Savoir-Faire

Fantasy Home XYZZY Awards 2002 Best Puzzles, Best Individual PC, Best Story, Best Game

XYZZY Awards 2002 Finalist - Best Use of Medium, Best Individual Puzzle, Best Setting, Best Writing

Savoir-Faire
Author(s)	Emily Short
Publisher(s)	n/a
Release date(s)	01-Apr-2002
Authoring system	Inform
Platform(s)	Z-code
Language(s)	English
License(s)	Freeware
Multimedia
Color effects	none
Graphics	none
Sound/Music	none
Ratings
Cruelty scale	Cruel

How It Begins

You are Pierre, the adopted son of a wealthy Count in 18th century France. You are wearing a dashing hat, and carry a sword (inside a swordstick) and a snuffbox. As a member of the nobility, you also have the magical talent known as the Lavori d'Aracne which will let you create magical links between similar objects. Unhappily, you desperately need money. You returned to your childhood home, hoping to ask the Count for help, but no one knows where he's gone. Maybe there's money or something you can sell from the estate. You begin your hunt for treasure from the kitchen garden.

Notable Features

• Puzzle filled game. As a "Textfire Classic", the game pays homage to several "old school" puzzles, including hunger puzzles, locked door puzzles, a maze, a decryption puzzle and a massive number of inventory items. Many of these puzzles have a new twist. The game's setting - a deserted family home from which one must loot treasure - is overtly old-school.
• Rich object modelling in general. Every object has a size, shape, and material comparable to the simulationist object modelling in some of Short's earlier works, notably Metamorphoses.
  • Complex liquid modelling, as handled by the Inform library extension WaterElement.h. Liquids can be mixed, puddles evaporate over time, other objects sink or float in liquids, and so on.
  • Complex light modelling, with respect to light source and color.
  • Complex magic system allows the player to magically "link" one item to another if the two items share common properties. Once linked, actions performed on one item will have similar effects on the second. Much of the game revolves around exploration of this magic system.
• Flashback cutscenes are used to fill in some of the pre-game story.
• Many puzzles have multiple solutions. One puzzle in particular has a solution suitable for vegetarians.
• A score system (it comes complete with its own last lousy point).

Trivia and Comments

• Savoir-Faire was deliberately released on April 1st as an April Fool's joke. As a "Textfire Classic" and an old school puzzle game by Emily Short, it was meant to sound as if the announcement was a hoax. The joke, of course, was that the game did exist after all.
• The author went to considerable effort to fit the game into version 5 of the Z-machine in order to stay with the old school theme. Eventually bug fixes forced her to upgrade to version 8 for new releases of the game.
• Radical Al offered $50 U.S. to Emily for the source code for Savoir-Faire as part of the prize rules for his GESCH MiniComp.

Versions

Note 1: Emily has a version history page. Caution: It contains spoilers.

Note 2: Versions 1 through 4 were .z5 files. Versions 5 through 8 were .z8 files.

Version 1

• Savoir-Faire (Emily Short; 01-Apr-2002; Z-code).
  • IFID wanted. (Please replace this line with a babel template.)
  • XYZZY Awards 2002: Winner of Best Puzzles, Best Individual PC (Pierre), Best Story, and Best Game. Also finalist for Best Use of Medium, Best Individual Puzzle, Best Setting, and Best Writing.

Version 6

• Savoir-Faire (Emily Short; 20-Apr-2002; Z-code).
  • Release 6 / Serial number 020420 / Inform v6.15 Library 6/10
  • IFID wanted. (Please replace this line with a babel template.)

Version 8

• Savoir-Faire (Emily Short; 2004; Z-code).
  • Release 8 / Serial number 040205 / Inform v6.15 Library 6/10
  • IFID wanted. (Please replace this line with a babel template.)
  • Download Savoir-Faire.zblorb from the IF Archive
  • Or download Savoir-Faire.zblorb from inform-fiction.org.
  • Also available on the IF Promotional CD, July 2005 Edition.

Version 8 reissue

• Savoir-Faire (Emily Short; 2004; Z-code).
  • Release 8 / Serial Number 040328 / Inform v6.15 library 6/10
  • IFID wanted. (Please replace this line with a babel template.)
  • Play it online at nickm.com.

Release TBD

• Note: Savoir-Faire was also published as part of the Electronic Literature Collection Volume One in October 2006. See the collection's Savoir-Faire page.

Links

General Info

• Savoir-Faire homepage.
• Original teaser game site.
• Savoir-Faire version history.
• Savoir-Faire (archived) - at Baf's Guide
• Savoir-Faire - at Home of the Underdogs
• Savoir-Faire - at Electronic Literature Collection Volume One.
• Savoir-Faire - at Wikipedia.
• Savoir-Faire (archive) at Feelies.org. For a limited time, players could purchase a feelies package containing a wax-sealed letter, a drawing, a letter of authenticity, and a booklet about lavori d'Aracne called "On Links" by Mrs. Bury Palliser. Ordering for this item is closed. They are now available as a PDF.
  • Download Savoir-Faire_Feelies.pdf from the IF Archive
• Examples of Interactive Fiction. Savoir-Faire is one of the games listed on this anthology page hosted at inform-fiction.org.

Reviews

• Review at IF-Review by Sam Kabo Ashwell.
• Reviews at SPAG by Daphne Brinkerhoff and Francesco Bova.
• Exploring the 'Best Games': Savoir Faire, by Emily Short - by Mathbrush.
• Review at SPAC by Urbatain.
• Savoir Faire - at IF Ratings

Spoilers

• Savoir-Faire hints done in Invisiclue white-on-white style.
  • Also: Download SavoirFaireInvisiHints.html from the IF Archive
• Solution. A verbose walkthrough by David Welbourn, based on version 6.
  • Also: Download savoir.html from the IF Archive
• ClubFloyd transcript.

The lavori d'Aracne games by Emily Short
Savoir-Faire (2002)	Damnatio Memoriae (2006)	First Draft of the Revolution (2012)