Enter the Story, Chris Tolworthy's ambitious project to bring classic literature to video game form, has received a change that means good news to it's fans: the gameplay has been streamlined so that a new story can be added each week.
The first five games were simplified adventure games using the AGS (adventure game studio) engine. You point and clicked your way through a black and white interpretation of each book's world, communicating with characters and advancing the story. The approach was novel, and it worked well. But it required a lot of time to make each book into a game.
Starting on February 21st, Chris premiered the new Enter the Story format: choose-your-own-adventure style browser games. The new games feature a comic style illustration, complete with speech balloons, and links underneath with choices that take you to the next part of the puzzle. It's a much simplified version of what the games used to be, but it works well. There are four new books available: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The First Men in the Moon, and Romeo and Juliet. Macbeth and a Midsummer Night's Dream are listed as coming soon. The old games are still available and still use AGS. The new games are free for the first half of the story, are playable in most internet browsers, and are updated almost daily. For $14.99 USD, you can purchase the complete version of every online browser game, as well as the five original AGS games.