Making Fire

Fire is one of the building blocks of human civilization and while we don't think much about fire anymore, it is almost vital to survival. One of the nice things about fire is that it doesn't require much to build a fire. While the equipment needs for building a fire are very minimal (as little as some dry branches), actually building a fire from scratch (no lighters or matches) is not actually that easy. The method used in this game is actually one that I have used myself so I know that it works. If you happen to have the non-wood components needed to build a fire this way then it is one of the easier ways of starting a fire. Of course, the easiest way is to use a magnifying glass as I found that to work exceedingly well for starting a fire. Still, that is not an option in this game so let us walk through the process of starting a fire in this episode. The technique here does work in the real world but should be done with care as fire can be very dangerous.

Step 1 is getting your fire pit set up. Technically speaking this is an optional step, but is always a good idea, and in the parks in BC (can't speak for other areas of the world) it is a legal requirement. The purpose of the fire pit is to prevent the fire from escaping and starting the entire woods on fire. It also helps when initially starting the fire as it acts like a wind block. In the game this is done by picking up the rocks and then clicking on the rock in the inventory bar.

Step 2 is preparing your kindling. If you have paper, this works the best. Within the game, however, there is no paper available so you are going to have to make kindling from from your fuel. Speaking of which, you should pick up the fuel for the fire. It is the stick in the left corner of the screen. Making kindling from a stick is simply a matter of creating thin wood shavings but to do that you are going to need another tool. Thankfully, such a tool happens to be lying on the beach. The fact that there is a jack knife on the beach should probably be a warning that you are not alone on the beach. Use the jackknife on the stick to create the kindling.

Step 3 is to create a burning ember. This will make use of the last object on the screen. The flint. Pick up the flint and then use the knife on the flint. This creates sparks. In the real world doing this over kindling will cause one of the sparks to land on the kindling and if you slowly blow on the ember, the kindling will start to burn. If you blow too hard, you will put the ember out. It is very difficult to simulate blowing on an ember, so this is assumed to have happened by the game.

Step 4 is to fuel the fire. This is simply adding the stick to the fire. Like with blowing on the ember, in the real world this has to be done slowly and carefully or you can put out the fire. Once you have built the fire up enough, it is actually fairly hard to put the fire out and the fire can spread very quickly, which is why you want your fire pit to be surrounded by non-flammable materials and for the fire pit to be located far enough away from trees and other flammable objects so you don't accidentally start a forest fire (or burn your house down if you are in the back yard).

Step 5 put the fire out when done. The best way to make sure that your fire is actually out (remember that you started the fire from a single ember) is to pour water over the fire. You don't have to worry about doing this in the game as it is done for you!