Big things are happening at NVIDIA, but we're not exactly sure what that means. The PC gaming hardware gurus have decided to gameify the launch of a mysterious new product by putting it in the form of a tweet-based text adventure. It's called “Ultimate Quest,” and from what we've heard it's a five-day saga that will bring players across a dystopian urban landscape in search of a power that will change the world. This will be an adventured to challenge the most skilled gamers, but the first players to beat it will win the new product the moment it's made available to the public.
What is "Ultimate Quest?”
Ultimate Quest is a highly-interactive text adventure written by internationally renowned interactive fiction author Emily Short . Gameplay will take place in a slick online environment that features illustrations by Silvio Aebischer, who's worked on other titles including Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Iron Man 2. The game sends players on a winding trek through a futuristic world full of intrigue and conflict. The challenges are surprising, the images are beautifully-crafted and this is a unique foray into a forward-thinking world of social gameplay.
A new episode in “Ultimate Quest” will unfold on each day from July 18-July 22, the day the product launches. New pieces of the story reveal new ways to interact with the game, including on social media, and solving a variety of unusual and perplexing problems brings the story forward. You need to participate every day in order to win, so get on it.
How can you win?
To play “Ultimate Quest,” access the game here . You'll need to log in with Twitter to play, so now's a good time to sign up if for some reason you haven't already. There will be a variety of social activity tagged with #UltimateQuest on Twitter, with @NVIDIAGeForce driving the conversation. If you get stuck anywhere along the way, go to @Ultimate_Qs and see what kind of tips you can dig up.
The entire game lives in an isolated environment and every response form the game engine is 140 characters or less. There are some sections of the game where you literally have to Tweet to solve problems and if you implement choose to tweet specific commands you can even rename objects and characters, which makes this piece of interactive fiction even more interactive.
Remember, you can build an easy password in level 3 using the first letters of a memorable sentence. Or room description.
"Ultimate Quest" kicks off on Friday, July 18 with episode one and continues through Tuesday, July 22. You can only beat the game on the fifth and final day, not a moment before. That's when NVIDIA will make their big announcement.
If you're a serious gamer, are familiar with great titles like Zork and like winning free stuff, then boot up your desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone and get ready.
