''Shade'' is a 2000

interactive fiction Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed and published by Andrew Plotkin for

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

Story

''Shade'' opens with the nameless

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

awakening in his

studio apartment A studio apartment, or studio Condominium, condo also known as a studio flat (United Kingdom, UK), self-contained apartment (Nigeria, Ghana), efficiency apartment, bed-sitter (Kenya), or bachelor apartment, is a small apartment, dwelling in ...

before

sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

. Examining the apartment reveals that the protagonist is preparing to depart on a trip to

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

. After the protagonist locates his plane tickets and begins addressing the various tasks on his to-do list, the appliances and furniture spontaneously crumble and transform into piles of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

upon touch. The apartment slowly becomes buried under dunes of sand. The sand disappears briefly, suggesting the experience was illusionary, but then the protagonist feels dizzy and sits down. The apartment vanishes and the protagonist is suddenly outside and in the middle of a desert. The protagonist notices a small humanoid figure walking across the sand; interacting with the figure causes it to move more and more sluggishly until it eventually passes out and dies. The figure then says to the protagonist, "You win, Okay, my turn again." The game then ends with the message "Nothing left to do. Time passes. The sun crawls higher."

Development

''Shade'' was written in the Inform 6

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

by Andrew Plotkin, originally written as an entry for the sixth annual Interactive Fiction Competition. Plotkin began working on the game on September 2, 2000, and finished it by the end of the month in order to make the deadline. Plotkin chose "A one-room game set in your apartment" as the game's

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...

as an inside joke, referencing the cliché " escape the room" style games.

Reception

''Shade'' won the 2000 XYZZY Award for Best Setting. ''Shade'' has been described as "technically innovative" for opting "out of conventional light modeling" and dispensing "with conventional spatial navigation." Instead of conventional navigation, the "player location is indicated through nuance and shifting emphasis."

Emily Short Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer. From 2020 to 2023, she was creative director of Failbetter Games, the studio behind ''Fallen London'' and its spinoffs. She is known for her debut game ''Galatea (computer game), Galatea'' (200 ...

described ''Shade'' as "the closest I've come to being able to play an episode of the Twilight Zone. It works through dread: we want to know what comes next, and we are certain that it won't be good."

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.eblong.com/zarf/zweb/shade/about.html , title=About Shade , author=Plotkin, Andrew , publisher=Zarf’s Interactive Fiction {{Cite book , author=Douglass, Jeremy , date = February 2007 , title = Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media , publisher =

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

, pages = 129–136 , chapter = Enlightening Interactive Fiction: Andrew Plotkin's ''Shade'' , chapter-url = http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/glassdark , editor-last = Harrigan , editor-first = Pat , editor2-last = Wardrip-Fruin , editor2-first = Noah {{cite web , url = http://playthisthing.com/shade , title = Shade , date = August 21, 2008 , author=Short, Emily , authorlink = Emily Short , work = Play This Thing , publisher = Manifesto Games , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080911085544/http://playthisthing.com/shade , url-status = live , archivedate = September 11, 2008 {{cite web , url = http://www.xyzzynews.com/2000winners.html , title = XYZZY Awards: Winning Games of 2000 , work = XYZZY News , publisher = Eileen Mullin , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20081003082110/http://www.xyzzynews.com/2000winners.html , url-status = dead , archivedate = 2008-10-03

External links

Author's websiteBaf's Guide review
2000 video games 2000s interactive fiction DOS games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States