passage(6)

📦 version 4, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 passage(6) — a game about the passage through life 💖

okay bestie, sit down, we're talking about a manual page from the Games section of the manual, and it's passage(6). yes the (6) means it's a game, no it's not a command you're gonna pipe into anything, just vibe with me here 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

passage — a game about the passage through life 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

passage

that's it. that's the whole synopsis. iconic honestly 💅

💫 DESCRIPTION 💫

Passage is a video game written by Jason Rohrer, and it's about navigating the maze that is life — like, the obstacles, the rewards, the disappointments, the challenges, the relationships, and the inevitable departure that is part of the adventure of life. all of it. in one little game. no cap 😭

Passage is an art game. and because it's an art game, some people love it and some people hate it. that's just how art games are, fr fr. if you wanna see some of the reactions, there are links to places it's been discussed on the website. go look, it's a whole thing 💀

the mechanics are actually pretty simple, so don't stress:

  • your "score" is tied to two things: exploration and treasure.
  • treasure pieces are the blue stars you find inside the treasure chests scattered about the maze of life's challenges. ⭐
  • some chests will be empty, so you gotta learn which sequence of gems on the front of the chests means treasure is actually inside. study those gems bestie, they're telling you something 👀
  • you have the option to team up with a spouse. 💞 if you do, exploring life will be more rewarding — but some treasure will no longer be reachable. trade-offs, always trade-offs.
  • and, as in life, your spouse will die, and that death will slow you down. 😭
  • in the end, you will die alone after your 5 minutes is up. that's the whole thing. that's the game. periodt.

the most interesting part about this game is the emotions it evokes within the player. like, it's not about the mechanics, it's about the feelings. the ultra-low-res pixel art helps here — it's not too distracting and it leaves plenty room for viewer interpretation. it's giving minimalism as a love language 🫶

the followup to Passage is Gravitation, another art game by Jason Rohrer. so if you ate this one up, there's more 🍓

🎀 USAGE 🎀

Passage has no command-line options. none. zero. don't go looking for flags, bestie, there aren't any 💅

  • the arrow keys move the player around. ⬆️⬇️⬅️➡️
  • the Esc key is used to quit the game.
  • the game resolution and whether you get fullscreen or a window can be set by editing the files in /etc/passage. ✨
heads up: that config lives in /etc/passage, so you're editing files there to change resolution and fullscreen-vs-window behaviour. that's the whole customization situation.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this one's from March 2008 and it's passage(6), so now you know. go play it and have an existential moment, you've earned it 🧚‍♀️✨

📦 where this page comes from