How does this game work?

Fair question! Universe 1340 is not your typical game. Almost the entire game is played via WhatsApp.

In a nutshell, it is a story-driven text-based game where you can let your imagination take over. Universe#1340 is played through WhatsApp in an asynchronous, non intrusive way, adapting to your schedule.

You, solo or together with a group of friends, are part of a story of 7 chapters that is delivered one chapter at a time to you via text (WhatsApp). At the end of each chapter, you choose what to do do next and your answer is combined with everyone else's answers to create the next chapter of the story.

A bit more in detail...

How to start a new adventure

You start by sending a message to the game via WhatsApp. You will get a link to your home in Universe #1340, where you can create a new adventure, see your collected items, past adventures, and more.

After setting a general theme for your adventure, you get an invitation link to invite more people to it. You can invite up to 3 friends to create their own characters and participate in the story.

Once everyone has joined:

When all your friends have joined and you are ready to start, send the /start command to the game via WhatsApp. The game will take all the characters and create the very first chapter of the story.

All chapters end with a crucial choice for each character. Your answer, visible only to you until the next chapter is written, is combined with your character's skills, inventory and a variable luck factor - and with everyone else answers - to shape the next twist in the story.

How many players can join a story?

One story can handle up to 4 players (for now!).

How do I read the story?

By default, one chapter of the story is sent to each player every day via WhatsApp. You can read the story and answer with your next move right there in the chat.

Wait, only one chapter per day?

The game is designed to be a played asynchronously with a group of friends who may have very different schedules, and to give you a little bit of joy everyday. Having one chapter per day means you can play when you have 5 minutes through the day.

But what if I don't want to wait that much?

We get it, sometimes you just want to binge through a story (It happens to us when playing it ourselves). If you are the owner of the story, you can always send the /forge command to the game and the next chapter will be crafted and sent to you and all players right away.

A word of caution: Remember that if one of the players has not yet answered, they will be removed from the story and the game will continue without them.

Talking about that...

What happens if I don't answer?

Fail to respond before the next chapter, and alas, it's game over for your character.

Why my actions didn't go as expected?

Ah, yes: You can decide what to do next, but there's a catch: Your character has a luck factor that changes randomly every chapter, and this luck can affect the outcome of your actions.

How does the points system work?

Depending on your actions and the outcome of the chapter, characters get awarded a number of points. These points accumulate across all your characters from all the stories you have participated, and at the moment don't do much more. Soon they will mean something, so stay tuned!

What are the objects in the inventory for?

Throughout any adventure characters may get objects that not only can be used in the story, but also can be collected and used in future adventures. Most importantly, every object you get becomes part of your own private collection of objects from across the multiverse - A collection that one day may become valuable (more on that to come soon!).

I keep forgetting to answer and my characters keep dying! Can you add a notification system?

We get that a lot. At the same time, we feel that it is part of the fun (as outrageous as it may be) to have the risk of losing your character. We are still considering this, so stay tuned!

Can I hack the game somehow?

You can try to manipulate the game as much as you want - In fact, that's part of the fun, you are creating your own story! But we find that it's also fun to just go along it and play the part of your character as you would in a book or a movie. It's up to you!

I ran out of credits! How do I get more?

While we are in a beta phase, we are giving away free credits in small waves. We'll soon come up with a way to open this to everyone and let you buy more credits. Stay tuned!

I want to stop receiving the story. How do I quit?

Anyone can send the /quit command to abandon the game before its end - You won't get any new notification from the game.

How do I end my story for everyone?

If you are the owner of the story, you can send the /end command to the game and the story will be closed for everyone. You can always start a new one!

Why some of the images are so weird?

We are making heavy use of some of the best models out there - At the moment we are using DALL-E from OpenAI to generate these unique images - and not knowing what you will get next only adds to the fun!

Is it all AI?

Almost all of it, yes! These are pretty exciting times to be alive! The stories are written by GPT and the images are generated by DALL-E. Perhaps even the creators of the game are some sort of AI... Who knows?

I have more questions!

Get in touch with us!