Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero is a point and click game that contains text-driven dialogue. There are no traditional puzzles or challenges, with the focus of the game being storytelling and atmosphere. The game has been described as an "interactive screenplay." The player controls Conway by clicking on the screen, either to guide him to another location, or interact with other characters and objects.

The player also has the choice to choose Conway's dialogue, and occasionally the dialogue of other characters, during in-game conversations. The game is separated into various locations, between which Conway can travel using his truck. A map is shown when traveling on the road, and the player must guide the truck icon to the destination of their choosing, mostly areas where the player has been pointed or sent out to go. The player also takes control of other characters at certain times.

Conway, a truck driver, works as a delivery man for an antique shop owned by a woman named Lysette. Being hired to make a delivery to 5 Dogwood Drive, Conway travels the roads around Interstate 65 in Kentucky to locate the address, accompanied by his dog, whose name is chosen by the player. After searching around, Conway elaborates that he is lost and stops off by a gas station, Equus Oils.

Conway arrives in the Equus Oils station and meets an old man named Joseph, who is the owner of the establishment. Joseph informs Conway that the only way to arrive at Dogwood Drive is by taking the mysterious Route Zero, and then tasks him to fix the circuit breaker to restore power in the station and use the computer to locate directions. Conway goes underneath the station and meets three people who are playing a strange game and ignore him completely. He is able to retrieve their lost 20-sided die but soon notices their disappearance afterwards, clearing a way to fix the electricity.

In the early stages of development the developers were influenced by the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Flannery O'Connor and other Southern Gothic writers, and David Lynch. They also looked at theater scripts for inspiration, which later helped in characterization, dialogue, environment design and treatment of space, lighting and movement. It was developed using the Unity game engine.

The game was originally released for Linux, Windows, and OS X, with console ports for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One published by Annapurna Interactive under the subtitle of "TV Edition", coinciding with the release of the final act.

Kentucky Route Zero has received positive reviews from critics. GameSpot referred to it as being "beautiful and mysterious enough to grip you," and IGN called it "a damn fine example of what makes the medium of video games so special." PC Gamer stated: "[It is a] powerfully evocative and beautiful subversion of point-and-click rote, but occasionally opaque and disorienting." V.

Club noted that "KRZ really is the masterpiece critics have been lauding it as for years" and that "anyone with an interest in storytelling, existential mysteries, and the way art can reflect our poor and hollowed world should play it." The Washington Post called it "one of the most important games of the [2010s]."