Castle, Forest, Island, Sea is a Story Branching story that explores key questions in philosophy, made by the Open University using Twee (an older version of Twine).
You are a man of adventure, or a woman with lots of travelling experience, or a brave girl, or a boy, maybe — a person searching for something (your birthright? A friend? An exit?) in a rather decrepit castle. Along the way you will explore several Philosophy Tropes, including Morality Tropes, both in theory and in practice.
Play it here
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Let us consider the following tropes:
- Accomplice by Inaction: Each of the three-headed monster's heads has its own name, mind and will, but they share a digestive system. Two heads will eat people, the third won't, but it does nothing to stop the others. Is it as guilty as they are? Or is punishing it alongside the others Misplaced Retribution? Even though you can't exactly divide them?
- Alas, Poor Villain: The third head, should you choose.
- Building of Adventure: The titular castle is pretty much the entire setting.
- Fat Slob: The king, in contrast to his sister, who tries to be The Wise Princess.
- Featureless Protagonist: You have four choices: man, woman, girl and boy. That's it. And it's Purely Aesthetic Gender anyway.
- It's the Journey That Counts: While you do get to pick the goal you're here to accomplish, it really doesn't change a thing about the gameplay.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The blackbird, if you agree with him.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: In book form. It illustrates the Nozick problem - if the book gives you (a perfect illusion of) all that you want, will you stop reading?
- The Meaning of Life: Discussed.
- Moral Luck: Discussed heavily.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: The robin, the blackbird and the owl that follow you around and argue philosophy all the time.
- Second-Person Narration
- Weak-Willed: The robin says he is. The blackbird, however, thinks there's no such thing as "weak will".
