Save This Post for When You Have 45 Minutes

Bookmark this post because you are going to want to come back to it if you don’t have 45 minutes right now.  I promise that this tiny game will be well-worth your time.

I stumbled upon the Seers Catalogue much in the same way the character in the game finds the mysterious ad in the back of a magazine that leads them on their adventure.  Random clicks brought me to an article on The Verge, and the name of the game stuck in my mind when we were picking our next selection for our interactive fiction club.

“Let’s play Seers Catalogue.”

Where are we? 

A hiding place.

The game takes about 45 minutes to read through.  While you can leave it open and walk away from the screen, you cannot save your progress.  This is — perhaps — a good thing in the sense that the game lulls you into a dream state, and it’s better to commit to reading it vs. playing in drips and drabs.  It can only be accessed from a computer — not a mobile device.

It was like Mysterious Benedict Society for adults (though I didn’t see anything in the first play-through of the game that was inappropriate for kids, and I’m letting the twins read it).  It felt like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in game form.  There is no way to lose the game, but a few ways you can twist the story.

“Anything that is important has power,” says Mr. Bud. “And this is what the powerful use to maintain their control.”

Bookmark this post because after you play, I want you to come back here and tell me where the story took you.