First off, this is of course a game guide for the amazing game I made, LABYRINTH. Also, I'm sorry for calling you all whiners for wanting a game guide, I guess.
Obviously the first thing you do is wake up. The quote is from Nietzsche because if I can't be at least a bit pretentious in my Twine games I'm not sure I even want to make them any more. It translates to, "And when you stare long into an abyss, the abyss stares also into you."
In the first room, it doesn't matter which option you pick; I was going to have it matter but changed my mind.
Hallway:
- Check out that painting! If you've played any of my games before you know I love putting things in paintings.
- Best course of action after that is to go down the other hallway until the end. You'll find a coin.
- The picture taped to the wall is a generic labyrinth I took from the Wikipedia page on labyrinths! Not terribly important, but good for thematics and whatever.
- This will lead you down toward the basement! You can try to go down the stairs if you want, but it'll tell you that you need a flashlight.
- Head back to the first hallway and go through the door.
Bedroom 1:
- Check out the bed, desk, and dresser in any order.
- Under the bed is a trigonometry textbook. There's numbers (26-22-01-02-07-14-08-05), and a hint: R-05. From here, work backwards from the hint (26-22-01-02-07-14-08-R, 26-22-01-02-T-14-08-R, etc), until you get to the answer: M-I-N-O-T-A-U-R.
- At the desk, you can organize the papers, but you don't really have to. What you do have to do is look at the crossword puzzle. The name (Vig K. Atbash) is a hint-- the crossword contains the key to a Vigenere cipher, but it's been put through the Atbash cipher. From the crossword, we get "NRMLGZFI" which, decoded, is "MINOTAUR" yet again.
- For the dresser, the middle drawer contains a flashlight (which you need very much!), and the bottom drawer is a switch. You can also check out some pictures from my mom's trip to Australia!
- Through the sliding door is a closet. You don't have to go through here, but you can check out some pictures from my grandma's yearbooks, if you want.
- Through the plain wooden door is a bathroom. There is a first aid kit in the cabinet, and stuff in the medicine cabinet above the sink, but neither is strictly necessary. Look in the mirror, for ~atmosphere~
- Next, check out that bookcase!
- The Gray's Anatomy option shows you quotes from aforementioned text-- quotes about the brain! To summarize, they talk about: how whorly and twisty the brain is & the amygdala (which we theorize is in charge of fear). Thematics!
- The thesis is the first page of a paper I wrote about labyrinths for this game! But oh no, it's in code!! Don't worry!
- You may recognize "NRMLGZFI" from the crossword, which we know is MINOTAUR run through Atbash. We also see again "V. K. Atbash". Putting the title through Atbash gets you "MINOTAUR AND LABYRINTH: THE SELF AS A MAZE". Putting the paper through Atbash gets you more gibberish.
- Our next guess then is------- a Vigenere cipher with "MINOTAUR" as the key!! Doing this will let you read this page of the thesis.
- If on a winter's night a traveller (an actual book, which is wonderful and I love it) is actually a secret switch that leads you behind the bookcase! You don't have to go behind the bookcase to complete the game, but again, ~atmosphere~.
- Check out your inventory! You don't have to, I'm just pretty proud of the inventory feature.
- Now-- go through the door on the left wall.
Foyer:
- Go to the fountain and toss your coin in. Bye-bye coin!
- The door to your left is locked, which is actually a good thing-- but more on that later!
- Go up the staircase first!
Check out that painting, if you want. It's Ariadne by Sir John Lavery. More labyrinth stuff!
To the left is a bedroom. This, btw, is the last left-hand door you can go through.
Bedroom 2:
- Go to the bed. What you really want is to take a nap, trust me. But-- darn. You can't.
- Go to the desk and open that desk drawer! Probably the second most important switch in the game is this one.
- Oh ho ho what's this? A note?? Ugh, more code.......
- Never fear! I'm merciful. This is more Vigenere cipher and the key is the same. If you put it through, you get "SLEEP IT OFF". What could it mean????
- Back to the bed!
- Finally you can take that nap.
- Take a nap. (The most important thing.)
- Wake up.
WHAT???????
- Don't worry! Yes, you went back, but trust me, it's a good thing.
- Get back to the foyer
- Go through the door across from you.
Bedroom 3:
- Check out the dresser-- you find a key! As important as naps and flashlights.
- The desk has some more labyrinth stuff going on-- a feather, wax, a Mediterranean ocean (remember Daedalus?).
- From here, go back to the foyer and head up that staircase. Take the right hallway this time.
Attic:
- Check out those invaluable family memories! There's tapes in the box and you want them. (Why do you put VHS tapes in so many things, Winona? Uh, because static is creepy.)
- Next, pull that pullcord and head up to the roof.
- Take the box and look in it.
- Another code???? Again, don't worry. It's another Vigenere cipher-- STAY TO THE RIGHT.
- This is a reference to the right-hand rule-- "by keeping one hand in contact with one wall of the maze the solver is guaranteed not to get lost and will reach a different exit if there is one" (from Wikipedia)
- It's also a hint to not go to the left any more.
- If you do, though, it's (usually!) fine-- you just go back to the start again.
Basement:
- Easiest way back to the basement is actually to go through the left-side door in the foyer and then take the hallway. Otherwise, backtrack through the bedroom.
- Head down the staircase!
- Now, remember the note from the roof-- stay to the right!!
- The static in this room is to remind you to hurry it up cuz we don't have all day here! And for ~atmosphere~.
- Watch those videos!
- Fun fact, these are mostly things from my childhood.
- A message flashes on the screen-- but wait-- that looks familiar! It is!!! It's the same message as before-- SLEEP IT OFF. But, if you're following this guide, you already took a nap. Doesn't hurt to take another one, if you want to, though.
- You can follow the hallway further into the room. You won't find anything-----but you might hear something!!!!!!
- Obviously, going to your left boots you back to the Nietzsche quote.
Where to now???
- Remember the message-- "SLEEP IT OFF"?
- That's a hint that we need to go back to the bedroom where we took a nap.
Away we go!
Bedroom 2 (again):
- If you didn't take a nap the first time, do it now, seriously.
- This time, there's a dark room! Exciting. Go in it.
- Another code! "FWNP AHK CVWFUZ"-- put that through our Vigenere decoder and we get: "READ THE THESIS"
- If you go in the dark room again, you get "SJEAY: DU HCM XZVW CQSJR KVU GAS?"-- "ERROR: DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?" Creepy.
- If you go in a third time, you can go explore the basement-- but you won't find anything yet. You might find yourself a little turned around (careful!).
Bedroom 1 (again):
- Time to read that thesis! I've uploaded a .txt (here) for you so you don't have to decode the entire thing bit by bit. It's not formatted nicely, but it's very readable, thanks,
- The endings make more sense I think if you've read this first!
- When you go back to the bookcase you see a slip that says "pmfqxnx"-- "descend"
- Back to the basement!
Basement (again):
- Follow the hallway into the large room.
- When asked, go right ("what is the right-hand rule of life?")
- You'll see stairs. Go down them.
- Unless you didn't take a nap, in which case you'll get the second ending.
If you've followed the guide, the rest is really straightforward, and you'll get to the ending!
Quick notes:
- The part with the wheat is half-borrowed from Portal 2 (which borrowed it from Greek mythology anyway). It is one version of the afterlife-- maybe you didn't survive the labyrinth after all (do any of us, ultimately?).
- The ocean is a quick and tiny reference to Crete, the island where Daedalus and Icarus were imprisoned.
- The ending kind of turned into me thinking about my own mental illness more than anything else, which is why it might not make sense (hopefully it does!)
- Anyway, I hope you liked it!!!!