The Inner World

The Inner World takes place in the fantasy world Asposien, a huge cavity surrounded by earth. Three large wind wells, each supervised by a wind monk, ensure ventilation of Asposia. But the situation changes: Two of the wells dry up completely, the well of the wind monk Conroy donates very little wind, and the wind gods haunt Asposia and petrify sinners.

The player takes on the role of Robert, the naive novice and foster son of Conroy, when he is polishing a follower of Conroy and this is stolen from him by a dove. While trying to catch the pigeon, he falls into the trash chute of the throne room and lands outside the palace for the first time.

Chapter 1

Robert spends the first chapter of the game catching the pigeon in order to get Conroy's trailer back. When he finally succeeds, the wanted thief, Laura, appears to take her pigeon from him again. Robert then goes in search of Laura and finds her hiding in a theater. Laura informs him that Conroy stole the trailer from her father. Together they find out that Conroy, with the help of the wind gods who are under his command, petrified an unknown species of Asposern, and that Robert also belongs to this unknown species. They are surprised by Conroy, but are able to escape with an aircraft.

Chapter 2

Robert and Laura crash-land in the root forest, where the rest of the way is blocked by traps. Laura disappears into the forest to find another way.

Robert manages to defuse the traps, but then steps into another trap that pulls him up to a tree house that is inhabited by a crazy former wind monk. This is not good at talking to guests, so that Robert is trapped until further notice, and the player now controls Laura to free him.

Laura meets a group of aerologists, scientists who are trying to study Asposian winds. However, these investigations are hampered by various problems.

In the course of the chapter, Laura solves these problems, and the aerologists realize that there must be a previously unknown fourth wind well whose location they can also determine. The chapter finally ends with the rescue of Robert from the hands of the wind monk.

Chapter 3

At the place of the alleged fourth wind well, Robert and Laura first find a locked gate, and Robert expresses the feeling of knowing the place, which both of them describe as impossible.

Nevertheless, Robert's first connection with the place becomes apparent when they find a petrified Asposier with a "flute nose" and a sound from Robert's nose opens the gate.

Inside, to their surprise, they find a reception area in which the schizophrenic Asposier Steve acts as receptionist. However, Robert manages to bring out the other personality named Pete, who provides much more useful information about a dynasty that inhabited this place, and which was destroyed by a terrible event that apparently Steve created.

There is also a sketch of Laura's father in the reception area, which was already shown in the film note. Robert and Laura suspect that this sketch describes an object in the wind chapel, to which Steve refuses access due to the lack of suitable golden IDs.

Only when Robert succeeds in producing golden IDs do they get into the wind chapel, where they find a wind well that has also dried up and many petrified Asposians with musical instruments as noses. Robert finally manages to play a melody with his flute nose that brings out the object from the sketch, and they find a bag of marbles there.

But while they are still wondering what to do with marbles, part of the soil breaks away and they fall into the well.

Chapter 4

Robert and Laura fall into a secret base where Conroy has the "wind gods" built: they are machines. Laura realizes that there is only one Asposier who could build machines like this - her father. As in Chapter 2, it runs ahead, and Robert is on his own again.

Robert learns that Conroy is building a huge army of "wind gods" to petrify all Asposians who "could breathe the air away".

After a while, he manages to get to Laura, who is in a laboratory where her father is trapped in a glass tank to assemble components for the wind gods. After he succeeds in freeing Laura's father, they learn that the marbles they found in the wind chapel can be used in the weapon system of the "wind gods" to reverse the fossilization.

Robert also learns that there was a secret dynasty who played music with their noses and thereby caused the wind wells to donate wind. This dynasty were the actual rulers of Asposia, and also appointed the wind monks - although Conroy had his own plans. Robert also learns that he is the son of the head of the dynasty.

However, when the group is equipping a "wind god" with the pitting eyes, they are surprised by Conroy, who petrifies first Laura's father and then Laura, while Robert escapes in an uncontrolled manner on the manipulated wind god.

Chapter 5

Robert finds himself back at the wind band after a crash landing; however, his wind god is no longer able to fly. The weapon system, however, still works, and after some difficulty Robert succeeds in having it properly fired into the wind chapel with the petrified Asposians.

But before Robert can stone the dynasty, he is surprised again by Conroy, who this time even has a petrification pistol. For unknown reasons, however, this regularly fails with Robert, and he manages to petrify Conroy instead. That it falls over and breaks on the occasion triggers little regret in Robert.

Finally Robert succeeds in stoneing the dynasty; however, his father is too damaged, and his mother, like Conroy, was destroyed after petrification. However, he is recognized as the head of the dynasty, and they sing an orchestra to bring the wind back to Asposia.

Robert then sets out to stone the remaining petrified Asposier.

Game principle and technology

The Inner World is a point-and-click adventure . From Sprites composite characters act before hand-drawn, some animated scenes. The player can use the mouse to move his character through the locations and use the mouse buttons to initiate actions that allow the character to interact with his environment. Robert can find objects and apply them to the environment or other objects, as well as communicate with NPCs . As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked.

Production notes

The Inner World is the result of a student thesis that the studio founders Sebastian Mittag, Mareike Ottrand and Alexander Pieper wrote in the "Interactive Media" course for the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy . The project was funded in 2013 by the Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg through the Digital Content Funds program with 20,000 euros.

Versions for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released on March 31, 2017 . On August 3, 2018, a version for the Nintendo Switch was released .

reception

The Inner World received mostly positive reviews. The Metacritic review database aggregates 18 reviews to a mean of 72.

In 2014, the game was awarded the German Computer Game Prize in the “Best German Game” category.

Web links

Official website
The Inner World at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

↑ http://www.pcgames.de/The-Inner-World-PC-255687/News/The-Inner-World-angekuendigt-1014428/
↑ http://dcf.mfg.de/?p=741
↑ The Inner World - Classic Adventure Coming Soon to PS4. Retrieved February 23, 2017 .
↑ ^a ^b Metacritic.com: The Inner World. Retrieved June 10, 2018 .
^ Point-and-Click-Adventure: "The Inner World" wins the German Computer Game Award. In: Spiegel Online . May 15, 2014, accessed June 10, 2018 .

[1] ttp://www.pcgames.de/The-Inner-World-PC-255687/News/The-Inner-World-angekuendigt-1014428/

[2] ttp://dcf.mfg.de/?p=741

[3] The Inner World - Classic Adventure Coming Soon to PS4. Retrieved February 23, 2017 .

[MC-4] Metacritic.com: The Inner World. Retrieved June 10, 2018 .

[SPON-969626-5] Point-and-Click-Adventure: "The Inner World" wins the German Computer Game Award. In: Spiegel Online . May 15, 2014, accessed June 10, 2018 .