Kentucky Route Zero
Kentucky Route Zero is an episodic indie point-and -click adventure computer game that was developed by Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy ( Cardboard computer). To the $ 6,500 ( € 4744.5; 5804.9 Swiss francs) to finance expensive development, both launched on January 7, 2011, a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, which total 8,583 dollars ( 6,265 euros; 7665.2 Swiss francs) occupied. On October 17, 2012, the first trailer was released. The game is divided into five acts and acts of the van driver Conway and the mysterious people he meets while he tries to find the fictional Route Zero, to deliver a package.
The first act was published on January 7, 2013 on the official website and Steam. On May 31, the second act appeared
- 4.1 Awards and nominations
Gameplay
Kentucky Route Zero is a point-and- click game and has text-based dialogues. There are no puzzles or challenges, as the main focus of the game is on the history and atmosphere. The player controls Conway with the mouse to move it to another location or to interact with other characters or objects. The player can also choose between different response options in the dialogs. Once Conway is done in a location that he can drive his truck to another. Here the player a card is shown on the Interstate 65 can be found, as well as other streets and places to which he must, depending on the instruction navigate. Kentucky Route Zero is divided into five episodes, called in the game file. Between the first and the second act seemed the free mini episode Limits & demonstration and after the second act The Entertainment.
Action
Conway, a truck driver, working as a delivery person for an antique shop, which is owned by a woman named Lysette. He is asked by her to bring a supply of Dogwood Drive 5. Conway travels with his dog ( Homer, Blue, or no name at all, depending on the choice ) by Kentucky to find the address. He stops at the dark old gas station Equus Oils to ask for directions.
Act I
Conway arrives at the Equus Oils gas station and meets an old man, the owner of the station named Joseph. This informed Conway that the only way to Dogwood Drive via the mysterious Route Zero, and asks him to repair the circuit breaker of the gas station to find the way to the computer. Conway goes to the basement of the station, where he meets three people who play at a table a strange game, but completely ignore him. He finds her lost dice, but the players are suddenly gone and give up the way to restore the electricity. When he asked Joseph about the strange people who believed this that Conway probably had a hallucination. Conway uses the computer to get the directions to the Marquez - farm. On this he wants to talk with Weaver Marquez, the better the roads familiar as the attendant. Before Conway heads back on the road, Joseph invites an old TV on the truck to bring it to Weaver. Conway goes to the house of Marquez and meets Weaver. It represents Conway some questions and he asks for a description of the Navigation Route Zero, but he should first connect the TV. When he looks at the screen, he sees a vision of an exceptional farm and faints. When he wakes up, he informed Weaver that her cousin Shannon repaired TV. She gives him directions to the Route Zero and suddenly disappears.
As Conway arrives at the place, he discovers that this is an abandoned mine shaft. He meets Shannon Marquez, who is looking for something in the mines. Conway decides to help Shannon and go along both deeper into the mine down. For this they use a sound system to the exact depth to fairs. Unfortunately, the sound waves cause a collapse. One leg of Conway is injured and Shannon uses a trolley to exit along with Conway the shaft. If the bag light is turned off while driving, wandering ghostly visions of miners can be seen. Before both leave the mine, Shannon Conway leaves you alone and goes a little further down the mine shaft. There they discovered a bunch of miners helmets. Shannon then comes back quickly, but Conway told nothing of their find. Both go to Shannon's workshop and then back to Marquez's farm. Here Shannon reveals that the loan debt of the Marquez family meant that Weaver fled. When Shannon is trying to repair the old TV, Conway looks back inside. This time, the image of the farm begins to distort and results that opens an access route to Zero. This ends the first act
Second Act
The second act begins with an introduction in which Lulu Chamberlain ( a fictional installation artist whose works can be seen in Additional Content Limits & Demonstration of Kentucky Route Zero ) a rejection letter from the Gaston Trust for Imaginary Architecture ( Gaston Trust for Imagined Architecture) receives. After reading the message, Chamberlain goes through a series of proposals for a restructuring of places, away from its current function as a change from a basketball court to a dog kennel.
After this introduction, the focus of the story is back on Conway, Shannon and the dog with the same name of the player directed. You arrive at a five -story building in which the Office of complaining places ( Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces ) has its seat. At the reception, they are told that they only get directions to the Dogwood Drive, when they get a picture message from the office. The receptionist suggests that they visit Lulu Chamberlain, who is currently the office manager. After a series of bureaucratic detours it reaches the three Chamberlain to make. She informs them that the directions to the Dogwood Drive is in another storage facility, which is located in an old church. In addition, they Conway advised to consult because of his injured leg, the doctor Doctor Truman. Conway entertains at the storage site about hobbies with the caretaker of the building and listened to a recording of a sermon on the virtue of hard work. Meanwhile, Shannon finds the file, they're looking for. When they leave the building, Conway breaks down due to his injury and Shannon decides that the first priority is to find Doctor Truman to be treated Conway.
Upon returning the official told the receptionist that Doctor Truman can be found in the Museum of inhabited places ( Museum of Dewllings ). The group leaves the Route Zero and return to the Route 65 while they browse the museum, they encounter a boy named Ezra. This tells them that the doctor now lives and provides them with his huge eagle Julian to fly there in the forest. The group accepted his offer. After a walk through the forest, they find strange illusory Doctor Truman's house. Doctor Truman declared Conway that his injury is serious but treatable. It prescribes him an anesthetic called Neurypnol TM. The second act ends by Conway by the drug loses his consciousness, and the walls of the house to retire in a vision around the forest to reveal behind it.
Background
The development time of the first act was about two and a half years. On the concept of the game came Elliott and Kemenczy, as both have family and friends in Kentucky and spend a lot of time. Kentucky Route Zero is based on the Unity game engine. The animations were realized using Blender and the sound design was set to Ableton Live. The music was written by composer Ben Babbitt. In addition, a song by the band The Ramblers Bedquilt comes. Kemenczy was mainly responsible for the design and Elliott wrote the plot. One of the most important influences on the game were the works of David Lynch.
Reviews
The first act of Kentucky Route Zero acceptance has been very positive and received at Metacritic 81 out of 100 possible points. The unique graphics and the atmosphere especially was sent. Something has criticized the short season and the relatively few opportunities for interaction and places.
" The best moments do arise When you stop to let it all sink in. It asks for attention rather than reflexes, and serves as a reminder did so few of synthesis experiences exist. "
" The best moments occur when allowed to act everything up. It requires more attention than reflexes and serves as a reminder that so few such experiments exist. "
"As far as a first episode goes, Kentucky Route Zero Establishes the setting, tone and characters better than i could have expected. I love that I'm still thinking about what exactly happened to Conway and company, and did intrigue has left me longing for the next piece of the tale. "
"As for the first episode, Kentucky Route Zero establishes the environment, sound and figures to better than I had thought. I love the fact that I still think about it, what exactly happened with Conway and others and this fascination makes me eagerly await the next part of the story. "
" What seems like a classic point & click starts with a little mystery, is very quickly becoming a surreal reading trip for friends of paradox. Still, I 'm not going to make sense of this unreal, much too short trip. But something is lurking off the reality on Conway and his old dog. And that makes me curious. "