Violet

One note for those using our Flash-based interpreter to play "Violet":

You may receive a minor run-time error message when accessing either of two objects in the game...

The error message is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect game play at all. We are working to fix the issue soon.

Update: This issue should be fixed now.

Ha! "HETERONORMATIVITY OFF!"

A feminist-friendly game: +10 PTS

I'm still trying to figure out what will happen if I play this game rather than write my (all too real) dissertation...

I think it might hit a little too close to home right now. Maybe I'll come back to it when I've finished the diss.

I think I've found a glitch...

May I say 'Thank You' to the game writer for the hints! I love this type of game but I am hopeless without help!!

Oh, wow, thank you! I love IF, especially the one room kind. Can't wait until I have the time to play this one through. Got off to a hilarious start in french class, but apparently, that wasn't such a great idea.

This is pretty fun but I'm having trouble

I typed exactly that (minus the "ing") and it won't happen. Help would be appreciated.

@Suho1004 - Similar situation here. Oh, the irony of playing a game about avoiding procrastination, in order to procrastinate.

kenshiro:

I would date a girl like Violet. I'd go on a tirade about Boston girls, but I'd probably anger a few feminists and I know the site likes to stay kid-friendly so...

Fun, but kind of irritating having to remember

Still, well written and fun.

So right now I can't seem to focus on writing because of...

So I've tried to follow the hint and

But it's not letting me. Is it suppose to be like that or is there something wrong here? >_

Never mind, I got it. The game is a built-in hint system. Pretty fancy.

Very nice game and, as was already pointed out, unsettling well observed. I found me laughing while knowing it was (and with other things is) actually not that funny. Recomended!

I agree with Silent George; I am having problems remembering the commands for the platypod. Can anyone help me out?

Raise eyebrows (left or right) to change tracks.

Scrunch forehead to turn on.

Jiggle head to change volume (clockwise louder, CCW quieter - i think).

I really enjoyed this, which is particularly good for the game since I tend not to enjoy wrestling with text parsers. Had to use several hints though!

I love the way the game explores the issue of procrastination and how much it can cost.

Two problems:

The

commands are hard to remember.

When you look at your inventory, the game seems to lag for maybe 15 seconds just before it outputs the final inventory item that you're carrying.

Interesting game. I felt it was fate (and irony) that this game came up today. I'm writing om my master's thesis and have a dealine tomorrow, so of course I got distracted by this game and had to play it...

Now I just need to follow the examples I've learned and complete the ca 5000 words I need to write in 17 hours.

I'm having trouble getting very far. I've managed to

and

but

The hint system just tells me to

but I tried that already, to no avail.

I am having the same problem, ray9na. Anyone have a tip??

@ray9na: as they say, if at first you don't succeed, try try again.

Great game! Although one line from the game really caught my attention: "You groan, because you are like every other parochial American who refuses to give Australian hip-hop a proper chance." I find that funny, as I am American, and I have recently become addicted to an Australian hip-hop band. And I am playing this game instead of school work. Coincidences, coincidences.

Same problem as ray9na and Jen here as well.

it won't let me

any help?

ray9na:

As for the platypod instructions, I just

This is quite a helpful technique in most IFs.

Trying to

--realized to do that w/o any hints, but it keeps saying I need to pick it up first, and when I try to do that it says I can't. What the heck?

As for the cable, you may need to

it first.

Has anyone ever played "Kissing the Buddha's Feet?". It's a IF in a similar vein... Violet almost feels like a sequel to it. Both games are great BTW, If you liked this you should try that one.

For all of you havuing trouble overcoming your internet addiction, remember that the game doesn't always know the word 'the'.

what you need to type, specifically is,

Now, I just need to

the_corruptor: perhaps something to use as

I already put

but

Steph -

Kendy-
Have you

Wow, I have

and

and

and

and

but I still can't

The hint system is telling me I need a

and I guess I need to

but I have tried

and am fairly out of ideas.

Can anyone help?

I think I've found a bug. I was trying to take the

off the

and it thought I meant the one off the

even though I didn't have it yet, and it let me do it as if I had!

I can't seem to

Help?

Whee! For anyone stuck, here is a rough guide.

It's nice to play a game with a convincing Australian voice. The pet names are a bit over the top, but even that is in a typically Australian kind of humour.

I wish I'd had a Violet when completing my PhD.

Denied, if you haven't already had a look at the walkthrough, I'll tell you that

I rather liked the perkiness, maybe because I mentally translated it into sweeping sarcasm. This is a fun one, and the environment is pretty amusing too. The scenes outside and across the hall get pretty bizarre if you wait long enough.

Yay, what fun! Three hours taken away from writing my real thesis... this hit really close to home.

Oh, I laugh...as I put off grading papers, writing one of a myriad papers I need to write for grad classes...this was ME on Monday as I tried to finally write a 15 page paper for a course I took an "incomplete" in nearly a year ago.

I'm currently a "plucky wombat"--LOVE it! haha Just curious--would the endearments be the same if I had chosen to be heteronormative?

For some reason I can't play the game. I get to the "Calm down." screen and then nothing happens. Am I just completely stupid and not clicking something vital? I think I've clicked every square millimeter of the screen.

It will not let me unfold the trophy. I have tried like fifteen times and she gets mad at me. Help!

Katie: try clicking on the game window, then press [ENTER]

wildflower: have you tried eXamining it first? If so, is it in your possession?

Wildflower,

wow! this sounds like a great game to play instead of doing homework for my graduate program like i should be doing right now!

It may be a glitch or it may be Internet Explorer. I'm using IE 7 on Vista and I'm stuck on the first page with "Calm down. All you have to do is write a thousand words and everything will be fine. And you have all day, except it's already noon."

Can anyone help me?

hache - after clicking on the title screen for "Violet", try hitting [ENTER] on your keyboard.

It's an interactive fiction text game, so it's played with the keyboard.

If you're new to interactive fiction, you may benefit from this nice primer on the subject:
http://brasslantern.org/beginners/

I don't know if this only applies to this puzzle, but there's more than one way to empty your bladder O_o

Anyone know other solutions to this/other puzzles? Besides the ones the hint system gives you?

For those of you who are interested in the game's easter eggs that are listed at the end of the game, but don't want to play all the way through multiple times here they are for you (one or two removed that I couldn't get working):

@neon There's more than one way to take care of the book, too.

I haven't figured out any other alternate solutions to problems.

This is the first thing I'm going to play once I finish up my prospectus presentation next week...

i just finished playing it. i really liked the characterization of the parser. IF games that screw with the standard set-ups and relationships between parser, PC, and player are nifty, and this one worked well, though I'm so used to only seeing things in IF described from the 2nd person point of view that seeing both 1st and 2nd person statements would throw me a little now and then.

still, cool game. i always felt a little sad every time i had to

When I try to

the game bugs and

Cheddarius, I don't think that's a bug.

Have you tried:

I'm pretty sure it's a bug... the game keeps hinting that

I've also read the walkthrough and various posts, and they say that the solution I've been trying should work.

Oh dear. I've come across another bug. I'm absolutely sure it's a bug this time:

Yes, I believe you're right, that's a bug (probably in our Flash interpreter) in what it reports to you. It says that it turns it off when, in fact, it turns it back on.

Therefore, you can disregard what it tells you about the state of the power of the device.

If you try to jiggle head clockwise or anticlockwise, the volume is adjusted accordingly.

Could someone change the walkthrough to include the

? I have no idea how to solve that...

For a slightly darker and sadder ending, type in

and be prepared to (hopefully)

loved this story(game), very funny writing, tysm for all your great links Jay and the team!

This is a very good piece of IF. It takes a lot for a game to grip me like this one. Please, you owe it to yourself to play this!

Yes! I finally did it! Also, I noticed I entered a lot of the "bonus" commands listed at the end. In fact, the first thing I did with the key was to try and swallow it. Lol

That was really fun! Wish I could apply that much focus to doing research.

I got stuck for the longest time trying to

.

Did anyone use the

for anything? Did anyone even find the

No one has mentioned it yet. I wish I'd taken more time to explore it since it apparently it

.

Also, the spoiler above about getting the

is not how I did it. Although I tried it that way.

Thanks!

I would love it if someone told me the ending...I've tried six or seven times, but the bug where

:(

[Edit: It's not a bug. You have to jiggle your head to the left to turn down the volume just a bit with the gum in your ear. Did you try that? -Jay]

I thought I did turn it both up and down, and when it was down, I could hear Julia talking, and when it was up, it was too loud.

The first time I played it worked, but I lost, and forgot to save. But every time thereafter, nothing worked. I could try again, though.

I think I figured it out. I had accidentally switched to being female, and I believe there is a different solution to the puzzle if you do so. I should read the reviews more thoroughly. :\ Thanks for the help, though.

(Sorry if this gets submitted twice, I'm not sure what happened when I clicked submit.)

It doesn't work! D: D: D:

It's stuck on the first screen...why?

[Edit: Did you click on the title screen? Try pressing [return]. -Jay]

Never mind! I feel stupid and didn't get that it was a text game. Wow.

I've never played a text game before because I always got lost in between cave 1 and cave 2 and decided to forget about it. I just played through this whole game. Therefore I think the game makers should be very proud of themselves. AND IT WAS FUN.

I dear, I fear I've broken something.
I'm at the "distracted by online wonders" section, and it won't let me pick up the ethernet cable.

I was able to pick it up fine *before*, but now that I actually need to, it says that it isn't something I can carry. Whaaa? It SO is too! It's unplugged and everything, I don't understand.

It's possible that in my early plugging and unplugging ventures, I may have bugged it out.

Hm. I think I'll try again, cuz this has been quite entertaining so far. Gonna have to be warey of that cable, though.

If you can't take the cable, try writing again and then try to take it. Worked for me.

All im getting is typing nothing else a black screen with words

sunshine: Welcome to the world of interactive fiction!

Games such as this are generally comprised mostly of text. You read the descriptions, and you type in commands to interact with the story.

If you're new to interactive fiction, you may benefit from this nice primer on the subject:
http://brasslantern.org/beginners/

how do you stop talking to violet?

i need help how do you stop talking to violet?

the platypod is EVIL
i can't charge it...
nor play it...
can someone provide another walkthrough?

i cant take the empty plastic bottle out of the cabinet even though violet is telling me too she just keeps saying i dont understand
how do i get it out so i can finally break the stool?

Not sure if I'm being stupid or my computer's playing up, but I'm stuck right at the beginning, on a black screen with white text saying "Calm down..."

I cant seem to play the game. All i can do is click when it begins read the begining where it says all i have to do is write the thing in one day but its already afternoon.

I seem to be having the same trouble as the two previous commenters.

The game loads fully and goes to the beginning screen, but the game gets stuck on the black-screen intro. All I can see is the "Calm down..." lines, and there's no where to click.

I've tried reloading, but it's just not going anywhere for me.

For those you having problems on the black screen with white words,

[Edit: Spoiler added ~ Kayleigh]

Heh, well here's something you don't see these days: a text-based adventure game. It was pretty good, even though I was pretty much stumped trying to figure out where to hide the key until I read some comments

I got distracted quite a bit by the batte outside my window. As soon as the holes appeared, I knew that I had to tear myself away.

im really confused...im still on the typing section but anything i type is wrong..what should i do?HELP!!!!!

ce verb sa scriu acolo :))))))))

I'm a huge procrastinator, so this really hit home for me as well. Loved Violet's commentary too. :D One question though:

How do I stop talking to Violet??

You can also just lock the book in the cabinet with the ethernet cord, without having to burn it.

See, this is why I love JIG. Normally, I would never have been able to play this game (because of downloading restrictions in my house), much less discover it, yet the Z-Machine lets me play them! Huzzah!

What's a

It mentions it in the game, but I don't know what that is.

Okay, here's my solution to the whole I-have-the ethernet-cable-unplugged-but-I-can't-pick-it-up thing: type in

That was fun! But apparently I'm a man...

Is there something specific you have to do to change genders?

[Edit: It says how in the ABOUT section: "type FEMALE or, more stylishly, HETERONORMATIVITY OFF". -Jay]

Ahhhh thank you, Jay! I never even thought to type "about" in! This could be part of the reason I tend to stumble through IFs!

I don't seem to be able to

.

Not sure why everyone likes this so much. I give the creator full credit for demonstrating that all IF doesn't have to be essentially "find object, use object", and the very creative use of perspective. It was also very nice that even though this is a "single-room" adventure, it did not feel as if this room was all there was in the setting.

However I was soured on the whole thing by the fact that several of the puzzles amount to little more than the author throwing on extra unnecessary layers to simple solutions in order to simulate a "puzzle". To justify it, the protagonist is made into a complete idiot. The internet cable puzzle is a prime example:

The cutesy-pie nicknames were tiresome. They don't advance the plot and should be used sparingly if at all.

What saddens me is there is a REALLY good story buried in there and a very creative use of the IF genre to try and tell it.

I think the negative comments are too harsh. This was a fun game. Fun. I used to work with an Australian girl, and she was exactly like this. Well done!

I've found a bug -
At certain points in the game, like when I access my inventory, or right after I

the game freezes. When it happens whilst looking at my inventory, the game will sometimes start up again, but with the other, the text gets to

and freezes completely. I tried refreshing the page and playing up to that point again, but I got stuck at the exact same place. I'm playing on a Mac with Firefox, by the way.

[Try updating your Flash Player. If that doesn't work, I suggest you try downloading the game and play it in a standalone IF interpreter. -Jay]

Try saying, "say hi to me"