War Rabbits

The Prologue and Act 1 · First Versions, for Helene

You were made in a lab. So were the things hunting you. Begin the Story starts with the memories. Open Meadow is the old sandbox: the hop, the fox, the silence and the warren with no story at all.

W A S D	Move. Hold a direction and Solar keeps hopping.
Space	Hop. Press it again just as Solar lands to chain hops, faster each time, up to six.
Shift	Bolt: run flat out. It drains stamina, and at empty Solar is Winded for two seconds.
Shift with A or D	Dodge: a hard sideways jink.
X, in the air	Binky: the joy jump. Do it early in a hop, or Solar lands mid-twist.
F	Thump. Watch the rabbit by the warren hole.
Hold C	Listen. The world goes quiet and every sound becomes a ring.
Left mouse	Kick: Solar turns its back on the fox and drives out with both hind legs. Strongest from behind it.
Right mouse	Box: a flurry of forepaws, face to face. It makes the fox's next attack come later.
Q	Bite: quick and short, and it bleeds.
Hold R	Stand: refuse to run. Fear holds still, and after half a second planted your Kick does double.
Tab	Lock on to the fox: the camera keeps it in view, and a ring under it shows which way it faces.
Hold F, press 1 to 4	Orders for your Bolt: 1 Follow, 2 Hold, 3 Flank, 4 Fall Back. A quick double F is the rally.
K	Switch between kit-size and Grown Solar. A kit cannot fight, and nothing ever targets a kit.
Into the warren	Hop into the left-hand hole in the red bank. Underground: W and S crawl, A and D turn, drag the mouse to look up and down.
Hold E	Dig the earth ahead, bite by bite. With Space, dig up; with Shift, dig down. On the surface, E reads a sign, speaks to a rabbit, and drags salvage.
Hold G	Graze.
H	The Word Hoard: every letter and word the warren can read, the card from the cage, and the Long Wall.
M, then 1 to 9	Mark the space you are in as a room: Sleeping Room, Nursery, Deep Refuge, Long Wall, Listening Room, Store, Garden, Bolt-hole, False Tunnel.
B	Warren View: the bank cut away so you can see every tunnel and room. Drag to turn it, scroll to come closer. B again to go back.
Drag the mouse	Look around.
F8	Report a Bug.
F10	The Feel Panel: move the hop numbers yourself. (On a Mac you may need to hold fn, or use the button.)
Esc	Pause and come back to this card.

Detail Sound Less blood (gray ink)

Sounds are stand-ins made by the computer until the real ones are recorded. Everything here is a first number, and only you can say if it feels right.

What to Try

Begin the Story and play as far as you want. The Word Hoard is H. D_NG_R is on day 4. The Burn is on day 8. The first raid is on day 12. Every part is a first version: tell Evan where you stopped caring and where you stopped breathing.
Hop into the left-hand hole in the red clay bank. The view drops to your eyes, with your forepaws in front of you. Crawl to the end of the run: that is Flood's sleeping room.
Turn to a wall and hold E. Red clay is slow, loam is quicker, roots take chewing, and stone stops you. Hold E and Solar keeps going, half a unit a bite.
Dig east from the entrance run. Partway, you will smell something on the other side. At the last cell the game asks: Break Through, or Turn Away. You cannot break in by accident.
Dig a space at least 6 by 6 cells (3 by 3 units) and 3 high, then press M and a number to make it a room. Press B to find it in Warren View.
For a skylight, dig straight up (E with Space) from a room's ceiling until you see sky. If the sky there is open enough, find the sheet of greenhouse plastic near the fence and drag it (hold E) over the hole. It needs three rabbits: bring Wet Sock and Hiccup (F then 1: Follow). Under the trees there is too much shade.
Mark a room with a skylight as a Garden and its greens will grow (it takes two game days, about 48 minutes).

Questions for Helene

After the memories, do you want to know what happened? (The Fragment Test.)
When you read D_NG_R, did your stomach drop?
On the creek bank, did you wait for the third thump?
At the new warren, could you count heads and know who was missing?
Did you hesitate before naming a kit? Before sending it out?
At the end, did you want one more night?
Does the warren feel like home? Did you want to dig another room?
Is first-person digging satisfying, or slow in a bad way?
Did Smell's warning, and the Break Through question, make sense?
When the three of you brought the fox down, did you shout?
Could you read the Kick on screen? Could you tell when one landed?
Did you see the fox's tell in time to Dodge?
Do Wet Sock and Hiccup feel like friends in the fight, or like furniture?
Is the red ink too much, too little, or right? (There is a Less Blood switch on the title card.)
Did the silence frighten you? When?

The hop is as you left it. The Feel Panel still works if you want to change it.

Wear Your Scars?

Solar has taken a heavy hit. If you say yes, every healed wound leaves a pale line in Solar's coat. If you say no, scars are kept on Solar's record and never shown on the coat. You will only be asked once.

This Computer Could Not Start the 3D View

Try opening the file in Google Chrome. If it still does not start, tell Evan what computer and browser you used.

The Word Hoard

Letters

Words

The Card From the Cage

The Long Wall

War Rabbits

What to Try

Questions for Helene

The Feel Panel

Wear Your Scars?

This Computer Could Not Start the 3D View