Story
The Kingdom of Icia is straining under the weight of the countless trivial and restrictive laws, introduced by a string of monarchs trying to cover up their own failings. The young King Edward LCCXII now faces the daunting prospect of learning all of the kingdom's thousands of arbitrary rules so that he can take over as king.
At the start of the game, time itself stops completely, and the player must explore the rooms of the king's residence, frozen in place, tasked with teaching the king about the pleasures and beauty of life so that he does not repeat the mistakes of his predecessors.
Gameplay
The game uses pre-rendered backgrounds with a surrealistic artistic style, viewed from a first person perspective. There are four modes of interaction: movement, examine, use and pick up. Right-clicking allows the player to scroll through the different modes and also allows access to the inventory. Puzzles are solved by clicking on hotspots in the environment. Examining the characters allows the player to read their thoughts.
There are two parts to the game. The first is the adventure game proper, consisting of typical inventory puzzles, often with surreal and unexpected solutions. The game does not come to an end, however. You can continue to explore and discover cryptic clues hidden in each of the environment. The 'solution' to this second part of the game is not checked by the game: the developers intended people to contact them with their solution to check if they had got it right.
Music
The game does not have an original soundtrack. Instead, each location features a short looping excerpt from a piece of classical, ambient or electronic music, including several tracks from the album Lifeforms by the British electronica duo The Future Sound of London.
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