Lanu is a reincarnation of a game that was originally written in the late 70's. Although the original source code is long lost, it has been adapted for modern devices with many new plot twists and changes.
The premise:
Your device has intercepted a magical cry for help through a time portal from the ancient world of Lanu. The evil wizard Maltor has taken control of the land from the beautiful forest queen, Arainis. To overthrow his evil plan, Arainis has opened this magic portal to allow you to give guidance to the hero, Pawn. Pawn is under a paralyzing spell from Maltor and can not act independently without your commands.
The iPhone app is no longer available. Lanu has been ported to Windows with a small screen, lo-res graphics, etc. Click "Lanu for Windows" to navigate to the DropBox zip file. Download and unzip it. Open the publish folder and double click on "Setup.exe" to install the game. Click "Yes" or "Allow" if prompted about an unknown publisher.
How To Play:
Type or use speech recognition, with or without adjectives and adverbs to give instructions (commands) to the hero, Pawn. Tap 'return' or say 'send' to relay the command. There are many recognized commands (too numerous to display here) that are understood. It's fun to try different verbs to see if you get the desired result. For example, 'Pick up the jug', 'Retrieve the jug', 'Obtain the stupid jug' or 'Get jug' will each tell Pawn to get the jug. However, spelling must be correct. Typing 'Get nife' when trying to get a 'knife' isn't going to work. Some items have shorter alternate names that are shown in the text. Punctuation and capitalization are ignored.
Some Common Commands:
Get + item name = pick up the item.
Get + 'all' = pick up every item.
Inventory, Inv or Have = list the items Pawn is carrying.
Drop + item name = drop the item.
Drop + 'all' = drop every item.
N or S or E or W = Go north, south, east or west.
In or Out = go in or out of an area with a door or entrance.
Cross = cross a bridge.
Kill + weapon name (or just weapon name) = attempt to kill an enemy with the named weapon.
Kill without a weapon name = attempt to kill an enemy with a random weapon or with bare hands. This usually results in a failed attempt.
Remember = recalls some of the hints discovered during game play.
Examine or Look + item name = gets information on the item, sometimes with important clues.
Additionally, there are also a few magic words to learn that let you do magical things.
List of Weapons:
Axe
Bludgeon (Club)
Horn
Knife
Rock
Rod
Sword
Tooth
Boomerang (Boom)
Hints:
* Pawn has 4 life stages: Full, 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4.
* Each enemy is vulnerable to a specific weapon. Pawn's life stage will be reduced each time the wrong weapon is used. Hints can be found to help you figure out which weapon is the correct one.
* During the end game, enemies of a type engaged previously may or may not succumb to the same weapon that was used before.
* There are a few locations where an enemy attacks from a distance. Pawn can only retaliate with one specific weapon. In these situations there is a 25% chance that Pawn will lose a life stage.
* Pawn can also lose life stages from dehydration and hunger. Be sure to carry things to eat and drink.
* Pawn also gets tired while on the journey. Be careful, if Pawn gets too sleepy in the wrong place, bad things can happen.
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Screen Layout:
* The top of the screen displays game points, coins earned, the number of moves that have been made. A move is tallied when Pawn moves to a new location. The number in parenthesis is the location number.
* The next section displays Pawn's responses to your commands.
* A description of the current location is shown below his response.
* Under the location description is the location item list. The background will turn green when there is something to interact with.
* Type or speak your command here: If the cursor is not blinking, tap on it to activate.
* The text sections described above can be scrolled when the keyboard covers the command entry control.
* Below the command entry are three button sections. Tap 'Prologue' to read the prologue of the story. Tap it again to close. 'How To Play' will show or close this message. The 'Game Center' button opens the Leaderboards and Achievements. There are two types of achievements, those that are required to complete the game and bonus achievements called Elf Stars. The elf stars can be used in a special location for healing.
* Text to speech can be turned on or off with the slide switch. The 'Stop' button stops the current readout. 'Repeat' will repeat the speech of all the information on display. The '+' and '-' buttons increase and decrease the size of the text.
* 'Restore' will restore the game to its previous condition and location. If Pawn dies, this happens automatically. 'Start Over' will start the game from the beginning and erase all achievements and game data. Game Center Leaderboard data will remain.
End Page:
Lanu is designed to be played multiple times. When you win, a new page will be displayed. Your saved local data and Game Center Achievements are erased in order to allow you to play the game again. However, your high scores on the Game Center Leaderboards will remain.
Tap 'Start Over' to replay from the beginning, or close the app and come back to the start of the game later.
This game's author is a professional musician and composer as well as a software developer. There will be an option to listen to the song that was inspired by the original Lanu game that he wrote in the late seventies. Tap 'Play Song'.
Enjoy!
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