Transfer Point

Coming Soon • World Builder

You’re at a bus stop surrounded by darkness. You’re not sure how you got here, and the bus never arrives. Why is your childhood PDA here and… how is it getting new messages?

A monochrome pixel art drawing of a bus stop. There’s a sign in front of it, and empty darkness in the background. A text window on the side reads, “You’re at a bus stop. It looks nice from a distance. Beyond the bus stop is complete darkness. There are paths leading off to the south and east.” A monochrome pixel art drawing of a building with a vending machine in front. An egret is on the side of the building. The vending machine has 90s graphics on it, made of basic shapes and squiggles. The window is titled “Storefront.” A text window on the side reads, “You’re outside a store. There’s a vending machine here. To the right side of the building, an egret is standing over a nest. Paths lead off to the north and west.” A monochrome pixel art drawing of an electronic device, close up, showing an email interface. The text “email” is in a whimsical font, and there’s a mascot girl at the bottom. The window is titled “Lil Sweetie Emails.” The screen shows emails titled “I’m sorry” and “Where are you?” both dated May 17. The last email has the subject “Please” and is dated May 18. All of them are from someone named Tessa. A text window on the side reads, “The Lil Sweetie is showing a list of email messages. An adorable mascot girl rests her chin on her hand at the bottom of the screen.” A monochrome pixel art drawing of an old house with a path leading up to it. It’s in a window labeled “Totally Normal House.” A text window on the side reads, “You’re at the top of a small hill leading up to a totally normal house. There’s a walkway north to the porch. A path winds west around the side of the house. Search. You don’t find anything unusual.” A monochrome pixel art drawing of a woman looking at herself in a cracked mirror. She has short hair and dark eyebrows. The window is titled “Mirror.” A text window on the side reads, “It’s you, more or less. The cracked and dirty mirror reflects your weary face back at you. You look as tired as you feel, but it’s comforting to see that you’re still you. Status. You’re tired, but otherwise you seem to be fine.”

Transfer Point on a Macintosh Plus with System 6.0.8

Transfer Point is a point-and-click adventure game about regret, forgiveness, and email. Click on items in the scene, select commands from menus, or type short phrases in the text window to determine your actions. You’ll need to explore unusual places, solve peculiar puzzles, and find a decent Wi-Fi connection to continue on your journey.

Transfer Point was created in World Builder, a program for the original Macintosh released in 1986. The game was made live on Twitch from March 2023 through June 2024, with the help of many wonderful people. Together we explored World Builder’s important place in the history of adventure games and multimedia creation, and learned that anyone can still have fun making new things with old software.