The Pinecone

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Choice-based
Choice-based
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IF Comp 2020
74th of 103
The Pinecone
Pinecone small cover.jpg
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Author(s) Joseph Pentangelo
Publisher(s) {{{publisher}}}
Release date(s) 01-Oct-2020
Authoring system Twine
Platform(s) Web browser
Language(s) English
License(s) {{{license}}}
Multimedia
Color effects {{{color}}}
Graphics {{{graphics}}}
Sound/Music {{{sound}}}
Ratings
Cruelty scale {{{{{cruelty}}}}}


A breath born of boredom rises in the wintry sky. Hooves and bells approach. The school bus is late.

How It Begins

You are waiting at the corner. The bus is unusually late. You took this as a blessing at first — you had been running late this morning yourself — but it’s cold, and you’ve been out here for more than ten minutes, and you left your gloves at home as you rushed out the door.

You jam your hands into your coat pockets and play with the tufts of lint that hide in the corners. Your breath conjures phantoms that float towards the clear blue sky.

This being a Tuesday, and the morning getting late, it isn’t long before the goats come.

Author's Comments

This is an adaptation of a short story I wrote in January 2019 while conducting fieldwork for my dissertation. I turned it into a game using Twine on November 20th, 2019, and intermittently returned to it in August 2020.

There are four possible endings as far as the player’s fate is concerned.

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