Thomas Was Alone is a puzzle-platform game created by Mike Bithell, originally released as a Flash-based browser game in October 2010. The game was expanded and released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in July 2012. It has subsequently been released for Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Wii U, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch. In the game, the player controls one or more simple rectangles representing several out-of-control artificial intelligence entities, working with the shapes to get each to their individual end points on each level. Each shape is characterized by a unique name and personality, including the eponymous Thomas, which is conveyed to the player through the use of a narrator voiced by Danny Wallace, whose performance earned the game a BAFTA Games Award.
Gameplay
Thomas Was Alone takes place within a computer mainframe, where some unspecified "Event" has caused several artificial intelligence routines to run out of control and gain personality. Each entity is represented by a simple coloured shape; the game's eponymous character is a simple red rectangle. Each shape has unique abilities; while all shapes can move left or right across platforms and perform jumps, the height of these jumps may be limited by the shape, or they may have other abilities, such as being able to float on water. When the player has access to two or more of these shapes, they can freely switch between them, controlling one shape at a time.
Though the shapes themselves cannot be heard, the narrator describes the personalities and thoughts of each shape as the game progresses.
The goal in each level within the game is to direct the shapes to exit points specifically tied to each shape, so that they all simultaneously occupy this exit. This most often requires using the shape abilities together to maneuver them appropriately. A shape that cannot jump very high can be helped by creating a staircase from other shapes so that the shape can reach a higher platform, or the shape that can float can ferry the other shapes across water. A shape can be lost to several hazards, but it will reappear at the start of the level, or at a checkpoint if the shape has passed such a point.
There are ten sets of levels, usually introducing a new character, with ten levels within each set.
Plot
A company called Artificial Life Solutions experiments with various artificial intelligence solutions, but something unexplained causes some AIs to become self-aware. These AIs perceive their digital world as a 2D space with themselves represented as quadrilateral shapes.
One of them is called "Thomas-AT-23-6-12", or simply Thomas, represented as a red rectangle. Thomas is curious and observant by nature. He starts to travel through his internal world, trying to find out his own purpose and perhaps companionship. He meets other AIs, each with different personalities and abilities: the cynical Chris, the show-off John, the self-proclaimed superhero Claire, and the apprehensive Laura. Laura is uncomfortable joining the crew, concerned about the black "pixel cloud" that has been following her. The pixel cloud soon attacks and "eats" each of the five AIs.
The pixel cloud is revealed to be a "splitter", a mechanism that attempts to fix the fact that multiple AIs are erroneously being placed in the same virtual space. James, an AI who falls upwards instead of down, frees Thomas from the splitter's virtual prison. They meet Sarah, a purple AI, who tells them about "the fountain of wisdom", the system's Internet uplink. When they reach it, only Thomas is able to access it. Thomas connects to the Internet for twelve seconds, creating a "network connection spike" which humans later misidentify as the moment Thomas became self-aware. He learns of the outside world, then rescues his other four friends and tells them of what he learned. He plans to become an "architect", someone who is able to modify his world and empower other AIs to do the same. Thomas and all his friends enter the "creation matrix", the generator of the world, and disappear.