and restarting

Open SAVE MANAGER in the footer to create named saves, restore them or delete them, or type SAVE mysave and RESTORE mysave. Saves live in this browser on this device only. RESTART in the top bar begins the voyage again from the cell; TRANSCRIPT shows everything that has been printed and can download it as a text file.

Accessibility

Six presets are provided: Standard, Low Vision, Blind / Screen Reader, Hard of Hearing, Motor Assistance and Cognitive Support. Any preset can then be adjusted — text size, high contrast, larger controls, reduced typing, simplified layout, reduced motion, captions for sound cues, visual sound indicators and screen-reader optimisation. Narration reads the story aloud using your browser's speech voices; use TEST NARRATION to confirm your device has one installed.

Beginning