6 Days a Sacrifice

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Yahtzee himself won't post, so I might as well.

http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/6days/
***

6 Days A Sacrifice is the fourth and final instalment of the John DeFoe series, which thus far has encompassed 5 Days A Stranger, 7 Days A Skeptic and Trilby's Notes. Since this game is intended to tie up the loose ends left behind by the three previous episodes, it is highly recommended that you play through all of them first.



b a c k g are o you n d

196 YEARS AGO:

- The DeFoe Manor Incident takes place. Trilby, the master thief, successfully destroys the body of vengeful wraith John DeFoe and escapes his clutches. (5 Days A Stranger)

- After being caught in a reality shift at the Clanbronwyn Hotel, Trilby learns the nature of the Ethereal Realm and the Scientific Realm, of the demonic deity Chzo, and the plan to create a bridge between the realms by destroying the three aspects of John DeFoe. He has the Soul blasted into space to prevent that from happening, but this only serves as a delaying tactic. Meanwhile, Chzo's acolyte, Cabadath, aka the Tall Man, crosses over to the Scientific Realm to orchestrate the building of the Bridge. (Trilby's Notes)

196 YEARS FROM NOW:

- The Soul is recovered by the scoutship Mephistopheles, floating unprotected in space. After John DeFoe's influence kills off the entire crew save one, Dr. Jonathan Somerset, the Soul is finally destroyed in the ship's engines. It is then discovered that Somerset is an impostor, and he is arrested. (7 Days A Skeptic)

TODAY: JULY 22nd, 2189

- Theo DaCabe, a surveying officer for Buckinghamshire County Council, is assigned to run a routine health and safety assessment on the headquarters of a fad religion called Optimology. Little does he realise that he is about to be caught up in the machinations of destiny, and a plot that has simmered for two centuries.

<no pic so as not to steal bandwidth from his site>

Click here to download 6 Days A Sacrifice for Windows (approx 2Mb, play manual included) (thanks RoushiMSX for hosting)

Mirror  - thanks Dennis Ploger
***

And don't forget the countdown trilogy that completes the John DeFoe quadrilogy:

***
c o you n t d o w n

In the runup to the release of 6DAS, I wrote and realised a trilogy of brief text adventures to foreshadow the plot of the eventual game. You can still download them from here. They require a Zmachine interpreter like Winfrotz to play.
***

Countdown games on the same page as linked above.

EDIT - Blast automatic TXT spelling that transformed COUNTDOWN into COYOUNTDOWN!

[vict0r]

You should check the "b a c k g are o you n d" header aswell

Anyway..! Awesomeness!!!

[Tom S. Fox]

Sorry, but I'm stuck right at the beginning.
I lie there on that bed and don't know what to do.

[Gluehead]

I'm glad I checked this place before I went to sleep.

[R4L]

Wow, great so far, have I made it the farthest? Im here:

Spoiler

I have the "idea" of a pickaxe, and the main corridor is changing, while the girl (not Samantha) is chasing me wearing the welding mask and holding the knife. Instead of the Medical Storage Room, there is the door from 5DAS, and it takes me to the shed from 5DAS (I got the "idea" of the pickaxe there). Now in the Dorm Room, where the bunks are, the door to the right is glowing. In that door, I am in the kitchen from 5DAS. The woman wearing the welding mask comes from the right door. If I use the pickaxe on the "idea" of the hole where Trilby found John Defoe, the game says that the hole recognizes the pickaxe, and the woman leaves, but I cannot do anything after that, except leave.

[close]

If any one is stuck where I am, or has gotten past that part, help would be greatly appreciated! Great game so far, I'd like to finish it! 

[Jon]

I've been waiting sooooo long for this, downloading now!

[Lucky]

Spoiler

I have the "idea" of a pickaxe, and the main corridor is changing, while the girl (not Samantha) is chasing me wearing the welding mask and holding the knife. Instead of the Medical Storage Room, there is the door from 5DAS, and it takes me to the shed from 5DAS (I got the "idea" of the pickaxe there). Now in the Dorm Room, where the bunks are, the door to the right is glowing. In that door, I am in the kitchen from 5DAS. The woman wearing the welding mask comes from the right door. If I use the pickaxe on the "idea" of the hole where Trilby found John Defoe, the game says that the hole recognizes the pickaxe, and the woman leaves, but I cannot do anything after that, except leave.

[close]

Spoiler

Just wait until she gets verrry close to the hole, then use the pickaxe on it.

[close]

Welp, played it through on one sitting and I must say I'm bloody happy with the result, even if it wasn't as scary as Trilby's Notes was, probably because I saw some of the surprises coming. Wraps things up surprisingly well though.

Spoiler

The end did leave me with some questions as I didn't really recognize all the pictures during the credits.

[close]

[R4L]

Well, on the 6th day Lucky, but I don't understand the concept of the trilbys.

Spoiler

I can't get all 3 pieces of the Welder. I can get the knife, and the mask from upstairs, but I run out of trilbys by then, and I die when I leave. How do I get past this I have tried everything.

[close]

EDIT: Woo! Finally finished it! I don't really get it though. I didn't really understand Trilby's Notes either. Was TN about the creation of:

Spoiler

the idol and the chzo clan?

[close]

And this game:

Spoiler

I don't get why there are cloned trilbys. I read every thing the game offered, but I still don't get it. I also don't understand Mr. Somerset's position. How is he the wise man who can teleport? Has he joined the clan? Is there something I am missing?

[close]

[Sythe]

Most enjoyable. Not too easy either, perfect.

I am glad this will be the last game for this (defoe) story line. I think anymore would be too much of a 'tack on' and detract from the worth of the orginal story.

[Akatosh]

Playing through this game has given me way more time to work on my own projects. Why? Because I played Trilby's Notes and this one in a row in a completly dark room and it'll probably be like ten weeks 'till I can sleep again. So I have the whole next 70 nights to work on _Access.

[Vel]

I think it's a nice game altogether, but  the problem stays the same as in 7 days and especially Trilby's notes - the idea is pretty much dried up. I think Yahtzee should explore new ground.

[Lucky]

I think it's a nice game altogether, but  the problem stays the same as in 7 days and especially Trilby's notes - the idea is pretty much dried up. I think Yahtzee should explore new ground.

Personally, I'd be happy if he just got back to comedy.

[Cinfa]

Wow, just finished it.
but...

Spoiler

Is there a timer qhen you're buried in the metal crate and have to interact with darkness while it's moving? Because the first time I went there the shacking stopped and the char keeped his hand over darkness...

[close]

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Explore new ground, sure, as all artists and creators must, but I'm very glad he wrapped this up. The whole 4 parts plus the Countdown trilogy are rather more than the sum of its parts, I believe. Taken as a whole, this series has been quite an extraordinary event in the indie adventure scene.

I only have one question - BIG spoiler ahead.

Spoiler

So, am I right in thinking that Chzo did all this to replace the Prince? Ever since Cabadath became the Prince, as I recall, there'd been plotting to build the bridge. Well, the bridge was built, and Chzo knew he couldn't get past, and he brought something in instead - the New Prince. So... is this what it was all about? Getting a new prince?

EDIT - Oh, I get it, he sucked Trilby in as well, didn't he? But - again, why did he?

[close]

R4L:

Spoiler

The concept of the Trilby's, playing a bit on the 6th Day film and mankind-creaton theme I guess, is simply that John DeFoe had grown to fear Trilby. As the Caretaker explains, the only way the cult could survive around the remains of the manor infected with DeFoe's madness (or whatever) was by surrounding themselves of Trilbies.

Somerset is a bit of a loophole - who was born first, the chicken or the egg? It's Somerset *as the caretaker* that allows Somerset to BECOME the caretaker - in the process saving Trilby's life back in the end of TN.

IMHO, TN was simply about background story. A lot of it, in order to expand upon the whole theme, make a preliminary bridge between 5 days and 7 days, and build up enough material for the conclusion. It was also about the puppet's attempt to arrogantly offer Trilby to Chzo - thus damaging the prophecies, which Chzo would really be pissed about.

[close]

[TheJBurger]

I think it's a nice game altogether, butÃ,  the problem stays the same as in 7 days and especially Trilby's notes - the idea is pretty much dried up. I think Yahtzee should explore new ground.

I'd have to agree with that.

It was a pretty good game overall, but I found the plot just too confusing. I played all of Trilby's Notes and most of the other games, and I couldn't remember exactly who was the "bridgekeeper," "The Guide," and exactly what those terms referred to.

Spoiler

And then a whole time paradox sub-plot was thrown in that just kind of confused me even more.

[close]

Maybe I just need to play all the other games again...

It also would've been nice if you could click on the individual entries in the Journal and have them pop up.

Aside from that, it's still a great game, but IMO Trilby's Notes was better.

[thewalrus]

     I haven't had time to play much of 6DAS yet but I played a drop and I thought to myself that it might be a good idea for me to replay the others first. From what some of you guys are saying I think it might be a good idea (well at least I like the idea). I got some downloading to do.....  :

[The Ivy]

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and impressed by the usual Yahtzee level of artistry (especially the dialogs). Mad props for the many well-executed scary moments, and the way he was able to tie everything together at last. However, the game felt a bit like a playthrough of confusing/unexplained plot points from the past games.

Spoiler

An army of clone Trilbys? Well, okay, but it seemed excessive that he had to die violently so many times. The worst thing he suffered in previous games was the occasional scare...although I guess he did 'die' in "Trilby's Notes. I had come to like the character a bit much to see him get torn apart so much in this game, and his personality seemed totally different as well.

Also, the suspicions that Siobhan O'Malley from Trilby's Notes was somehow more involved with the Order never came to light.

[close]

[Sythe]

Why doesn't Yahtzee return to AGS forums? This forum remains his main audience, it seems stupid that he would develop by proxy because of pride.

Regardless of what he has done in the past, I think many (if not all) of us have so much respect for him that it is comparable with our respect for Chris Jones.

Yahtzee's games remain, and always will be, a big part of AGS history. Without which I am sure many people would have never found the inspiration to make their own serious games.

I know Yahtzee reads these threads, so this post is mainly for him.

[GreenBoy]

Very true.  Yahtzees games have really proved what a powerful tool AGS really is.
Leading to a whole lot of others producing some great games that have come out recently.

All the time I see more effort and design go into these games.  When I first looked at AGS it seemed like it could do a lot more.

Now it really is.

Cheers Yahtzee.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Heh, every thread that someone else posts for a Yahtzee game always causes someone "newer"* to go "Yahtzee should come back". Never fails.

Ivy, I don't recall that suspicion, what exactly originated it?

*"newer" is a very relative term. I'm talking about non-oldies, mostly, and people who have neither seen his presence and disappearance (myself included) nor read all the similar posts other people wrote in the lines of "Come back Yahtzee" or similar".