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* GoryDiscretionShot: When [[spoiler:Cob looks on [[BrownNote Bobbin's uncovered face]].]] When it cuts back, [[spoiler:Cob is gone without a trace.]]
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* GoryDiscretionShot: When [[spoiler:Cob looks on [[BrownNote Bobbin's uncovered face]].]] When it cuts back, [[spoiler:Cob is gone without a trace.]]]] Averted if you play the game in Expert mode, as the game lets you see exactly what happens.
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* GoryDiscretionShot: When [[spoiler:Cob looks on [[BrownNote Bobbin's uncovered face]].]] When it cuts back, [[spoiler:Cob is gone without a trace.]]
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** The existence of a puzzle can be deduced: [[spoiler: Bobbin was probably going to use the Emptying draft (which has no use in the finished game, and which you can play by the time you get to Crystalgard) to empty the sandglasses. The running sands mark the time remaining until the Third Shadow: they were being replenished indefinitely, but presumably Bobbin screws that up and reduces the symbolic time until the Apocalypse to nil. NiceJobBreakingItHero!]]
*** The Emptying draft has a use in the game: you can use it inside the cave to drain the lake and find another scrying sphere in the sand. It can also be used on the wine glass in Crystalgard and the woodbin in the Forge, neither of which has any use.
*** The Emptying draft has a use in the game: you can use it inside the cave to drain the lake and find another scrying sphere in the sand. It can also be used on the wine glass in Crystalgard and the woodbin in the Forge, neither of which has any use.
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** The existence of a puzzle can be deduced: [[spoiler: Bobbin was probably going to use the Emptying draft (which has no use in the finished game, and which you can play by the time you get to Crystalgard) to empty the sandglasses. The running sands mark the time remaining until the Third Shadow: they were being replenished indefinitely, but presumably Bobbin screws that up and reduces the symbolic time until the Apocalypse to nil. NiceJobBreakingItHero!]]
*** The EmptyingNiceJobBreakingItHero! Alternately, playing the draft has a use in reverse might have ''added'' time before the game: you can use it inside the cave to drain the lake and find another scrying sphere in the sand. It can also be used on the wine glass in Crystalgard and the woodbin in the Forge, neither of which has any use.apocalypse.]]
*** The Emptying
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* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The dragon is afraid of fire, despite being its BreathWeapon.
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* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The dragon is afraid pyrophobic (afraid of fire, despite being its BreathWeapon.fire), which is a bit more of a disadvantage for a fire-breathing dragon than it is for most.
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* BoringButPractical / AwesomeYetPractical: The first draft you learn in the game, Opening, is also the one that gets used the most. [[spoiler:It may even be used to ''tear open the literal fabric of reality.'']]
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* BoringButPractical / AwesomeYetPractical: BoringButPractical[=/=]AwesomeYetPractical: The first draft you learn in the game, Opening, is also the one that gets used the most. [[spoiler:It may even be used to ''tear open the literal fabric of reality.'']]
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* EvilIsNotAToy: Bishop Mandible attempts to summon Chaos from the realm of the dead. [[spoiler: [[GenreBlindness This goes about as well as you would expect.]]]]
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* EvilIsNotAToy: Bishop Mandible attempts to summon Chaos from the realm of the dead. [[spoiler: [[GenreBlindness [[spoiler:[[GenreBlindness This goes about as well as you would expect.]]]]
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** The Weavers generally remain hooded due to the danger in removing their hoods. When one character tries to unhood the protagonist, the scene [[GoryDiscretionShot suddenly cuts to somewhere else]] (and in the highest difficulty level, is obscured by a flash of light) and the player sees {{nothing|IsScarier}}.
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** The Weavers generally remain hooded due to the alleged danger in removing their hoods. When one character tries Cob is foolish enough to unhood the protagonist, test this rumor with Bobbin -- the scene [[GoryDiscretionShot suddenly cuts to somewhere else]] (and in (or obscures the highest difficulty level, is obscured by event with a flash of light) light on Expert difficulty) and the player sees {{nothing|IsScarier}}.
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*** If you play the Expert level, the scene shows Cob ''being sucked into the Weaver's hood!''
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** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until [[spoiler:the BigBad shows up to take it for itself]]. (See WhatAnIdiot on the YMMV page.)
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** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until [[spoiler:the [[spoiler:until the BigBad shows up to take it for itself]]. (See WhatAnIdiot on the YMMV page.)
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* KansasCityShuffle: At one point Bishop Mandible traps you in a cage, but doesn't take your magical staff. Big mistake, right? Not quite -- what he really needed was the "open" spell. He watches you cast it and ''then'' takes your staff.
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* KansasCityShuffle: At one point Bishop Mandible traps you Bobbin in a cage, but doesn't take your the magical staff. distaff Bobbin carries. Big mistake, right? Not quite -- what he really needed was Mandible is actually after the "open" spell. Draft of Opening. He watches you Bobbin cast it the spell to unlock the cage and ''then'' then takes your staff.the distaff.
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* AlmightyJanitor: Taken UpToEleven and ''beyond'' in the backstory. The guilds started out as just that, guilds representing common laborers, like glassmakers, blacksmiths, and shepherds, but now have all evolved to a point where they rule the world, the group that was once simply weavers (as in, tailors and seamstresses) being powerful [[RealityWarper Reality Warpers]].
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** Rusty Nailbender's actual first name is "Wellwrought". Given that he's apparently a lazy layabout and a bit of failure, it's not hard to see why he's better known by his nickname.
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* NamesToRunAwayFrom: Bishop Mandible? Really?
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They don\'t take the hole, they take the entire other half of the Pattern.
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* GainaxEnding: Even with the LeftHanging stuff, the ending makes some sense until [[spoiler: the swans take the hole in reality with them without expanding it. It's also supposed to be a hole that divides the world in two, but only appears to be a square when carried]].
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* GainaxEnding: Even with Due to the LeftHanging stuff, limitations of how the graphics can portray what happens in the game, the events of the ending makes some sense until can be confusing. [[spoiler: After the entire world is split in two, the swans take the hole in reality other half and fly away with them without expanding it. It's also supposed to be a hole But what it looks like in-game is that divides they're flying with the world in two, but only appears to be a square when carried]].''hole'', inside the ''other'' half where they left all the other characters.]]
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* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Chaos rips Bishop Mandible's body to shreds, staining his cathedral with blood as his decapitated head flies directly into the screen! This animation was the work of ''Franchise/SamAndMax'' creator Steve Purcell.
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* AffablyEvil: The dragon plays a courteous host after accidentally snatching up Bobbin (thinking he was a sheep) and at most gets a bit peevish after he turns her hoard into straw, but doesn't do anything. [[spoiler:She's much less affable after he's destroyed her hoard and traumatized her with fire. To the detriment of Rusty, who is currently napping on the plateau and unknowingly dressed as Bobbin when the dragon happens by...]]
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*** The Emptying draft has a use in the game: you can use it inside the cave to drain the lake and find another scrying sphere in the sand.
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*** The Emptying draft has a use in the game: you can use it inside the cave to drain the lake and find another scrying sphere in the sand. It can also be used on the wine glass in Crystalgard and the woodbin in the Forge, neither of which has any use.
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* InvisibilityCloak: The camouflage draft.
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* InvisibilityCloak: The camouflage draft.Dyeing draft gets used to pull this off on some sheep.
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* ThanatosGambit: In the end, [[spoiler:the way Hetchel gives her life to annoy Chaos enough for him to use the draft of Undoing, teaching Bobbin how to destroy the Loom.]]
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* ThanatosGambit: In the end, [[spoiler:the way Hetchel gives her life to annoy Chaos enough for him to use the draft of Undoing, Unmaking, teaching Bobbin how to destroy the Loom.]]
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** Among them is the whole "you cannot fight against chaos, we can side with it, or leave." thing mentioned by Hetchel in literally the second scene of the game. Kinda unusual to get a "run away!" speech at the beginning of the game.
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* DragonHoard: The game has a dragon living in a volcano, sitting on a heap of gold.
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* DragonHoard: The game has a dragon living that steels sheep from the Shepherds lives in a volcano, sitting on a heap of gold.
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* DragonHoard: The game has a dragon living in a volcano, sitting on a heap of gold.
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more precise trope
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* BatmanGambit: In the end, the way Hetchel gives her life to [[spoiler:annoy Chaos enough for him to use the draft of Undoing, teaching Bobbin how to destroy the Loom.]]
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* ThanatosGambit: In the end, [[spoiler:the way Hetchel gives her life to annoy Chaos enough for him to use the draft of Undoing, teaching Bobbin how to destroy the Loom.]]
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*BatmanGambit: In the end, the way Hetchel gives her life to [[spoiler:annoy Chaos enough for him to use the draft of Undoing, teaching Bobbin how to destroy the Loom.]]
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* BritishAccents: All characters have them in the voiced version. Most characters speak in Received Pronunciation, but the dragon and the Blacksmiths speak in Cockney, while the Shepherds speak in some generic Scottish accent.
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** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the BigBad shows up to take it for himself. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Glassmakers.]]
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** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the [[spoiler:the BigBad shows up to take it for himself. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Glassmakers.]]itself]]. (See WhatAnIdiot on the YMMV page.)
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* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because they believe this is true.
** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the BigBad shows up to take it. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Glassmakers.]]
** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the BigBad shows up to take it. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Glassmakers.]]
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* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because they believe that this is true.
would make them just as evil as their enemy.
** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the BigBad shows up to takeit.it for himself. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Glassmakers.]]
** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the BigBad shows up to take
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* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because they believe that will make them as evil as their enemy.
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* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because they believe that will make them as evil as their enemy.this is true.
** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the BigBad shows up to take it. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Glassmakers.]]
** So, having created the Ultimate Weapon, they just stand around polishing it until the BigBad shows up to take it. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Glassmakers.]]
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* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because it will turn them as evil as their enemy.
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* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because it they believe that will turn make them as evil as their enemy.
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*** The Emptying draft has a use in the game: you can use it inside the cave to drain the lake and find another scrying sphere in the sand.
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*** If you play the Expert level, the scene shows Cob ''being sucked into the Weaver's hood!''
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* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:You can resurrect Rusty and the shepherds, but not the Glassmakers guildmaster.]]
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* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:You can resurrect Rusty and the shepherds, but not the Glassmakers guildmaster. However, it's implied that it only works to bring back the ''willing'', as the Glassmakers Guildmaster says he doesn't deserve it when you use it on him.]]
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** TheBlank: Implied by Bobbin.
---> '''Cob''': Why not? There's nothing to fear under that fine robe of yours, is there?
---> '''Bobbin''': If you fear Nothing, then you'd better not touch me.
---> '''Cob''': Why not? There's nothing to fear under that fine robe of yours, is there?
---> '''Bobbin''': If you fear Nothing, then you'd better not touch me.
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* NowDoItAgainBackwards / MagicAIsMagicA: Drafts can be reversed -- that is, their notes played in the opposite order -- to create the opposite effect. A few drafts are palindromic in nature and thereby have no reverse.
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* NowDoItAgainBackwards / MagicAIsMagicA: Drafts can be reversed -- that is, their notes played in the opposite order -- to create the opposite effect. A few drafts are palindromic in nature and thereby have no reverse. [[spoiler: The Transcendence draft, despite being reversible, does absolutely nothing if reversed.]]
** It's implied that Bobbin is the first to figure out that this is possible: the manual makes no mention of reversing drafts, and Bobbin is genuinely surprised when he finds out it's possible.
** It's implied that Bobbin is the first to figure out that this is possible: the manual makes no mention of reversing drafts, and Bobbin is genuinely surprised when he finds out it's possible.
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* InvisibilityCloak: The camouflage draft.
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* InvisibilityCloak: The camouflage draft. draft.
* KansasCityShuffle: At one point Bishop Mandible traps you in a cage, but doesn't take your magical staff. Big mistake, right? Not quite -- what he really needed was the "open" spell. He watches you cast it and ''then'' takes your staff.
* KansasCityShuffle: At one point Bishop Mandible traps you in a cage, but doesn't take your magical staff. Big mistake, right? Not quite -- what he really needed was the "open" spell. He watches you cast it and ''then'' takes your staff.
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* SwansASwimming: Swans play an important role in this game.
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Loom_Cover_Art_9884.jpg]]
->''It was long after the passing of the second shadow, when dragons ruled the twilight sky, and the stars were bright and numerous...''
''Loom'' is an epic fantasy {{adventure|Game}}, released by LucasArts in 1990, which tells of the Age of the Great Guilds, a time when the peoples of the game's world banded together to form city-states around their chosen profession. One of these guilds, the Guild of Weavers, eventually perfected their craft so that they could weave more than just fabric, and started weaving drafts into the very fabric of reality itself. Shunned by the other guilds as practitioners of witchcraft, the Guild of Weavers isolated themselves from the rest of the world onto an island of their own, naming it after the great Loom they held as the symbol of their guild.
However, eventually the Weavers discover that their numbers are dwindling and their seed is barren (probably due to inbreeding), and Lady [[PropheticName Cygna]] Threadbare decides to take it upon herself to plant a thread of her creation into the Loom and, inadvertently, draws an unforeseen infant out of it, whom she surrenders to an old serving woman's care as she is banished from the village, as well as the mortal world, by [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence being turned into a swan]].
The planting of the gray thread has thrown the entire pattern of the Loom into chaos, and the Loom-child, named Bobbin by his caretaker, grows up shunned by the rest of his village. On his seventeenth birthday, as the Guild's rulers are about to reach a consensus on what to do with Bobbin, a swan appears in the village and transforms everyone but Bobbin into a swan. Hetchel tells him that the pattern is about to fall apart and he'll have to join the swans before it's too late. From thereon Bobbin sets out on a voyage into the world outside Loom Island, with grave consequences...
At its time of release, ''Loom'' was noted for its ambitious fantasy story, imaginative setting and surprisingly barren user interface: The only item the player could carry was the Distaff, a magical instrument used to shape the world around the player and solve puzzles, which was used by learning and casting short four-note drafts that could be heard around the game world. Most of these drafts were also randomly generated at the start of each game, meaning they would have to be re-learned on each individual playthrough.
Two sequels, ''Forge'' and ''The Fold'', wherein the player would take control over two minor characters, whom Bobbin met in the course of ''Loom'''s story, were supposed to bring closure to the StoryArc started by ''Loom'', but due to a lack of manpower, work on on them never began.
The challenge of the puzzles was mostly in figuring out which drafts to use and how: Some drafts could also be played backwards for the reverse effect. Unusually for an adventure game, the game also boasted three difficulty levels which would change the interface of the Distaff: the highest difficulty level required players to play all the notes by ear.
[[DigitalDistribution The CD version is available for purchase off of Steam.]] Give it a look sometime.
----
!!This game provides examples of:
* AdaptationDyeJob: In the versions of the game with the original (voiceless) dialogue, Fleece the shepherdess has blue eyes. In the rewritten PC talkie CD, she has green eyes.
* AllThereInTheManual: some versions of the game [[{{Feelies}} came shipped with an audio casette]] containing a thirty-minute audio drama that tells the game's backstory.
* {{Animorphism}}: At the beginning of the game, the protagonist's foster mother and the village elders get transformed into swans.
* AmbiguousGender: Chaos, the ultimate BigBad of the game, is an undead demonic AnthropomorphicPersonification with no clear gender. Not even the game's developers were sure: in the original release of the game Chaos is referred to arbitrarily as "he" by other characters, but it became "she" in the later talkie upgrade.
* ApocalypseMaiden
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Explicitly stated in the manual as the effect of the "Transcendence" draft. At the end of the game, you get to test it out. [[spoiler:It turns you into a swan.]] It also turns Hetchel into a swan egg so that she would stay behind to help Bobbin. Every other time, it's simply a regular swan.
** StealthPun: What's the last musical spell you use in the game? [[spoiler:The swan song.]]
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:You can resurrect Rusty and the shepherds, but not the Glassmakers guildmaster.]]
* BiggerOnTheInside: The Weaver's tents.
* BlackComedy: The haunting music and CrapsackWorld setting obscure some of the humor in what is ultimately a very funny game.
* BoringButPractical / AwesomeYetPractical: The first draft you learn in the game, Opening, is also the one that gets used the most. [[spoiler:It may even be used to ''tear open the literal fabric of reality.'']]
* BrownNote: It is said to be death to look upon the face of the [[InTheHood perpetually hooded]] Weavers. [[spoiler:Turns out, it's true.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The Scythe the Glassmakers are sharpening to protect them in case Bishop Mandible attacks them.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: The city of the Blacksmiths, the Forge, is a castle protected by a moat filled with molten metal (and the drawbridge seems to be made of iron). Nobody feels any kind of discomfort when crossing it. Then there is Hetchel who [[spoiler:flies into a furnace through one of its pipes to retrieve Bobbin's distaff]]. She comments that she "must not singe the feathers" but otherwise seems to be unharmed.
* CrystalBall: Spheres of Scrying, which give the gazer a glimpse into their future with little to no context.
* DomedHometown: The Guild of Glass Makers.
* DoomedHometown: Weaver Island, as well as [[spoiler: the rest of the world]]. However, except for [[KickTheDog one]], all the residents of Weaver Island survive the ordeal! In fact, in a strange way, the very act that doomed the hometown actually saved them all, and [[spoiler: they survive when the world is torn in half. Everyone in the wrong half of world is left behind to a bleak future at the hands of Chaos and the horde of the dead]].
* DreamMelody: C' - F - G - C.
* DummiedOut: An early screenshot showed a room in the Glassmakers' City with three giant sandglasses, two of which had run out and were sealed up; the last one was open at the top and a worker was pouring sand into it to keep it running. The three sandglasses of course represent [[spoiler: the three Shadows, of which the first two have long since passed, and the third is imminent]]. The room was ultimately cut to save disk space. The sandglasses can still be glimpsed in the 16-color version, in the wide shot of the city (though they were painted out in the VGA upgrade).
** The existence of a puzzle can be deduced: [[spoiler: Bobbin was probably going to use the Emptying draft (which has no use in the finished game, and which you can play by the time you get to Crystalgard) to empty the sandglasses. The running sands mark the time remaining until the Third Shadow: they were being replenished indefinitely, but presumably Bobbin screws that up and reduces the symbolic time until the Apocalypse to nil. NiceJobBreakingItHero!]]
* EvilIsHammy: Bishop Mandible and Chaos.
* EvilIsNotAToy: Bishop Mandible attempts to summon Chaos from the realm of the dead. [[spoiler: [[GenreBlindness This goes about as well as you would expect.]]]]
* TheFaceless:
** The Weavers generally remain hooded due to the danger in removing their hoods. When one character tries to unhood the protagonist, the scene [[GoryDiscretionShot suddenly cuts to somewhere else]] (and in the highest difficulty level, is obscured by a flash of light) and the player sees {{nothing|IsScarier}}.
---> '''Bobbin''': Can't say I didn't warn him.
** Bishop Mandible complains that he can't do his important work with all this ''screaming'' distracting him. Cob did ''not'' go quietly.
* FracturedFairyTale: The game has a very dark but ultimately cathartic story that uses fairy tale tropes in very unusual ways.
* GainaxEnding: Even with the LeftHanging stuff, the ending makes some sense until [[spoiler: the swans take the hole in reality with them without expanding it. It's also supposed to be a hole that divides the world in two, but only appears to be a square when carried]].
* TheGrimReaper: The game implies that our image for the Grim Reaper comes from [[spoiler: Chaos, it even gets a huge scythe]].
* HiddenElfVillage: The Guild of Weavers.
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because it will turn them as evil as their enemy.
* InTheHood: Why are all Weavers wearing a hood? Because you do ''not'' want to peer inside.
* InvisibilityCloak: The camouflage draft.
* LeftHanging: The game will probably feel depressingly short for many players. Many potentially interesting drafts is only needed once and many plot points that could have been exciting to explore in greater detail is never resolved. The game was going to have two sequels, but these were cancelled because of other projects. It is a damn shame, really. Even worse, the Book of Patterns that [[{{Feelies}} comes with the game]] includes a host of unused spells that could have been very useful in the game proper, but were never heard.
* LudicrousGibs: The "[[DeaderThanDead Unmaking]]" draft. Naturally, it's irreversible.
* MagicMusic: Every spell (or "draft") in the game is composed of four notes on the C-major scale, which Bobbin must "spin" with his distaff.
* MeaningfulName: Lady Cygna. "Cygnus" is Latin for swan.
** Also, a bobbin is a component of a sewing machine around which thread is wound, and the briefly-seen elders of the weavers' guild are named after the Fates of Greek myth, who wove threads corresponding to mortals' lives.
* MessianicArchetype: Bobbin was miraculously born from the Loom itself, [[spoiler:and can resurrect people,]] many will die for his name, but the world's salvation lies in his hands. [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory Ring any bells?]]
* NowDoItAgainBackwards / MagicAIsMagicA: Drafts can be reversed -- that is, their notes played in the opposite order -- to create the opposite effect. A few drafts are palindromic in nature and thereby have no reverse.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The game's dragon is female, afraid of fire, loves mutton and speaks with a Cockney accent.
* PlanetOfHats: Each guild is this, having the traits of their chosen craft as their distinguishing characteristics.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: All the music in the game is from Tchaikovsky's ''SwanLake''.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Chaos, to [[spoiler:Mandible. "I am Chaos. ''Join me.''"]]
* ShoutOut:
** Several PC games after ''Loom'', made by LucasArts or not, included references both to it and to Brian Moriarity. Bishop Mandible's assistant, Cobb, even shows up in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'' as an NPC pimping off this game.
** The ''SpaceQuest'' series has a rather nasty TakeThat aimed at the game: the game features a GameWithinAGame called ''Boom'', which satirizes the simplified interface of ''Loom'' by having no interface or interactivity at all.
** The home of the Glass Makers evokes imagery of the Emerald City from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
* SinisterMinister: Bishop Mandible.
* SongsInTheKeyOfLock
* StableTimeLoop: (of the "ontological paradox" variety.) The scrying spheres enable the user to see several hours into the future. At least one of the drafts is learned only by observing a future vision of Bobbin casting it. So where'd the future Bobbin learn it, and so on.
* ThemeNaming: All guild members have names related to their professions, such as Threadbare, Goodmold, or Nailbender.
* {{Unwinnable}}: If you didn't write down the notes for the drafts or don't consult a walkthrough, you'll get stuck and need to revert to an earlier point.
* UpdatedRerelease: The CD version, which featured a full CD-quality talkie soundtrack, although [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks much of the previous versions' dialogue, animations, portraits and music were cut]] to fit the whole thing on one disc. Notably, the abbreviated talkie version's script was edited by OrsonScottCard.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Chaos talks like this.
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Beautifully subverted with the Dyeing draft. Bobbin '''really''' hates how he can only make objects green, but it helps him save a flock of sheep later. [[spoiler: As the only white-colored moving object, he gets taken instead]].
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The dragon is afraid of fire, despite being its BreathWeapon.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Averted. Mandible doesn't kill Bobbin because he needs Bobbin to demonstrate the Opening Draft, and Chaos doesn't kill Bobbin because he needs Bobbin to demonstrate how the Loom works.
* WonderChild: The protagonist Bobbin is given birth when the childless Lady Cygna weaves a magical thread into the Great Pattern, after which she is banished by being turned into a swan.
* WorthlessYellowRocks: What use is gold to a race that can bend the fabric of the universe itself to its will? Indeed it doesn't even require a weaver to reach a particularly high level before being able to successfully cast the Straw Into Gold draft.
** Which is why the Book of Patterns notes the use of the draft is regulated to prevent inflation.
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->''It was long after the passing of the second shadow, when dragons ruled the twilight sky, and the stars were bright and numerous...''
''Loom'' is an epic fantasy {{adventure|Game}}, released by LucasArts in 1990, which tells of the Age of the Great Guilds, a time when the peoples of the game's world banded together to form city-states around their chosen profession. One of these guilds, the Guild of Weavers, eventually perfected their craft so that they could weave more than just fabric, and started weaving drafts into the very fabric of reality itself. Shunned by the other guilds as practitioners of witchcraft, the Guild of Weavers isolated themselves from the rest of the world onto an island of their own, naming it after the great Loom they held as the symbol of their guild.
However, eventually the Weavers discover that their numbers are dwindling and their seed is barren (probably due to inbreeding), and Lady [[PropheticName Cygna]] Threadbare decides to take it upon herself to plant a thread of her creation into the Loom and, inadvertently, draws an unforeseen infant out of it, whom she surrenders to an old serving woman's care as she is banished from the village, as well as the mortal world, by [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence being turned into a swan]].
The planting of the gray thread has thrown the entire pattern of the Loom into chaos, and the Loom-child, named Bobbin by his caretaker, grows up shunned by the rest of his village. On his seventeenth birthday, as the Guild's rulers are about to reach a consensus on what to do with Bobbin, a swan appears in the village and transforms everyone but Bobbin into a swan. Hetchel tells him that the pattern is about to fall apart and he'll have to join the swans before it's too late. From thereon Bobbin sets out on a voyage into the world outside Loom Island, with grave consequences...
At its time of release, ''Loom'' was noted for its ambitious fantasy story, imaginative setting and surprisingly barren user interface: The only item the player could carry was the Distaff, a magical instrument used to shape the world around the player and solve puzzles, which was used by learning and casting short four-note drafts that could be heard around the game world. Most of these drafts were also randomly generated at the start of each game, meaning they would have to be re-learned on each individual playthrough.
Two sequels, ''Forge'' and ''The Fold'', wherein the player would take control over two minor characters, whom Bobbin met in the course of ''Loom'''s story, were supposed to bring closure to the StoryArc started by ''Loom'', but due to a lack of manpower, work on on them never began.
The challenge of the puzzles was mostly in figuring out which drafts to use and how: Some drafts could also be played backwards for the reverse effect. Unusually for an adventure game, the game also boasted three difficulty levels which would change the interface of the Distaff: the highest difficulty level required players to play all the notes by ear.
[[DigitalDistribution The CD version is available for purchase off of Steam.]] Give it a look sometime.
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!!This game provides examples of:
* AdaptationDyeJob: In the versions of the game with the original (voiceless) dialogue, Fleece the shepherdess has blue eyes. In the rewritten PC talkie CD, she has green eyes.
* AllThereInTheManual: some versions of the game [[{{Feelies}} came shipped with an audio casette]] containing a thirty-minute audio drama that tells the game's backstory.
* {{Animorphism}}: At the beginning of the game, the protagonist's foster mother and the village elders get transformed into swans.
* AmbiguousGender: Chaos, the ultimate BigBad of the game, is an undead demonic AnthropomorphicPersonification with no clear gender. Not even the game's developers were sure: in the original release of the game Chaos is referred to arbitrarily as "he" by other characters, but it became "she" in the later talkie upgrade.
* ApocalypseMaiden
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Explicitly stated in the manual as the effect of the "Transcendence" draft. At the end of the game, you get to test it out. [[spoiler:It turns you into a swan.]] It also turns Hetchel into a swan egg so that she would stay behind to help Bobbin. Every other time, it's simply a regular swan.
** StealthPun: What's the last musical spell you use in the game? [[spoiler:The swan song.]]
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:You can resurrect Rusty and the shepherds, but not the Glassmakers guildmaster.]]
* BiggerOnTheInside: The Weaver's tents.
* BlackComedy: The haunting music and CrapsackWorld setting obscure some of the humor in what is ultimately a very funny game.
* BoringButPractical / AwesomeYetPractical: The first draft you learn in the game, Opening, is also the one that gets used the most. [[spoiler:It may even be used to ''tear open the literal fabric of reality.'']]
* BrownNote: It is said to be death to look upon the face of the [[InTheHood perpetually hooded]] Weavers. [[spoiler:Turns out, it's true.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The Scythe the Glassmakers are sharpening to protect them in case Bishop Mandible attacks them.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: The city of the Blacksmiths, the Forge, is a castle protected by a moat filled with molten metal (and the drawbridge seems to be made of iron). Nobody feels any kind of discomfort when crossing it. Then there is Hetchel who [[spoiler:flies into a furnace through one of its pipes to retrieve Bobbin's distaff]]. She comments that she "must not singe the feathers" but otherwise seems to be unharmed.
* CrystalBall: Spheres of Scrying, which give the gazer a glimpse into their future with little to no context.
* DomedHometown: The Guild of Glass Makers.
* DoomedHometown: Weaver Island, as well as [[spoiler: the rest of the world]]. However, except for [[KickTheDog one]], all the residents of Weaver Island survive the ordeal! In fact, in a strange way, the very act that doomed the hometown actually saved them all, and [[spoiler: they survive when the world is torn in half. Everyone in the wrong half of world is left behind to a bleak future at the hands of Chaos and the horde of the dead]].
* DreamMelody: C' - F - G - C.
* DummiedOut: An early screenshot showed a room in the Glassmakers' City with three giant sandglasses, two of which had run out and were sealed up; the last one was open at the top and a worker was pouring sand into it to keep it running. The three sandglasses of course represent [[spoiler: the three Shadows, of which the first two have long since passed, and the third is imminent]]. The room was ultimately cut to save disk space. The sandglasses can still be glimpsed in the 16-color version, in the wide shot of the city (though they were painted out in the VGA upgrade).
** The existence of a puzzle can be deduced: [[spoiler: Bobbin was probably going to use the Emptying draft (which has no use in the finished game, and which you can play by the time you get to Crystalgard) to empty the sandglasses. The running sands mark the time remaining until the Third Shadow: they were being replenished indefinitely, but presumably Bobbin screws that up and reduces the symbolic time until the Apocalypse to nil. NiceJobBreakingItHero!]]
* EvilIsHammy: Bishop Mandible and Chaos.
* EvilIsNotAToy: Bishop Mandible attempts to summon Chaos from the realm of the dead. [[spoiler: [[GenreBlindness This goes about as well as you would expect.]]]]
* TheFaceless:
** The Weavers generally remain hooded due to the danger in removing their hoods. When one character tries to unhood the protagonist, the scene [[GoryDiscretionShot suddenly cuts to somewhere else]] (and in the highest difficulty level, is obscured by a flash of light) and the player sees {{nothing|IsScarier}}.
---> '''Bobbin''': Can't say I didn't warn him.
** Bishop Mandible complains that he can't do his important work with all this ''screaming'' distracting him. Cob did ''not'' go quietly.
* FracturedFairyTale: The game has a very dark but ultimately cathartic story that uses fairy tale tropes in very unusual ways.
* GainaxEnding: Even with the LeftHanging stuff, the ending makes some sense until [[spoiler: the swans take the hole in reality with them without expanding it. It's also supposed to be a hole that divides the world in two, but only appears to be a square when carried]].
* TheGrimReaper: The game implies that our image for the Grim Reaper comes from [[spoiler: Chaos, it even gets a huge scythe]].
* HiddenElfVillage: The Guild of Weavers.
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The Glassmakers are afraid to use the Great Scythe because it will turn them as evil as their enemy.
* InTheHood: Why are all Weavers wearing a hood? Because you do ''not'' want to peer inside.
* InvisibilityCloak: The camouflage draft.
* LeftHanging: The game will probably feel depressingly short for many players. Many potentially interesting drafts is only needed once and many plot points that could have been exciting to explore in greater detail is never resolved. The game was going to have two sequels, but these were cancelled because of other projects. It is a damn shame, really. Even worse, the Book of Patterns that [[{{Feelies}} comes with the game]] includes a host of unused spells that could have been very useful in the game proper, but were never heard.
* LudicrousGibs: The "[[DeaderThanDead Unmaking]]" draft. Naturally, it's irreversible.
* MagicMusic: Every spell (or "draft") in the game is composed of four notes on the C-major scale, which Bobbin must "spin" with his distaff.
* MeaningfulName: Lady Cygna. "Cygnus" is Latin for swan.
** Also, a bobbin is a component of a sewing machine around which thread is wound, and the briefly-seen elders of the weavers' guild are named after the Fates of Greek myth, who wove threads corresponding to mortals' lives.
* MessianicArchetype: Bobbin was miraculously born from the Loom itself, [[spoiler:and can resurrect people,]] many will die for his name, but the world's salvation lies in his hands. [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory Ring any bells?]]
* NowDoItAgainBackwards / MagicAIsMagicA: Drafts can be reversed -- that is, their notes played in the opposite order -- to create the opposite effect. A few drafts are palindromic in nature and thereby have no reverse.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The game's dragon is female, afraid of fire, loves mutton and speaks with a Cockney accent.
* PlanetOfHats: Each guild is this, having the traits of their chosen craft as their distinguishing characteristics.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: All the music in the game is from Tchaikovsky's ''SwanLake''.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Chaos, to [[spoiler:Mandible. "I am Chaos. ''Join me.''"]]
* ShoutOut:
** Several PC games after ''Loom'', made by LucasArts or not, included references both to it and to Brian Moriarity. Bishop Mandible's assistant, Cobb, even shows up in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'' as an NPC pimping off this game.
** The ''SpaceQuest'' series has a rather nasty TakeThat aimed at the game: the game features a GameWithinAGame called ''Boom'', which satirizes the simplified interface of ''Loom'' by having no interface or interactivity at all.
** The home of the Glass Makers evokes imagery of the Emerald City from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
* SinisterMinister: Bishop Mandible.
* SongsInTheKeyOfLock
* StableTimeLoop: (of the "ontological paradox" variety.) The scrying spheres enable the user to see several hours into the future. At least one of the drafts is learned only by observing a future vision of Bobbin casting it. So where'd the future Bobbin learn it, and so on.
* ThemeNaming: All guild members have names related to their professions, such as Threadbare, Goodmold, or Nailbender.
* {{Unwinnable}}: If you didn't write down the notes for the drafts or don't consult a walkthrough, you'll get stuck and need to revert to an earlier point.
* UpdatedRerelease: The CD version, which featured a full CD-quality talkie soundtrack, although [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks much of the previous versions' dialogue, animations, portraits and music were cut]] to fit the whole thing on one disc. Notably, the abbreviated talkie version's script was edited by OrsonScottCard.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Chaos talks like this.
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Beautifully subverted with the Dyeing draft. Bobbin '''really''' hates how he can only make objects green, but it helps him save a flock of sheep later. [[spoiler: As the only white-colored moving object, he gets taken instead]].
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The dragon is afraid of fire, despite being its BreathWeapon.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Averted. Mandible doesn't kill Bobbin because he needs Bobbin to demonstrate the Opening Draft, and Chaos doesn't kill Bobbin because he needs Bobbin to demonstrate how the Loom works.
* WonderChild: The protagonist Bobbin is given birth when the childless Lady Cygna weaves a magical thread into the Great Pattern, after which she is banished by being turned into a swan.
* WorthlessYellowRocks: What use is gold to a race that can bend the fabric of the universe itself to its will? Indeed it doesn't even require a weaver to reach a particularly high level before being able to successfully cast the Straw Into Gold draft.
** Which is why the Book of Patterns notes the use of the draft is regulated to prevent inflation.
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