The Apparatus
A historical narrative adventure set in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Play as two protagonists, the Irish writer James Joyce and his partner Nora Barnacle, as they try (and fail) to avoid deep political intrigue.
A faithful reconstruction of Pola (modern day Pula) in 1904, a major Mediterranean military port, with real locations and people woven into the fiction.
Classic 90s point & click gameplay with light roleplaying elements and story branching.
The Trouble
Pola, the empire’s great war port, is loud with trams, cafés, uniforms, and the confidence of power that does not yet know what is coming.
A young James Joyce arrives with Nora Barnacle expecting work and a few ordinary days, but the city does not waste a couple of perfectly useful outsiders.
Thinking their greatest worry is a lack of heating in the coldest winter of the century, our unlikely heroes are quickly pulled into a major conspiracy for which they are entirely unprepared.
The Business of It
Silence, Exile, and Cunning is a narrative exploration of real geography and fictionalized history. You progress through scenes, interact with unusual characters, and solve puzzles through James’s wit and Nora’s practical sense.
Parts of the game reward different approaches. A conversation that is polite for James becomes procedural for Nora. A favor granted in a café becomes leverage in an office. A child insults you, only to be rewarded with a drink.
So it goes.
And as the story marches forward, tensions will rise, but always tempered by a gentlemanly kind of humour.
