Enter The Story... Frequently Asked Questions

"Will you have a different web site for every game?"
No, sorry. Making a web site takes a long time and I'd rather spend that time on making games.

"Why is the blog about a different game?"
When one story is finished I start on the next one, so that's the one I'm thinking about all the time. So that's the one I blog about most - the next game!

"What's all this about saving the world?"
The money is used to help end world poverty. Yes, seriously. I am using this money to fund my research into land rent as the basis for economic justice. See Henry George's classic "Progress and Poverty" for the basic ideas. Land rent is the simplest and fastest way to put justice at the heart of an economy, and thus end poverty. It's also a more efficient way of creating wealth.

Many Nobel prize winning economists have argued for land rent as a fairer alternative to taxation. Winston Churchill spent the first part of his life campaigning for it (until he got sidetracked by Hitler). A hundred years ago land rent almost changed the world, but the idea was derailed because it appeared to lay greater costs on land owners. However, the increased wealth creation means it should be possible in theory to devise a land rent system where there are no losers. But that takes study and work. I created this game as a way to fund my studies.

So when you buy "EnterTheStory" you're helping to end global poverty. And you're turning Winston Churchill's dream of global justice into a reality.

(Any other questions?)
Most other questions are answered on the other pages (see links at the top left of every page). If your question still isn't answered here, please leave a message on the blog and I'll do my best to answer it!

"What age group is this for?"
This game is for any age, as long as you enjoy reading stories. If a five year old likes reading stories, they'll find something to like in the game. One day there will be a story for the under fives, with nothing but music and animations, but that won't be until 2011 or later.

"Where can't I hear voices?"
Adding voices would cost money, but it wouldn't add to the story. I'd rather spend that money on more stories. (There are also technical reasons, but those are less important.)

"Is there any violence, bad language or nudity?"
The only violence and nudity are when it was in the original book. But the simple art style means you don't see anything offensive. And so far I haven't found any bad language that's essential to the story.

"How long is it?"
From three to thirty hours per story, depending on your experience. The more stories you play, the longer it is!

"How do you control the game?"
This is a classic "point and click" adventure game, with simpler controls. Left click anywhere to explore. Double click a person to find out about them. Right click on a person then right click something else to suggest something. For example, maybe a child says they are hungry. You remember seeing some food in another place. So you right click on the child and right click on the food. The child might say "ah, I remember where I can find some food!" That's how the game works.

What about inventories?
Most adventure games have an inventory (a bag of things you pick up). In this game, every character can interact with every object - so the whole universe is your inventory!

What about verb lists?
Most adventure games have two or three choices like 'pick up' and 'use.' But this game has thousands of choices: you can combine hundreds of characters with thousands of objects, and the best interaction is automatically chosen.

Enter The Story is available by download. The download people, BMTMicro, will burn it to CD if you want, but that's a completely separate extra.

"My CD didn't arrive!"
CDs are an optional extra, if you tick the box to pay extra on the order form. It's all handled by BMT Micro. If you ordered a CD and it didn't arrive, find the email you got from them and contact them direct. If you can't find the email, or you think I'm just passing the buck, then contact me instead and I'll contact them for you.

"Can I burn my own copy onto CD"
Yes! Enter The Story has no DRM (no anti-piracy software). It relies on the honesty of its players. Let's be honest, the kind of person who reads classic novels is not the kind of person who steals games. So if you want to burn a copy for your own use, or some other purpose that you believe is honest and fair, then go ahead!

"Can I play the whole game from the CD?"
For security purposes the game will not do anything outside its own folder, so saved games, music, game files, etc., must all be in the same place. This means the game has to be installed to somewhere that the game can save temporary files to - e.g. a hard disk or memory stick.

"If I want a CD sent to me, do I need to buy the download as well?"
Yes. The game is $14.99, but making and mailing a CD costs extra. Sorry about that.

"Is there any box art or other extras (strategy guide, etc.)?"
I'm so busy making the games I haven't had time to make a box! But I have made some box art if you want to make your own box - the art is on the orders page.

"Why don't my free games have free CDs?"
Any free games deal is for downloads and doesn't include CDs. Sorry. Every CD costs money to make and send out, and BMT charge extra every time you order a CD.

"Why not make a special CD for...?"
CDs are simply copies of whatever you order, but on CD. Making a special CD with different content or art is more complicated than it sounds. Enter The Story has a new story every few months, plus there are non-English versions, bug fix versions, non-installer and silent versions, and bundled versions.... I can't keep track of all those CDs! The only way that CDs can work is how it works now: When you download something, BMT specially burns it to CD just for you, so every CD is unique.

If you found a bug, please leave a message on the blog and I'll fix it.

Emergency Help
If you're totally stuck, and F1 won't help, then press CTRL and H at the same time. This turns on "emergency help." Then press CTRL and P to see every part of the game. From there you can jump to a later point, past your problem, or see what the game thinks you should click on next, or use exits that are normally blocked, or call the main character by pressing F3. When you're past the problem, turn off Emergency Help and carry on!

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Blame Microsoft (or your graphics card):

"It doesn't respond / I can't see the mouse / mouse is small"
Sometimes Windows does not 'focus' on the game. Try minimizing the game window and maximizing it again. or use ALT and TAB to switch to different windows and back again.

"I can't see anything! (but I can hear the music)"
If you can hear the music but see an empty window where the game should be, this is usually a problem with your computer's graphics drivers. It means your computer can't handle a program that runs in 16 bit color at 640 x 480 resolution. All computers should be able to handle this, but sometimes graphics card manufacturers don't test their products very well.

If you're confident with computers, try changing the graphics drivers. Otherwise, it's a question of trying lots of different screen resolutions and color depths until you find one that works.

1. Try changing color depth. Right click on your desktop, choose 'properties' and then 'settings.' You should have the choice of setting "color quality." Set it to "16 bit" then try running the game again. If that doesn't work, try other color depths.

2. In the same place you can change the screen resolution (usually). And using the 'advanced' setting you can change the screen refresh rate.

3. If none of this works, we'll need to run the game in a different way.

Warning: you'll need a pen and paper!
Graphics cards are a lot more complicated than they look: there are so many possible combinations of screen color depth, screen resolutions, screen refresh rates, game in a window or not, game scaled up or not, etc. You'll need a pen and paper to check if you've tried every combination. If you want to just give up and use the game on a different computer, or return it for a refund, I'll understand!

Please don't hate me!
It's easy to get angry at the game - "why doesn't it just work?" but games ask computers to do a lot. On a busy screen you might have full screen video running and fifty different characters doing different things, with different levels of transparency all updated thirty times a second, that's a lot for a computer to handle. If you buy an expensive game it'll just say "you need an expensive graphics card" on the box. Enter The Story will work with almost any graphics card, but the down side is that occasionally we need to run the game in a different way.

Changing how the game runs
If the game still doesn't work, you'll need to change how it runs. Find the file called "winsetup" in the game folder. It's usually something like
start button -> Enter The Story -> all games

If it's in a different place, or if you've installed more than one game, make sure you've got the right one: find the icon that normally starts the game, right click on it, and choose 'properties' - this will let you find where the game is saved. Enter The Story always saves everything in the same folder, so this is where to look for the setup file.

But if you've not sure, right click on the game shortcut that you normally click, and choose "properties" - this will let you find the game folder. The 'winsetup' file will let you use the graphics card in different ways, and one of them will usually work.

Summary
Your details are only used for the things you specifically request. For example, if you pay by credit card, the details are only used for paying for the game you ordered. If you ask to be emailed about the next game, you get one email when each game is released. If you email me direct, I will reply. Your details are not used for anything else.

Financial details
All financial matters are handled by BMT Micro. They handle payments for roughly half of all independent games (go to indiegamer.com and search for "BMT" to see what people say about them.) BMT are the professionals. You can trust them.

If you don't want to give credit card details, just use PayPal or similar - BMT accept all the major payment methods.

Email addresses
If you leave your email address (on the form that says 'tell me about the next game' ) then your email address is stored by a professional emailing company. They handle security, privacy, etc. When a game is released then I send just one email through their system.

Obviously if you email me direct then my email program will remember your message, including your email address.

Where details are stored
If you leave any details then they're only stored by the professional companies listed above. I never look at those addresses or other details unless you email me direct and ask me to. Every year I make an offline backup of the mailing list, but I never look at it.

The bottom line
I'm too busy making this game to worry about payments and mailing lists. I leave that to the professionals. Their businesses depend entirely on their reputation. I trust them.

"Are these games suitable for schools?"
The stories were not designed to be educational, they were designed to be great stories! But they're faithful to the text, so if schools want to use them that's fine!

If you buy for more than a hundred people you get up to ninety percent off the price. Contact me for details.

For security purposes these games are designed to run from a single folder and place all saved games etc. into the same folder. If your network wants to split files up and share the same files, then it's up to you how you handle that. But if a school buys licenses for all the students then they're welcome to take the games home.

"How close are these stories to the original books?
Each story is made by going through the original text and basing the game on it, page by page, using the original events as puzzles. I take these stories very seriously. However, because I take them seriously, I often interpret them heavily.

Take Dante's Divine Comedy for example. Most people remember it for people being tortured in Hell. When EA Games made their version of Dante they changed him into a fighter, and made Beatrice his kidnapped girlfriend. They were true to the popular view of the book, but they changed the tone of the original. The original was not about torture or action, it was about exploration and faith. Enter The Story sticks to the original tone.

However, the Divine Comedy raises some internal problems. First, how can Hell be a vast cone shaped cavern? it would collapse. And how can spirits feel physical pain? And how can a loving God support a realm of endless torture? Enter The Story treats the story as if it's real so the text is interpreted in a different way. Dante is treated as an honest eye witness, reporting what he sees and what he thinks it means, but perhaps other people might see it differently. Similarly, Genesis of the Gods asks "what if the Greek gods and Titans and Ouranos were real, what would they be like in the real world?"

"Are the stories changed in any way?"
Apart from interpretation, very minor changes are sometimes made - e.g. having one person say another person's lines, if it was the kind of thing they would say anyway. Or if a story takes place over many years (like A Tale of Two Cities) it it might be compressed into a shorter time, because a game player will usually want to solve a problem now, rather than wait for ten years like the hero of a book might have done.

Finally, some original texts exist in many different versions. For example, Genesis of The Gods is based on Hesiod's Theogony, but other Greek poets have slightly different versions of the same stories. And these myths in turn were based on earlier myths that had different meanings (for example, Zeus was once an underground deity and the earliest Greeks had a female supreme goddess). When the original text is obviously flexible then the game interprets it flexibly as well. For example, in Genesis of the Gods, the Titans swallow the gods, and Kottos has fifty heads and a hundred legs, just like in the original myth, but this is explained in terms of machines.

Summary
In summary, Enter The Story is about stories, not education. But it does not change the stories in any serious way. However, it takes them seriously, which means interpreting them in sometimes surprising ways.

"Can I get a free review copy?"
If you're genuine, (i.e. you run an established site that reviews things), yes! Just ask.

"Can I have some box shots?"
Yes - it's all here (scroll down the page for box shots). Ask me if you need anything different.

"What is the game name, exactly?"
Game name:
Enter The Story
Capitalization:
Pleas capitalize "The” in these titles. These are The original or biggest stories, and not just any old stories.
Games and stories:
"Game” means Enter The Story, including all stories that you have in your game folder. "Story” means the individual title within the game: Les Miserables, The Divine Comedy, etc. To add to the confusion, "The Story” refers both to the current story that you’re playing, and also to the philosophical idea of all stories, including real life, being part of one big story – YOUR story, your experience, your ideas, the story that takes place in your head. In a way, the story is entering YOU and not the other way around. :)
Story 1:
Full length title (before the Divine Comedy was released): "Les Miserables: The Game of The Book”
Full length title (after the Divine Comedy was released): "Enter The Story: Les Miserables”
Short title (now): "Les Miserables” - please do not call it "Les Mis” – that is a trademark of the musical.
Extra short title: "story 1" or "LM”
accents: e or é
Where convenient it’s nice to have the proper accent on the é in "Misérables” but I’m not sure it matters too much if it’s missing. Some people’s computers will render é as an unreadable block, but I don’t think that happens too often.
Story 2:
Full length title: "Enter The Story: the Divine Comedy”
Short title, used in promotion: "Dante’s Divine Comedy”
Short title, used within the game itself, or when talking with people familiar with the original: "The Divine Comedy”
Alternative title, only to be used when the context makes it clear that this is not the same as the EA Games version (for trademark reasons): "Dante's Inferno."
Extra short title: "Dante” or "story 2"
Story 3:
Full length title: "Enter The Story: Genesis of The Gods”
Short title: "Genesis of The Gods”
Name used inside the game, and when talking to people who know the original:
"Theogony” or "The Theogony” or "Hesiod’s Theogony” (note the ‘o’ in ‘-ony’). "Genesis of The Gods” is a rough translation of "theogony.”
Extra short title: "GOG” or "story 3"
Story 4:
Full length title: "Enter The Story: A Tale of Two Cities”
Short title: "A Tale of Two Cities”
Extra short title: "ATOTC” or "Tale"
More to follow!

"Can I get an interview / exclusive pictures / etc.?"
Yes, just ask!

"How do I know your software is safe?"
Enter The Story is built with Adventure Game Studio, the biggest and most tested adventure game software of them all. Thousands of games have used it, and it's played reliably on millions of computers. An extremely active forum would spot any bug as soon as it happened.

"How can I be REALLY sure?"
I'm with you on this! I don't trust computers. So I've made my game as simple as possible: It's old-school 2D technology. A lot of the Adventure Game Studio code has been used since the 1980s! I don't use videos, no DLLs, no DirectX, no MIDI, no 3D, none of that fancy stuff. And every game uses the same behind-the-scenes code. I don't let the game read or write anything outside its folder, and I even don't even use the registry.

Having said that, the game installs using INNO installer software, one of the world's most popular installers. INNO might use the registry for normal installer purposes. If you don't want to use it then just use the zipped version of the game and copy it yourself.

"What if your site gets hacked?"
The mailing list, payment and downloading are handled by specialist companies that are leaders in their field. You don't have to join the mailing list if you don't want (the form at the bottom of each page) and if you don't want to give credit card details just pay using PayPal.

As for my own computers, my main computer is not connected to the Internet (I update files, virus checkers, etc. manually.) My online machine is only used for temporary work and is always up to date on anti-malware, and when game files are uploaded they're scanned again by BMTMicro.

"I got a virus warning once!"
Viruses are always changing, so anti-virus software is always changing as well. On one day in February 2009 one antivirus program (AVG) accidentally identified all AGS games as having a virus. it was mistake, and AVG updated their antivirus software a few hours later. If you ever find a virus warning on an AGS game (like this one), check it with a virus checker from a different company. If it still looks bad, contact me and I'll look into it.

If all this still doesn't work either, you then have four options.

Option 1: find a friend
Find how to update your graphics drivers. Or find a friend who can do it for you. Actually this isn't very hard to do - just Google it - and it's a useful skill to have for any other programs that don't run properly. you basically find the model of your graphics card and download the latest drivers from the manufacturer's web site then double click on them. But I won't take responsibility if you get the wrong ones and forget how to change back!

Option 2: never give up
Although this game doesn't use DirectX, it's possible that your graphics card uses it for something else. If you choose start -> run and type dxdiag you'll get a DirectX diagnostic program that will show if Direct X thinks it's working properly.

Or maybe there are conflicts with sound drivers, or goodness knows what. Computers are very complicated things and can go wrong in a million different ways. Sooner or later you have to decide if it's worth hunting that last bug.

Option 3: give up on that computer
Play the game on a different computer if you have one. Enter The Story doesn't have any DRM, so you can install it wherever you want.

Option 4: give up on the game
Shake your fist at the computer and say bad things about Microsoft or Dell. I find that helps. And if you've paid for the game, please accept my apologies and contact me for a refund.

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Not as bad as it sounds:

Game crashes with message: "cannot restore game"
If you download an updated game (or a beta test version) and replace a game with exactly the same name, then the game might get confused. So find the saved games in the game folder (called 'agssave.101' or similar) and delete them, or move them somewhere else. The game should now work properly.

This means you'll lose your old saved games. Don't worry if you were a long way through the game. Just use Emergency Help (Ctrl-H then Ctrl-P) to jump to where you were before.

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No reason to panic:

"I minimized the game but the music still plays"
This doesn't happen on most computers, but is another focus problem again: try switching between different folders again.

"The game has a big black border around it / at the side"
Some computer monitors don't use the whole screen when running games at different resolutions, and that's why they might show a black border around the picture. Sometimes a monitor will show it a bit to the side. Most monitors have menu buttons on the front. There should be a menu option to stretch or move the picture. Try changing it so the picture fills the whole screen.

"The game plays but doesn't respond!"
If the game is in a cutscene, then pressing ESC on the keyboard should make the cut scene end and give you back control.

"It says an old game isn't on my computer"
Sometimes you click on an exit and message comes up saying "this path leads to another game that isn't on your computer." If you know you have the other game, make sure it's in the same folder. You can only move between games if both games are in exactly the same folder. This is for security reasons.

"I can't hear the music"
Music only plays if a file called 'music.vox' is in the same folder as the game. And if your speakers are turned on, obviously.

"The game looks very low resolution and blocky"
Find the file called 'WinSetup' in the game folder. Open it. If it says the game is running at '320 x 200' then change it to '640 x 400' or similar.

"When I load a saved game, all my favorite locations are lost"
Saved games save absolutely everything, including favorites. This is so that if you delete everything you can always get back to where you were.

"I finished a puzzle, then later I had to do it again!"
This can happen if you use Emergency Help (Ctrl+H): when you jump to a certain part of a game, the game will assume that everything before that point is done, and everything after that point is not done. If you're a clever player and managed to pass a "late" puzzle while still early in the game, Emergency Help will still mark all late puzzles as "not done."

This is a deliberate safety measure: people only use Emergency Help if something has gone wrong, so the safest thing is to restore the game to its simplest possible state, and that means restoring the game to the state it would have been in if it was played in the simplest possible way.

However, if this happens when you did not use Emergency Help, then it might be a real bug, so please let me know!

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A feature, not a bug:

"When moving between stories, sometimes I can't go back"
Yes you can, use the map! (Press 'M' to see recent locations.)
When you move between stories, you enter a new story and play by its new rules. Those rules might say you can't get to a certain place until you've solved a certain puzzle. But if you really want to ignore the puzzles, use the map to get extra freedom.