The Madness of Roland

The Madness of Roland is an interactive novel about the Frankish military leader Roland who became a mythological figure in historical epic poems. The story starts off accompanying Roland during his siege of Paris in 778, but quickly evolves into a mystery of witchcraft and madness...

Many portions offer exactly what one expects from a novel: words form sentences which have to be read (or listened as it is fully narrated and acted) from start to finish. However, every chapter also has several sub-chapters which are each written from the point of view of another main character, including Roland's sword Durendal. Those can be read in any order and make use of text formatting, e.g. italics, bold and color. A bold word or sentence can be clicked on for a pop-up window containing additional information, gags or imagery. In a few cases, the characters ask direct questions of the viewer, e.g. what the color of fear is. While the narrative itself is static, the answer changes the next portion of the text.

Each chapter also has an optional sun and moon section. Sun shows a quote while moon is video (life-action or animation). The in-game map shows which portions of the novel have already been read.