The Game That's Nothing But Stairs

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Features by Adventure Game Hotspot staff
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Even if you've never played Stair Quest, you've probably played Stair Quest. If you took a header down the steps in King's Quest III because of that damn cat, that's Stair Quest. If you've ever agonized over a measly point reward for a great feat of heroic adventuring, that's Stair Quest. If you've played a game with retina-searing chunky AGI graphics that look absolutely nothing like the gorgeously epic box art that suckered you into buying it, say hello to Stair Quest.

If it sounds like we're really just describing early Sierra graphic adventures, you're absolutely right, although technically Sierra did NOT make Stair Quest. But they sort of did. The actual Stair Quest, by the Space Quest Historian, DecafJedi, and WilcoWeb, is a 2016 freeware adventure made (mostly) for a two-week game jam, which went on to be come a hit among lifelong adventurers for its parody-slash-loving homage of "all of the very worst moments of Sierra's early games." It just so happens to be all about stairs, stairs, and nothing but climbing – or falling down – stairs.

In his latest video, OneShortEye takes a break from speedrunning (okay, except for a little section – this is OneShortEye we're talking about) to chat with the developers of this surprise cult favorite. From cats with massive hit boxes, to zigzag walking, to insane amounts of text parser responses for a game that requires only one command, and even letting players rickroll themselves, learn all about the thought process behind a game intended to troll players at every turn.

Of course, when you're done watching, you can point and click your way over to itch.io and grab Stair Quest itself, either in its original version or winterized holiday edition.

OneShortEye is part of the Adventure Game Hotspot Network, a collective of talented, dedicated content producers who work entirely independently but have joined forces to promote each other’s efforts. All opinions expressed belong solely to the original creators.