Inanimate Alice, Episode 4: Hometown

"Inanimate Alice tells the story of a young girl growing up in the early years of the 21st century, beginning with her childhood in a remote region of northern China and progressing toward her life as a twenty-something video game designer. Though primarily oriented toward children and young adults, the multimodal narrative can be read and appreciated by all for the complexity of its structure and visual design.

Author description: Episode 4 of Inanimate Alice finds Alice going to school at last. She and her parents have ended up in a multicultural city in the middle of England. For the first time ever, Alice has friends her own age, and they do all the things that 14 year olds everywhere do. 'And now I am going to die!' Attempting to impress her friends one afternoon, Alice climbs a rickety staircase outside an abandoned factory. When it collapses beneath her, she hangs on by her fingernails, then hauls herself up onto a ledge. But now she is stuck - she can't get down, she can't go up. The only way out is through the scary factory, half-demolished and very dangerous. Can you help Alice? Can you find the way out? Catch up with her in Inanimate Alice, Episode 4: Hometown. Episode 4 is the largest and most complex episode in the series to date. The 'teachers only' version of this episode provides a 'skip intro' option and opens up all of the navigation icons from the beginning so that educators can focus on the sections of the narrative appropriate to their needs." -- from Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2