Tag: interactive fiction

Worked on Dreamhold tonight.

The game was made specifically to be a beginner/tutorial IF, and it has “narration” of sorts, coaching how you how to play this IF, and IF in general.

I like the idea of it, and I think I’m doing alright, but mapping it has been a pain in the butt! I don’t have very many IF under my belt but mapping this “beginner” IF sure does require some not-so-beginner cartography skills.

No, its not part of IFcomp, but I saw it and just had to play it. And what I have done so far I have enjoyed… The mapping has been more frustrating than anything else… And perhaps with some of these games that proclaim themselves to be beginner IF’s, it may not be necessary to map everything. Since I’ve already started mapping it and taking notes on it, I’d like to continue that… If only for the sake of completeness (I did that for Lost Pig and Body Bargain… although I didn’t do that for 9:05).

Anyway, it’s really late and I should probably get some sleep as I do work a double tomorrow… ciao!

Just finished Body Bargain. And, my stomach is a little upset. I get the feeling that there are multiple endings to this game. And, while I could play through this game again to explore and find out what those other endings might be, I’d rather play another entry in IFComp 2012.

Upon reading the walkthrough, there are indeed other outcomes than the one I experienced. And actually, before I move on to another one, I may go back and do the other playthroughs. An alarming level of interactivity in 388k 😉

Worked, ate lunch with good buddy lazer. Came home, took a nap, ate dinner, studied for a bit, watched tv with the rents… And now I’d like to have some one on one with Body Bargain…

Started playing Body Bargain. Its a horror game, and its also competing in this years Interactive Fiction Competition. Feel free to Google the flip out of it, just be wary of spoilers! Wish me luck!

I managed to finish Lost Pig tonight. I did it with the help of a walkthrough, and I don’t think I would have been able to finish it otherwise, as I am still developing my IF skillz.

No pigs were harmed in the making of this game, no need to worry 🙂

I took a LOT of notes when I was playing this game. Not just notes about this game in particular, but about the game of interactive fiction as well. Like… read everything, and pay attention to everything. Don’t disregard descriptions of things as fluff. Although there is a lot of that.. and I suppose that’s the challenge of IF, knowing what’s important and what isn’t. I think that carrots that are dangled so to speak, things that are obfuscated or hidden… are worth investigating. Writing things down definitely helps. This game also used some commands that I didn’t know existed, like WAIT, for example. IF has a language, and I suppose some games have a greater language than others. 9:05 had significantly less vocabulary than Lost Pig.

Here is a great beginners guide to IF from Adame Cadre. It gets into vocabulary and such, verbs that may be useful on your journeys. Adam Cadre has created many gems in the world of IF, including the aforementioned 9:05. I’m sure there are others out there, but I feel like his site, the way he presents his games, makes IF very accessible to a variety of tastes. Definitely recommend his site. Oh, he also did Photopia as well, the first IF I played.

Well I better get some sleep, I have my second day observing tomorrow, and I’m definitely looking forward to it. And again, work at night. Planning on getting together with Michael after that so we can geek out on all this stuff. Happy reading!

Found another potentially useful IF resource: Planet IF

Get it!

Made my first map! This is a really cute game so far. But don’t take my word for it…

1st Place overall; 1st Place, Miss Congeniality Awards – 13th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2007)

Winner, Best Game; Winner, Best Writing; Nominee, Best Setting; Nominee, Best Puzzles; Nominee, Best NPCs; Winner, Best Individual NPC; Winner, Best Individual PC; Nominee, Best Use of Medium – 2007 XYZZY Awards

2nd Place – Interactive Fiction Top 50 of all time (2011 edition)

(above taken from IFDB)

Just set up my profile on IFDB.

So I played Zork for a little bit…  and stopped.  I managed to get underneath a house and kill a troll and pick up some stuff and get hella lost.  Maps are very helpful for text adventures, by the way. I get how to move around and pick stuff up, but I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do.  Perhaps I just need to keep playing it and the plot (?) will present itself.  Another reason why I might have gotten frustrated by it is because I was playing it on my iPhone in Frotz.  Typing on the iPhone can be rather tedious.  I haven’t made it that far in the game, and one thing that I’ve realized is that playing through the same text adventure again goes really fast, so perhaps I can start again on my laptop or something.

In the mean time, I’m listening to “Themes for an Imaginary Film.”  Its pretty great and you should definitely check it out.  Don’t expect four to the floor dance intensity, as its more feaux italo driving soundscapy ambient kind of stuff.  RA says it better.  If you like it you can purchase the album for the low low (low) price of $8.

Lit the fire tonight, so that was fun.  No that’s not a pun, I actually have a fireplace.

Also, I watched a great documentary about the history of house music, called “Pump Up the Volume”.  If you’re a clubhead or want to learn more about that repetitive music you hear at the club, or if you question whether dance music existed before dubstep, watch this film, its pretty great.

Frotz is a free interactive fiction app for the iPhone.  I just played through Photopia on it just to test it out, and it works quite well.  If you happen to get the free app, go to Settings > Getting Started.  Getting started has “New to Interactive Fiction?” and “No, Really, Where Do I Start?” sections that are very readable and highly informative.  It’s a great solution for people wishing to enjoy IF on the go, and for those wanting to get their feet wet in IF.

Frotz