The Zen of Kayaking

The Zen of Kayaking was created over a period of 10 days in collaboration with gamedevjeff.  The cover artwork was created me, and the rest was a team effort.

An adventure game that some might find unexpected, yet familiar.  For DOS, and web browers (Firefox/Chrome) on desktop operating systems (not mobile) - internet not required.   A C64 version is now also available, but the DOS and web versions are recommended as they are the fastest to load/play.

The game is in the same style as a game I played earlier this year on my twitch channel (Hollywood Hi-Jinx), after which I was inspired to work on my own text adventure game targeting Infocom's Z Machine. This format was used for many classic early computer games including Zork, Hollywood Hi-jinx and more, where designers had to work within a set of limitations.

Expected playtime: The current record is set at 10 hours for a casual play-through, but others average around 11 hours.  However, some may solve the game quicker based on prior experience, or by using hints, so this is only a rough estimate.

A few words from players:

"A delightful journey. The Zen of Kayaking constantly surprised and delighted me. There are a nice variety of puzzles with a good range of difficulty. Some of them require some creative thinking, or even a glance at the hint book, but the solutions always felt satisfying. The writing is wonderful, and there are a lot of little references that seasoned adventurers will appreciate." -robotspacer

"A fun self-directed kayaking adventure. Explore with your kayak and help people along the way. There's a couple of dead-ends but game is very fair about alerting you within a few turns." -sonneveld

"A zenful way to spend a day outside (on the computer). It had been a very long time since I tried a text adventure solo, as I always had friends or family to play them with. When I first went into Zen of Kayaking, I started playing as myself, a simple office worker off for holiday, being mindful of people's belongings and closing doors after opening them...then I remembered this is an adventure game and began to live out my modern-day klepto dreams." -DCBueller

The Zen of Kayaking by pixel turkey, and gamedevjeff. Copyright pixel turkey (C) 2024. All rights reserved.

The Zen of Kayaking is a Z Machine (z3), text based adventure game made using Inform6 and PunyInform. It can be played in a browser (Firefox or Chromium) thanks to Parchment. The Zen of Kayaking can also be run under MS-DOS and a variety of other systems provided a Z3 interpreter is available, such as Frotz or many others. A DOS version is included with the purchase of this game, which can be played under DOSBox or real hardware (386+).

Regarding screen-readers: On Windows 11 NVDA is known to work well with the Windows Interactive Fiction Intrepreter Filfre - just download and extract the DOS version of The Zen of Kayaking to get the zenkayak.z3 file which can be opened with Filfre. 

The Zen of Kayaking
 
 
Setting off on a Sunday morning, you try to forget that by tomorrow you'll be back at work again.
 
The morning spring air is fresh, and the traffic is light as you head along the highway towards the entry to the state forest.
 
Cruising at 88 miles per hour, humming the tune to the duelling banjos in the movie Deliverance, you think that going a little over the speed limit is not such a terrible crime. After all, you've worked hard all week why not shave a few minutes off the trip to get more time on the water.
 
As the thought passes - you spot a state trooper's car on the opposite side of the highway pulse their roof-mounted lights on and off as you pass each other, and hit the brakes a few times to get under the speed limit. Your stomach sinks a little as you wonder if they were quick enough to get your plates.
 
The turn-off for the state forest approaches. You slow and pull your car into the side-road leading to the river-side park and recreation area. The park is mostly empty, bar a gentle spring breeze filling the air. Fantastic, after-all you don't feel much like small-talk, enough of that happens at the office.
 
THE ZEN OF KAYAKING
Copyright (C) 2024 pixel turkey. All rights reserved.
Release 1 / Serial number 240604 / Inform v6.43 PunyInform v5.4 R
 
The car park.
Gravel and mud are underfoot. The carpark is mostly deserted.
 
You can see a great blue heron, the car, the roof of your car (which contains a bright red kayak, some bungee cords and a backpack (which is closed)) and a trash can (which is closed) here.
 
Available exits: 
[East - The picnic area.]
 
> get kayak
Taken.

To get started in the game, you can type: help

Purchasing this game helps support me, an indie game developer working on two more adventure games TBA, one is a 2D pixel art text-parser adventure game for DOS scheduled for later this year, and the other is a retro inspired point and click adventure.

A limited time Zen of Kayaking Keepsake card is also available for purchase: https://merch.pixelturkey.com/en-aud/products/the-zen-of-kayaking-keepsake-card

To learn more about the history of text adventure games, I can recommend two YouTube documentaries:

Get Lamp: The Text Adventure Documentary, by Jason Scott.

Infocom: The Documentary, by Jason Scott:

Liked the game, and want to show some additional support?

I have a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pixel_turkey