Category Archives: interactive fiction

blueful

By Rubes | Published: January 27, 2009

Aaron Reed has written some pretty fine IF. Gourmet was one of my favorites from the 2003 IF Comp, just a lot of fun to play. It even has its own theme song (judge for yourself). And of course there’s Whom The Telling Changed, which received much well-deserved recognition and was a finalist in 2006 at the now-defunct Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition. I also see that Aaron was interviewed back then for Get Lamp, Jason Scott’s (hopefully) upcoming documentary on text adventures.

He also lives about ten minutes away from my house. We met a couple of times at the quarterly Utah Indie Gamers Night, and he’s a pretty fascinating guy.

Aaron is about to launch his epic new work of [More...] Read the rest

Also posted in games as art, indie games | 2 Responses

Write from the Start

By Rubes | Published: January 18, 2009

So pretty much one of the most challenging parts of making games for the small indie or hobbyist developer is getting the extra help you need. The developer who can do it all on his or her own — programming, artwork, writing, modeling, animation, web design, yada yada — is a rare breed with far too much talent and disposable time. When I made Missions of the Reliant way back when, in (gulp) 1994, I could handle most of it myself because things were just…simpler. I didn’t have to worry about modeling or animation, and web design meant little more than plain text and a few animated GIFs (mostly I just focused on BBS’s and AOL — and, sadly enough, eWorld). Life, as they [More...] Read the rest

Also posted in 3D/if, game design, story in games | 6 Responses

Text Adventuring, MMO-Style

By Rubes | Published: January 15, 2009

Coyote and Scorpia beat me to it, but apparently a group is interested in bringing the Zork universe into the MMO realm, as reported on Ars Technica. It’s to be called Legends of Zork and published by Jolt Online Gaming, a group headquartered in Dublin. There isn’t a whole lot of information available yet, though.

From the press release:

“LegendsofZork.com will provide online gamers with a persistent online adventure, playable from any Internet browser. Players take up the role of a recently laid-off salesman and part-time loot-gatherer, as he explores the Great Underground Empire. Designed to provide gamers with a casual MMO game they can play on their laptop, desktop or Apple iPhone (in school, work or on the bus), there’s nothing to download,

[More...] Read the rest
Also posted in adventure games | 3 Responses

IFComp08: The Results Are In

By Rubes | Published: November 16, 2008

The voting ended yesterday, and the results have been tallied. The winner of this year’s IFComp is Violet, by Jeremy Freese – an excellent piece which I thought was well-constructed, well-written, and entertaining. The top ten finishers in the Comp are as follows:

  1. Violet

  2. Nightfall

  3. Everybody Dies

  4. Afflicted

  5. Piracy 2.0

  6. Snack Time!

  7. Opening Night

  8. April in Paris

  9. A Date With Death

  10. Berrost’s Challenge

Overall, I thought the competition had some good entries — some really creative ones like Violet and Buried in Shoes, and some traditional ones with good puzzles and engaging writing like Nightfall, Piracy 2.0, and April in Paris. I also enjoyed some of the more lighthearted entries such as Recess At Last and Snack Time! I think there [More...] Read the rest

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IFComp: Final Capture

By Rubes | Published: November 13, 2008

With the IFComp voting period about to end, I’ll now finish up with the last batch of entries. Here once again I present my initial impressions of each game’s opening (introduction, “About” screens, and the first location or moves), summarized by the Capture Score from 1 (intriguing; a definite play) to 4 (dreadful and forgettable). Just a reminder, no spoilers here, just early impressions.

The final games covered here include “Buried in Shoes”, “A Martian Odyssey”, and “Freedom”.

“Buried in Shoes”, by Kazuki Mishima

As far as I know, Mishima has written only one IF game prior to this Comp, the short but poetic “Somewhere.” I don’t know quite how successful it was as an “interactive poem”, particularly given how short [More...] Read the rest

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