Category Archives: interactive fiction

iPad Games They’d Love To See

By Rubes | Published: March 26, 2010

Spotted on CrunchGear.com:

From the web site:

“Planetfall – One of the original Infocom classics. Listen: the iPad has a usable keyboard and can support external keyboards. Why not slap together an Infocom pack for $2 and sell some imagination to these whippersnappers. Who’s with me?”

Not bad, at least it’s good to see some people interested in seeing classic IF on the new device. Of course, it would have made sense to mention the fact that IF already exists on the iPhone platform (see iPhone Frotz) with an inexhaustable supply of excellent pieces, but I’m okay with that.

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Posted in interactive fiction | 5 Responses

Long Flights Are Good For Something

By Rubes | Published: March 22, 2010

One thing long flights are good for is addressing old issues that you’ve always meant to fix but never really got around to. So when I found myself on a three-and-a-half hour flight yesterday, I decided it was time to tackle an old parser syntax issue that has been nagging at me for some time.

My goal with the parser has always been to make it as robust as possible, even if much of the functionality isn’t necessarily used in Vespers — I’d hate to have to add functionality after the fact, like for a future game. So the idea was to develop the parser to provide at least the typical performance one might expect from a TADS or Inform game. Most of the early [More...] Read the rest

Also posted in text in games, Vespers | 1 Response

Musings

By Rubes | Published: February 17, 2010

Question: Can high drama be produced from a wide-open simulation?

Creating a game that tells a story is one thing. Creating a game that tells a dramatic, moving story is quite another.

Can you really get a dramatic, moving experience from a game that is not tightly scripted or linear? Can high drama truly emerge from an open, unbounded simulation-style game?

Everyday life is a wide-open sandbox. Clearly, there is high drama in real life. But, as mentioned a while back on rec.arts.int-fiction, “Most people’s lives are not filled with high drama all the time. Some events will be dramatic, but creating a dramatic story from those requires editing out all the mundane parts.” (greg)

That editing, in game terms, is what I imagine [More...] Read the rest

Also posted in game design, story in games | 3 Responses

Shamus Does IF

By Rubes | Published: January 18, 2010

If you’re into RPGs (the tabletop or computer variety), or video games in general, you’re probably already familiar with Shamus Young and his blog, Twenty Sided. You’re probably also familiar with his excellent webcomic series, DM of the Rings. You certainly should be.

But, if you’re more of an interactive fiction person than an RPG or FPS person, maybe not.

Shamus does a great job with his blog, and I really enjoy his writing. There are only a handful of blogs I enjoy following because of the writing, and his is one of them. Whether it’s a skillful disemboweling of a popular AAA title, a recounting of his role-playing experiences, or his tireless raging against the evils of DRM, it’s always an enjoyable [More...] Read the rest

Posted in interactive fiction | 3 Responses

“Get Lamp” Discount Deadline Approaches

By Rubes | Published: December 29, 2009

A gentle reminder for those interested enough in text adventures to be eagerly awaiting the arrival of Jason Scott’s sure-to-be-singular documentary on the matter, GET LAMP: the pre-order discount ends on January 1st.

According to Scott, the documentary will be priced at $40 for a 2-DVD set that will reportedly include additonal “wrap-ins” in the package, although no word yet as to what those are. It’s set to be released in March 2010, around the same time as the PAX East convention, where the movie will be premiered alongside (hopefully) a host of other interactive fiction-related panels and presentations, which is pretty neat.

But if you know you’re going to buy the documentary, you can pre-order it now for 25% off, or [More...] Read the rest

Also posted in adventure games, text in games | Leave a comment