Caroline in the City online game - interactive novel

The idea

The concept of this online game was inspired by good old Atari game called Agent USA - if you don't know this title (which is hardly surprising) then take a look at the video below or you could read more on Tedious Retro Gamer.

Basically the target was, while traveling only using trains, to find a "fuzz bomb" that infects people and from time to time moves from one city to another within United States (again using trains only). Since the bomb's moves were limited by the railways available within game, with some experience, it wasn't that hard to follow it. Also there were info booths spread in some cities, where we could learn the current location of the bomb.

In Where is Caroline? there are many ways to travel: you can walk between locations, take taxi, train, bus, plane - it all depends on what is available in the location you are in. Your goal is to find Caroline in less than 14 days, before she will get married and to convince her she is making a mistake (similar to finding the bomb in Agent USA).

Just like the bomb Caroline is on the move, but the difference is her moves are not random - since she is getting married in two weeks, she has some things to take care of, so you have to find clues to where she could be and then locate her (which means being in right place at the right moment).

Also, unlike Agent USA, in Where is Caroline? you have your limitations: forementioned time limit of about 14 days, but also you need money to travel between locations and from time to time you have to get some sleep or something to eat.

The game is fully played via Internet browser, so you don't have to install anything, all you need is any device with access to Internet. It is hard to classify Where is Caroline? to a single game genre, it is mixture of point & click adventure, travel game and interactive novel. Those players, who will score significant result, will be given place upon game ranking board.

First version of Where is Caroline was available way, way, waaaaay back in year 2002 as addition to Caroline in the City fanpage. While the basic concept did not changed since then, certain parts of the interface and data has since been vastly improved.

Between 2005 and 2007 the new interface was introduced and game begun to grew in content. With time the new interface, new mechanics and new locations improved the general experience. As you can see on the old screenshots the visual side was again improved and adapted to modern browsers, the graphical elements were enlarged and refreshed, so the game would be still accessible.

In 2019 I rediscovered Where is Caroline? in the dark corner of the old server and, after playing it once or twice I was astonished that the game did not lost much of its original appeal. Of course the interface was outdated, there were some parts of the interface that needed to change for the mobile devices, but the basic game was still pretty good. And that's how the new interface came along, this time with mobile devices in mind, I added new mechanics to gameplay, new places to visit.