Historical Williamsburg Living Narrative

April 19th, 1775. The lamps are lit along Duke of Gloucester Street.

Historical Williamsburg Living Narrative is a text adventure set on the evening of April 19th, 1775: the night before Governor Dunmore’s secret seizure of the colony’s gunpowder. You play Nathaniel Blake, a Richmond merchant newly arrived in town on a cargo matter, and within hours you may be the only person in a position to do something about what’s coming.

Three hundred and fourteen locations across the colonial capital. More than twenty named townspeople: John Anderson at the tavern, George Wythe at his desk, Edward Pratt at the Capitol with the keys at his belt, Lord Dunmore’s lamp burning late in the upper windows of the Palace; each grounded in what the figure actually knew, did, and believed in April of 1775. Every gate, every lantern, every printing press mentioned in a room description can be examined and will return something specific. The Magazine on Market Square holds the colony’s gunpowder. What happens there on the night of April 20th is the center of the story.

For Kickstarter backers

If you backed HWLN on Kickstarter, the game is yours. Check your email for the download link. Your support gets you not just this release but every update and upgrade we ship for life. That was the promise, and we are keeping it.

Early access for everyone else

The Windows version is available now, ahead of the official release. If you would like to play in this early window and help shape the final polish with your feedback, I will gladly send you a copy. Email me at hapaziz (at) gmail.com and I will send a build your way.

A formal release announcement, with platform availability and pricing, will follow in the coming weeks.

The lamps are lit along Duke of Gloucester Street. The taverns are filling. Somewhere in the upper windows of the Governor’s Palace, a letter is being sealed that will change everything by dawn.

Come visit Williamsburg.

— Hap