The '10 Cloverfield Lane' Text Adventure Game Killed Me

There’s a whole lot of delightful (and insane) viral marketing popping up around 10 Cloverfield Lane. There have been some hidden GPS coordinates based in subliminal images attached to the movie Deadpool, and now there’s a whole collection of transmissions between John Goodman’s character, a survivalist truther and his possibly estranged daughter — whose final gift from her dad is a text-based video game, developed to teach bunker survival skills.

These dispatches have all been collected at a site called FunAndPrettyThings.com, which is a good place to hide dangerous anti-government information in plain sight. Before getting into the text-based game, it should be noted this is one of the missives that seems to have the most to do with possible plot information. This is the full text, warts and all:

“DEAR MEGAN,

“NO ANSWER YET, MEGAN? I UNDERSTAND. YOU’VE BEEN LISTENING TO YOUR MOTHER. SHE’S BEEN POISONING YOU AGAINST ME, RIGHT? THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW. SO LET ME TELL YOU SOME OF THEM AND MAYBE YOULL SEE I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

“A WIFE SHOULD BELIEVE HER HUSBAND, NOT UNDERCUT HIM. BUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH I TRIED TO SHARE THE TRUTH WITH HER, YOUR MOTHER NEVER TOOK ME SERIOUSLY. YOU’RE OLD ENOUGH NOW TO KNOW THE TRUTH. I WAS WORKING WITH VERY SECRET AND HIGHLY CLASSIFIED SPY SATELLITES. I HAD CLEARANCE. AND I SAW THINGS. THINGS YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE. THINGS FEW PEOPLE WOULD BELIEVE.

“THERE WAS THIS MISSION CALLED SEASAT. WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TRACKING SOVIET SPY SATELLITES BUT WHAT WE FOUND UP THERE WAS MUCH MUCH BIGGER. SO THEY CANCELLED THE PROJETC AND MADE UP A STORY TO EXPLAIN WHY. BUT ONE GUY I SERVED WITH, HE UNDERSTOOD THE IMPORTANCE OF WHAT WE WERE SEEING. HE WAS KIND OF A MENTOR FOR ME AND THE FEW OTHERS WHO DIDN’T WANT TO LET IT GO. SO WE BEGAN COMPILING ALL OF THIS EVIDENCE. AND ONCE WE STARTED LOOKING FOR IT, WE SAW THE SIGNS EVERYWHERE. WE ASSEMBLD SO MUCH EVIDENCE AND TRIED TO GET THE COMMANDERS TO LISTEN. BUT THEY DIDN’T WANT TO HEAR ANY OF IT. THEY SHUT US DOWN. AND THEY ACCUSED MY MENTOR OF SPYING FOR THE SOVIETS. THEY SENT HIM TO JAIL FOR 365 YEARS AND THEY MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY WOULDNOT HESITATE TO DO THE SAME TO ME IF I DIDN’T STOP ASKIGN QUESTIONS THEY DIDN’T WANT TO ANSWER. I LEFT THE NAVY NOT TOO LONG AFTER THAT. BUT I NEVER STOPPED LOOKING.”

There’s also lots of explanations of how to hot-wire cars and put together bug-out bags, but then things take an even weirder twist: John Goodman’s character puts together a text-based adventure game to teach his daughter how to survive with limited resources in a bunker he’s built.

The game itself is pretty straightforward, but notes on the site indicate that gameplay elements are being added each day, so it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise if some delightful surprises were found in here over the next few days. If you want to give it a try, just click right here. Be sure to let us know if you crack the case or happen to unlock an early download of the film. As for me, I died a lot and took some of my coworkers down with me. (Sorry, Eric.) That said, it has plenty of depth and if you’re a Fallout Shelter fan, this plays similarly.

You’re managing resources, jobs, and health for a group of one to four players, while also researching new ways to manage your limited supplies. There’s also a fair share of glitches and a particular tone of vengeful anger should you be stupid enough to attempt to leave. Of course these glitches are intentional and probably embed some kind of subliminal code, but I’ll wait for better internet sleuths to crack that case for me.

If you’re curious, the aforementioned hidden GPS information buried in subliminal marketing images wound up taking a lucky Reddit user to an empty lot where he dug up some interesting things. Here’s the video of that:

10 Cloverfield Lane hits theaters on March 11.