Living Space
A small-scale text-based game written in C++
STORY:
While on a routine salvage mission, you encounter an abandoned alien spacecraft roughly three times the size of your own ship. Upon boarding the vessel, you feel a pounding in your head, which gradually worsens as you make your way to the bridge, upon entering the bridge, you find that it is empty, except for a small terminal in the center. As you approach the terminal, the pain you have been feeling since your arrival becomes unbearable. Fortunately, you find some momentary relief as six writhing tentacles drag you into a gaping maw that opens beneath the terminal.
You awake several hours later sitting in an exceptionally comfortable chair, which is made of a material that you cannot identify, despite your best efforts. Looking more closely, you see that the entire ship is made out of the same material. It is a warm gray substance that pulsates slightly when you touch it and has a consistency not unlike flesh. As you rise from your seat, you feel something odd brush against your back. You turn around to see that six tentacles have become fused to your back. You can feel them pumping an unknown fluid into your body.
You hear a voice inside your head say "Please do not touch those. They are part of us now."
You prepare to speak but are immediately interrupted. "We were psychically linked when I...attached myself to you." As you begin to respond, you hear the voice continue, "We don't have much time, so I will try to answer your questions as soon as you think of them." There is a brief moment of silence before the voice continues. "Yes, that means we can communicate to eachother by thinking. Yes, I am the 'ship' you came here to salvage. No, you cannot sell me to your government under the assumption that they would pay vast sums of money for the opportunity to dissect me. You must remember that we are one being now and anything that happens to me will affect you and vice-versa."
You spend some time testing out your new body and after about an hour you can move freely through space and see things in front of you, as though your eyes were connected to the "ship's" sensors. However, you soon grow hungry and, Noticing that there is no food on the ship, you wonder how you are supposed to feed yourself. You turn towards your now unmanned salvage ship and hear "That looks tasty."
Suddenly, an enormous mouth filled with sharp teeth forms on the front of your hull. You bite into your old ship, which emits a loud, satisfying CRUNCH. It tastes metallic-y, but not altogether unpleasant, and you devours it in three quick bites, and feel that your hunger has been sated, at least momentarily. Your body tingles as you feel it shift internally. You feel much faster now.
"We can consume both organic and inorganic materials, but if we eat ships or certain lifeforms, we will sometimes adapt new traits that will improve our body and enable us to more easily explore the galaxy...and satisfy our hunger.
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| ____ |
| | | _____ _____ |
| ___| |___ | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| |___ ___| |_____| |_____| |
| | | |
| |____| |
|__________________________________________|
CONTROLS
w.................moves ship forwards a specified number of units s.................moves ship backwards a specified number of units a.................moves ship left a specified number of units d.................moves ship right a specified number of units status/stats......returns ship status look..............look at room heal/repair.......restore health explore...........look for ships to "salvage" save..............saves game load..............loads game pause.............pauses game quit..............exits game
MAP KEY
@ Player
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Edge of map/pretty stars
X Enemy $ Credits N,S,E,W Exits (north, south, east, and west, respectively) & Prev map