8 thoughts on “Zombies and Elephants”

1. If you’re looking for the cure ending… there is a random factor involved. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Try taking two boxes of unknown drugs… repeatedly.

2. I feel like I’ve clicked on just about every possible option! Maybe I missed an obvious hint somewhere??

3. The “Cure”-solution is also pretty true to the genre’s customs. You may actually encounter/find it pretty early on, but will know so only some time later …

4. I swear I played this game about twenty times on the day it was released and I’m probably going to play it about twenty more times now (in the renewed hope of a ‘good’ ending). It has my favourite flavour of post-apocalyptic despair- loving characters so much that you desperately want them to be alright, and knowing deep down that no matter what happens they probably won’t be, because the immediate danger is too great and the outside world too unfair. Thank you for making this game, it’s a great (if frightening) experience.

5. I just got done checking out all of the entries in the Fear of Twine exhibition, and I have to say, yours was by far the best of the lot! Simply amazing storytelling. And what an unbelievable sense of futility when no matter what I do, no matter how many different combinations of actions I try, *THAT* always winds up happening by the end. Quite visceral. (Although now that I see in the comments above that there is a way to find a cure, I’m going to have to go play some more. I thought I had tried everything! Can you give me a nudge in the right direction…please…?) 🙂

6. Now it’s my turn to say wow — just one week to build and compile the whole game, quite an accomplishment! I hope you’re equally industrious when working on your novel. Still looking forward to that one. 😉

   The image conveyed by the main ending is indeed a strong one, even without allegories involved. And you definitely have to keep the initial spark in your work, regardless of how many darlings you otherwise might kill on the way …
   Irrespective of the elephant thing, I really enjoyed myself, as I said, and “Zombies and Elephants” for me in fact ranks on top of the “Fear of Twine”-exhibition, with Jonas coming in a close second (sorry, Jonas).

   Thanks again for your work! And excited about the coming blog entry. 🙂

7. Wow. Thank you.
   And wow again… someone actually got the cure ending. That’s a very unlikely ending to get, congratulations!
   I apologize for the abruptness of the cure ending. I only came up with the idea for the game about a week before the deadline for the Fear of Twine exhibition, so some storylines didn’t get all the attention that they deserved. If it helps: I also think that the cure ending is rather too short and once I have the time I’d like to make an updated version of the game that expands that one, as well as a few other things. (You might be surprised to hear that that is not what I think of as the “main ending”. This game is supposed to be old-school, Romero-esque horror, and it’s much more about the logical conclusion of the scenario than about getting out alive.)
   As for the elephants. I’m currently writing a “Making of Zombies and Elephants” blog entry, that’s going to fully explain the story behind the elephants, but in short: they really don’t serve any allegorical function, they’re more there to create atmosphere and tension. That may be underselling them, but I don’t know how to put it into words any better. And since the last image of the main ending is what originally inspired the story, I couldn’t very well leave out the elephants.

8. Dear Verena,

   played your game and enjoyed it immensely. You really managed to grip me with your way to tell the story, and at times I was indeed torn between eager fast-forward-clicking to see how the story would develop and lingering with the situations and atmosphere you evoked just a little longer …

   My first playthrough took me through the whole nine yards, up to d—- b- e——- (don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else); on my second try, I accidentally found the cure (and was surprised by the rather abrupt ending).
   All in all, to my taste, “Zombies & Elephants” is a great pulp fiction-adventure, is all I want to say.

   Only thing that confused me: I didn’t get the role and/or function of the elephants, to be honest, neither in the beginning nor at the end … They just arbitrarily intensify an already rather horrific situation, do they not? Just wondering …

   Anyway, thanks a lot for your work — a wonderful way to spend an evening! And publish some more, svp., in whatever medium! 🙂

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