The Pasture

You are a mouse cursor, summoned by an entity called The Shepherd into a simulation drawn entirely in ASCII text. In this difficult point-and-click puzzle adventure, you solve puzzles, collect items, fight the dangerous Bound, and piece together what happened to a strange world.

This is an experimental game by a solo dev (me!) made with ~5 months of effort across 2 years.

Features

3-5 hours of gameplay for an average blind playthrough

~12 unique environments completely rendered on a grid of ASCII characters, seen in the screenshots

~10 items the player will need to find to progress through the game

Difficult puzzle elements, inspired by text-based adventures like Zork. It is recommended to read what is said in the game very carefully.

Mouse-based movement requiring precise dodging and timing to progress

~10000 lines of user-facing dialogue, describing The Pasture, its inhabitants, and its history

Over 25 different entities, allies and enemies both, that the player will interact with

Up to 2 boss battles, depending on the paths chosen.

A bad ending, a good ending, and a true ending for the player to discover

Requirements

Mouse and Keyboard

~120MB of space

Content Warning

Do not play if you are sensitive to the following topics: Flashing lights, self-harm, death.