Hidden Door: The Only AI Storytelling Game That Actually Makes You Earn It
Hello everyone. Let’s talk about Hidden Door – an AI-powered storytelling platform that dares to be different in the post-ChatGPT wasteland by doing something utterly scandalous: it tells you “no.” Revolutionary, I know. After all, we’ve spent years watching generative AI happily hand out infinite magical swords and god-tier plot armor like it was running a clearance sale at the Narrative Walmart. Hidden Door? It slams the brakes on your overpowered daydreams and demands that you actually play the game. The nerve.
The Premise: AI Dungeon, But With House Rules
The platform lets you co-write stories in familiar worlds: public domain darlings like The Wizard of Oz and Pride and Prejudice, plus licensed IP like The Crow. You make a character, fill in a backstory, and get thrown into an opening scene where your choices – and sometimes behind-the-scenes dice rolls – determine what happens. It’s basically tabletop gaming with an AI Game Master, minus the pizza, Mountain Dew, and inappropriate table jokes.
Unlike ChatGPT’s “Sure, you are the immortal space wizard with a galaxy-killer gun” school of storytelling, Hidden Door enforces in-universe rules. Try to whip up an invincible weapon and fast-forward to the credits roll, and it’ll gently push you toward… talking. Yes, conversations. Shocking for those of us accustomed to bypassing dialogue trees in favor of stab-stab-blam-blam victory laps.
The Hands on the Puppet Strings
Now, the appeal of rules is that they make wins feel earned. The problem? Sometimes those rules feel less like carefully placed guardrails and more like a straightjacket. In one Wizard of Oz scenario, a “daring, danger-addict” reporter repeatedly tried to provoke a hypnotized porter into a fight. The game just kept handing out failure messages like free mints. Maybe Lady Luck was on strike that day; maybe the AI narrative engine just didn’t like my attitude. Either way, when even dice-rolling feels suspicious, you start looking for the hidden DM screen.
And oh, you’ll feel the puppet strings. Scenes don’t always flow naturally. You might ignore plot hooks entirely, and yet the game stubbornly continues to shovel them your way like a desperate novelist who refuses to rewrite Chapter 3. In my vampire saga, I was mid-stab on Lady Catherine’s fanged visage while the world’s least observant orchestra conductor tried to feed me exposition I clearly didn’t want. Thanks, maestro, now hold still while I lop this head off…
The Technical Bedside Manner: Needs a Checkup
From a doctor’s perspective, the patient’s not in critical condition but is showing symptoms. Narrator lag times can stretch to several seconds, and during those loading gaps I found myself tabbing away – the digital equivalent of forgetting why you walked into a room. And sometimes, it regurgitates clumsy narrative repetition, like accidentally copying and pasting its own patient chart right back into my medical notes. Sloppy paperwork, AI. Sloppy paperwork.
The Good Medicine
For all my grumbling, I’ll admit this part: the focus on curated universes and licensed works is smart. It adds boundaries. Copyright lawyers aren’t going to leap out of the bushes, and you can’t break the lore beyond recognition in one turn. The inability to instantly “win” actually makes you participate in a story – even if that story sometimes behaves like a theme park ride on rails.
And the truth is, I’m still curious. Despite its narrative stubbornness, I want to see where my vampire hunter’s tale goes. That means the medicine is working – if only in a “come back for a follow-up in two weeks” kind of way.
Final Diagnosis
Hidden Door is a flawed but promising patient. It needs tighter narrative flow, less obvious manipulation, and faster response times. But its commitment to preventing “I win” button mashing is refreshing in an age where AI happily hands you god-mode on a silver platter. If you’re looking for challenge within structured rules rather than power fantasies, it’s worth a try – just don’t expect tabletop camaraderie or perfect storytelling bedside manners yet.
Overall impression: Cautiously good – could evolve into something genuinely great with the right treatment.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: Hidden Door is an AI storytelling game that actually makes sense, https://www.theverge.com/games/757816/hidden-door-early-access-ai-story
