Anteform

Anteform (2019): Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Indie. Developed by Feneric Games. Available on Web browser, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), and Mac.

Steve Johanson has disappeared and his girlfriend Sally Franklin has hired your detective agency to locate him. Even before you get on the scene there are signs that maybe this isn't just a simple missing persons case. Can you crack it? Explore Anteform Valley and its settlements, talk to its residents, search desks and files, and build up your skills as you collect clues to figure out what really happened to Steve and maybe even prevent it from happening again. Anteform is a horror / sci-fi detective story RPG in the style of the older Ultima games (Ultima I, Ultima II, Ultima III, Ultima IV, & Ultima V) as played on the Commodore 64 and 128 computers (although thematically it fits in better with the Worlds of Ultima games). Just like the original Ultima games, it includes a world view, enterable towns, and 3D dungeon displays. More importantly, it is a fully playable (and winnable) game with its own backstory, plot, setting, and characters.

Background: For your convenience I’ve collected what information we have in advance of your trip to Anteform Valley. There isn’t much; as it often happens you’re going to have to figure out a lot once you get boots on the ground. Your past successes in less-than-ideal situations like this were a big reason you were chosen for this assignment. The Client: Sally Franklin is a lifelong resident of Anteform Valley. She contacted our agency after her long term boyfriend Steve Johanson disappeared while supposedly running a short errand. She lives in the main village there and she should be one of the first ones you try to contact. She’s a close friend of the mayor of Anteform Valley, Bess Whitley, who apparently went to college with the Boss. Bess and the Boss. So yeah, no extra pressure. The Missing People: Steve Johanson moved to Anteform Valley four years ago to take a job at their local radio station KLLR. According to Sally, he met her shortly after moving in and they hit it off almost immediately. She claims they weren’t fighting and that he was in positive spirits – she claims she’d know if he were planning on taking off and she vehemently rejects the idea that he committed suicide. We just got word that Steve isn’t the only missing person in Anteform Valley, just the first. Since then a young woman named Mary Wainwright has also mysteriously vanished. We don’t know much about her yet, just that she also lived in the village and was off hiking somewhere and didn’t come back. Obviously the two of them arranging a joint disappearance isn’t out of the question. It’s something for you to follow up on.