Planet Interactive Fiction

As I've said many times, my approach to video games is firmly rooted in the concept of participatory storytelling. I specifically use the word participatory rather than interactive, because I think video games have already reached the stage of interactive storytelling, but are capable of so much more than mere ...

Proposals for Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art) are now being sought. The deadline is 15 December 2008.

Five writers will be commissioned to develop chapters for a networked book about networked art. The chapters will be open for revision, commentary, and translation by online collaborators. Each commissioned writer will receive $3,000 (US).

Networked Committee: Steve Dietz (Northern Lights, MN) :: Martha CC Gabriel (net artist, Brazil) :: Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures, The Netherlands) :: Nick Montfort (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA) :: Anne Bray (LA Freewaves, LA) :: Sean Dockray (Telic Arts Exchange, LA) :: Jo-Anne Green (NRPA, MA) :: Eduardo Navas (newmediaFIX) :: Helen Thorington (NRPA, NY)

Networked Partners: New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) :: newmediaFIX :: LA Freewaves :: Telic Arts Exchange

Check the Networked page at Turbulence.org for all the details.

Forging onward with the next batch of IFComp entries, as I review my initial impressions of each game's opening (introduction, "About" screens, and the first location), 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.

Games covered here include "A Date With Death", "When Machines Attack", and "Berrost's Challenge".


"A Date With Death", by David Whyld

Whyld's game, subtitled "being the further adventures of the king who wished to die but whose subjects just weren't ready to let him go", is the third game in a series that began in 2004 with "Back to Life... Unfortunately" and continued in 2007 with "The Reluctant Resurrectee" (second place, Spring Thing 2007). I never played either one, but Whyld includes a short summary in the "About" screen of their bizarre premise: a king who had been assassinated and brought back to life by his adoring populace then seeks to kill himself in various elaborate ways because he preferred being dead. In the third installment, I'll be trying to avoid being killed instead. Not bad.

The intro is lengthy, but with that background I'm ready for it. The writing is good; a little awkward in places, but in all it is very entertaining with a nice touch of humor, especially with the Grim Reaper. You can tell Whyld's been at this for some time and has many games under his belt. The opening includes some hints -- checking the archives, for instance, and preparing best you can for midnight -- and I see it will keep track of locations visited and the rough time of day. The time limit promises to keep game play focused and brief.

Capture Score: 1. "Can Death be cheated?" I'll give it a try.

"When Machines Attack", by Mark Jones

This one strikes me as a little clumsy. The title is a bit blunt for my tastes, and the intro text is peppered with small typos and minor grammatical errors, as well as a few rough edges ("Pretty nice. It smells clean, and it is nicely spaced out with nice, leather chairs on one side of the room..."). I'm also told that I'm twenty minutes late for my appointment, even though the appointment was at 3:00 and it's now 4:30.

The premise is that I've been selected to work at the "Planetron Defense Laboratories" on a spacecraft project, which is supposedly a prestigious job that I am excited about. But I'm told about things that seem odd or suspicious about this appointment, even though I can't tell what is odd or suspicious. Then, even though I'm usually not late for anything, I show up extremely late for the exciting, prestigious job I've always wanted, and I have no idea why. The initial experience, particularly with the receptionist, purposely comes across as suspect, which does provide some intrigue -- but only a little.

The "About" screens provide little additional information. It was written intentionally for the competition, so anyone finding this game outside of the IFComp is effectively excluded in the help section. Also might want to change the "Contacting the Author" section to say "They benefitted me greatly" rather than "They benefitted greatly"...unless I'm misinterpreting. I hope not.

Capture Score: 3. Might end up having some good puzzles, but I'll likely pass.

"Berrost's Challenge", by Mark Hatfield

Transitioning back once again from futuristic science fiction to magical fantasy, I'm presented with this tale of the player character's journey from floor mopper to "proper" wizard. But is that what this is? The intro describes how the master, Berrost, is planning on kicking out the apprentice player character because he is "too vexing" to invest the time it would take to mold him into a proper wizard. So instead the plan is to kick him out, but after teaching him a few spells. What?

On top of that, instead of teaching him the spells he has devised a challenge: the player must find the spell scrolls hidden in the village. That sounds like a pretty shaky premise for the game, but then who isn't up for a good easter egg hunt once in a while?

This one is also sprinkled liberally with typos and various spelling and grammatical errors, and the writing is awkward in many places. For instance, examining the murals in the opening room, I get: "Berrost spends a lot of flooglemids on ornamental junk that's primary function is to require constant cleaning," which is not exactly inspirational stuff. Also, in the intro: it's servitude, not serviture.

ABOUT produces a long list of commands, many of which are unique to this game. Spell success is apparently impacted by concentration, which is affected by hunger and fatigue; this can be turned off with the interestingly named CURMUDGEON command. Score is kept and ranges from 0 to a possible 100, altough it is framed as "wit." There are also numerical measures for "Manna" (which I assume pertains to spellcasting) and Concentration, as well as inventory bulk and weight.

Capture Score: 3. Could have been a 2 with some more polish, although I still might give it a go for the subject matter.

More to come...

Another IF Comp review, following my format for this comp. There is a cut, then any spoiler-free comments I have, and then spoiler space, and then more detailed feedback that assumes the reader has tried the game. But first, we have some obligatory filler to try to make sure that the RSS summary does not accidentally [...]

After a brief intro yesterday, my filtering of this year's IFComp entries shifts into gear as I continue to walk down my randomly generated list of games. No spoilers here, just some initial impressions of each game's opening, which includes any introduction, "About" screens, and the first location, summarized by the Capture Score. The range is from 1 (intriguing; a definite play) to 4 (dreadful and forgettable).

Bear in mind that my intention is not to judge the the complete piece, only to report my first impressions of the entries to see which ones engage me enough to pull me in for more. I'll play the ones that do to see if the experience matches the anticipation, and afterward if any games that I pass on place high in the competition, I'll go back and see what it was that I missed.

"NerdQuest", by RagtimeNerd

So my random game list generator came up with this one first, and then I find out it's written in MechaniQue, with which I am completely unfamiliar. I have to slip into the Mac Terminal app, navigate to the directory, and run a Java interpreter from the command line. Already I know why it's called NerdQuest.

The title does not inspire me, and the opening appears to be an exercise in brevity. I'm locked in a server room being forced by my manager to fix a hacked system while potentially missing a date with my new girlfriend. The setup is simplistic and uninviting. Still, I'm slightly intrigued by the programming language and how this game might differ from the more traditional IF systems. But only slightly.

This summarizes my brief experience with the opening:


Server room, second floor.
Here is an old disused desk with a terminal on it.
To the north is the storage room. To the south is the
exit door.
==WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?==
>about
Not possible.
Server room, second floor.
==WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?==
>search desk
Not possible.
Server room, second floor.
==WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?==
>examine terminal
Not possible.
Server room, second floor.
==WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?==
>hint
Not possible.
Server room, second floor.
==WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?==
>quit
Not possible.


Capture Score: 3. "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?" the game asks. The answer: play something else. I know that's possible.

"Recess At Last", by Gerald Aungst

"The daily school routine of going out to recess, transformed into an epic quest." I get to play a fourth grader, itching for recess outside during one of the only sunny winter days in as long as I can remember. But it turns out I can't join the others until I finish my missing assignment, and I'm stuck at my desk. There is an origami fortune teller here -- I haven't thought about those things in decades. There's also a closet, but for what purpose I'm unsure. Interesting, I'm intrigued. I have to figure out what this assignment is. Did I already complete it? Did I leave it at home?

The writing is pleasant and appropriate, and the setup is well done. "Almost in unison, twenty-four fourth graders sighed in relief, twenty-four fourth graders put away their math books, and twenty-four fourth graders began to line up." It comes across as light and fun. For some reason, I think of Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes. This is a good thing.

Capture Score: 1. This one deserves some attention.

"Channel Surfing", by Mike Vollmer

This one starts out with some kind of cross between amnesia and jail cell tropes. You start out in a room called "Box" with featureless blank walls and only a chair, a table, and a huge, flat TV displaying plain white light. I don't know where I am or how I got there, or what it is I'm supposed to be doing.

There are, however, some other devices: a remote, a letter, and a post-it note, enough to engage my curiosity for at least a little bit.

The "About" screen provides a little more information, and the letter confirms it; I'm a test subject for an experimental new television, which sounds somewhat intriguing except for the part where it goes on to confirm the amnesia thing. It's just tough to get very excited about the amnesia trope these days. I'm also made aware of multiple-choice dialog sequences to come. Not my favorite, but it's dealer's choice.

Still, aside from a minor typo, the writing appears to be a strong point. So while the setup is hardly inspiring, I'll probably give this one a few minutes and turns to declare itself.

Capture Score: 2. Worth at least a few more turns.

More to come...

Dear Pod people, I’ve been interviewed by Trevor Dodge and Shane Hinton and am on the latest First Wall Rebate, a podcast “focusing on games and the cultures that spawn them.” If this sounds keen, drink it in through the earbuds and let me know what you think, either here or on the First Wall Rebate site.

Nothing to see here, just spoiler / RSS padding. The juicy stuff is below the Read more! link. Which is below. I mean, below this paragraph. You'll have to look down a little. I can't give a precise measurement, I think it would depend on your display's resolution. I should probably get a generic space thing that I could copy and paste. But I... wait, are you still reading this? Are my

Another month has come and gone, which means it's time for a quick Vespers update.

Nope, it's not finished yet.

Was September a good month? In general, I'd say it was pretty good. On the one hand, another student animator has left the project, which means we're down to three. At least I'm assuming he's left the project -- like so many that came before him, he's just no longer responding to e-mails. It's not too troublesome since he never really got off the blocks with this project, but still...is it just animators, or are other people like this as well? In the face of overcommitment or disinterest, is it everybody's instinct to lie low and hope nobody notices? Or just animators?

On the other hand, the remaining three animators are progressing nicely, and one in particular, Shawn, has agreed to devote a good deal of time and effort over the next few months to get these animations done. That would really be fantastic. The slowest, most tedious part is getting the models rigged, setting up the faces for lip sync, and making sure the models and animations export properly and appear in the game engine the way they're supposed to appear. Once that's done, then the animations can be cranked out. We've just about reached that point with a couple of the characters, so I'm hopeful that we'll have a batch of new animations soon.

Guys, if you're reading this: don't do the vanishing act thing!

On the modeling front, N.R. and I have spent the past month mostly on two fronts: decorations and the calefactory. The decorations at this point have been mostly cobwebs, which look great. Animating them has been a challenge, however -- it's really difficult to replicate the typical motion of cobwebs blowing in a breeze. We'll use them sparingly to save on frame rates, but they should provide an extra little bit of atmosphere. Now all we need is a smattering of dead leaves around the place, and we should be set with the decorations.

Then there's the calefactory.

It's quite interesting how little information is readily available to describe precisely what a calefactory is and what typically went on inside one. I think that's part of the reason Jason left the calefactory description in the text game so limited -- in fact, other than the heat in the room, there isn't much description of it at all:

>look

Calefactory
Positioned directly between the dormitory and your own room, the calefactory warms both, although lately it is less than adequate. While the calefactory itself is stiflingly hot, its heat stays confined. Your brow grows damp: your body, feverish. Slightly melted snow creeps in from the cloister to the northwest.

Nothing on the shape of the room, its contents, if it has any windows, even the source of the strong heat in the room. Is it a fireplace? A stove? Any chairs or tables? Jason is essentially giving us freedom to improvise, but it's a little tricky -- on the one hand, we need to figure out what a calefactory normally would look like and what would appear inside, while on the other we don't want to start adding a whole set of objects that the player would want or expect to be able to interact with and which might mess with the established game structure and mechanics.

It brings up one of those interesting differences between textual and graphical interfaces: with text, authors have the freedom to paint with broad strokes and allow the reader to fill in many of the details, while with graphics, designers are forced to provide those details. With respect to setting, this can work well both ways. In the text version of Vespers, for instance, Jason provides little detail in the descriptions of locations such as the calefactory and the kitchen, but it doesn't diminish their impact on the player's mental model of the game setting; despite not knowing what was actually in those rooms, they still felt real and not at all empty -- and Jason didn't have to worry about implementing all of the different items that would probably be there. But there's also something magical about recreating a setting visually down to the last detail and providing the audience the opportunity to experience that setting in ways they couldn't otherwise. To me, that is one of the pleasures of watching historical (fiction or non-fiction) movies.

Of course, that also means we have to go and figure all of this stuff out, and to try and retain some semblance of historical accuracy. I've done some rudimentary research on calefactories, but as I said it's surprising how little information is readily accessible. About all I know for certain is that there should be a fire source and probably some places to sit.

This is about as far as we've gotten so far. Look, a firepit!



Until next month...

Another IF Comp review, following my format for this comp. There is a cut, then any spoiler-free comments I have, and then spoiler space, and then more detailed feedback that assumes the reader has tried the game. But first, we have some obligatory filler to try to make sure that the RSS summary does not accidentally [...]

With October comes once again the start of the annual IFComp, this being the 14th competition. It's hardly breaking news at this point, of course, what with the bevy of blogs and websites reporting it to the world and already posting early game reviews. We're not even a week into October and I feel like I need to catch up.

Comp time is a sweet time, though, because once it arrives we get a huge bolus of new IF games to play, and who knows what we might discover in the collection. The IFComp is where we got Vespers, and some really fantastic games have won over the years. But unless you keep up with it you can miss some really entertaining games that don't necessarily finish that high. Aaron Reed's "Gourmet" finished 5th in 2003, and Andrew Plotkin's "Delightful Wallpaper" finished 6th in 2006; both were games that I thoroughly enjoyed but might never have gotten around to playing had I missed the Comp and returned after the fact.

But there's also a lot of chaff to sift through, which can be tedious at times. There have been some real winners in the past, and this year's "The Absolute Worst IF Game in History" by Dean Menezes sounds like it's positioning itself well for 2008.

One of the problems people (like me) seem to have with the IFComp is that there are usually too many games to play and evaluate before the end of the competition, and far too many that just aren't worth the time and effort. So it got me to thinking: what about just rating the games for their introductions, for their ability to draw me in and make me want to play further? That's what books are supposed to do, and the same is often said for IF. So over the next few days or weeks I'll try to make it through all of this year's games with the purpose of evaluating how well each one "captures" me with just the opening passage. And nobody has to worry about spoilers, either.

To do so, I'll provide my "capture score" for each game, on a scale from 1 (great opening, definitely worth playing) to 4 (forget it, don't even bother). If there's still time, I'll try to go back and play through any games that score 1 to see how well they follow through.

Just to start things off, I'll throw a couple out there. These are the first two games I opened up at random.


"Piracy 2.0 - A Text Adventure in Space", by Sean Huxter.

The title "Piracy 2.0" is a bit unusual, and I don't recall ever playing Piracy 1.0 or anything else by Huxter in the past. This game opens with a space military theme, complete with captured space pirate prisoner, hints of an inside job, and an ambush:

"After the brief battle your ship was boarded, and, as far as you know, your crew completely wiped out by the ruthless marauders. They might have murdered you too if they hadn't thought you would be useful to them."

Sure, not the strongest writing, and not the most original idea, but it seems harmless enough. Still, the intro ends with this awkward passage:

"Now, Whitehall, with a key code for the Brig he must have tortured out of your Security Officer, escorts you personally to the cell and shoves you in. He laughs as the door locks behind you..."

I wasn't terribly hopeful for this one, but due to the title I did quickly check out the ABOUT screens, and in fact Huxter's "About the Author" pages are gems. I'm not exactly sure why, but I really enjoyed reading them, and I'm more inspired now to give the game a try. And what can I say, I'm a sucker for space pirate games.

Capture Score: 2. Would have been a 3 without the "About the Author" screens.

"The Lighthouse", by Eric Hickman & Nathan Chung.

The opening of this game contains this passage: "You walk up to the lighthouse. It's large wooden frame creaking in the wind. You then step in front of the door and knock. Silence. Then the door opens and reveals the face of Mr Webster."

Not to mention this gem: "With that comment he mounted his trusty steed and rode off into the rainy abyss."

It took two people to come up with that. Typing ABOUT returned "That's not a verb I recognise." 'Nuff said.

Capture Score: 4. Mount your trusty steed and head the other way.

Another IF Comp review, following my format for this comp. There is a cut, then any spoiler-free comments I have, and then spoiler space, and then more detailed feedback that assumes the reader has tried the game. But first, we have some obligatory filler to try to make sure that the RSS summary does not accidentally [...]

This is a spoilery post about Project Delta by Emilian Kowalewski. Please do not read on unless you have played the game! (And in fact I have to add some meaningless words here so that the real review doesn't show up on feeds; although frankly it's not the words that are meaningless, and indeed, not even the sentences; I'm reading Carnap at the moment, and he is way too quick in saying that a

My play of IF games in the comp tends to be kind of bursty, and I always liked the Floods of Reviews. However, it's more typical at present to blog them in these modern, decadent times, and so I'll be joining in the fun.

In an effort to keep spam on Planet-IF minimal, I'll be making rare posts for many games. To keep spoilers minimal, unrelated reviews will all be separate posts.

In our first update, I review Recess at Last, wHen mAchines aTtack, Channel Surfing, Cry Wolf, The Hall of the Fount of Artois, Search for the Ultimate Weapon, The Missing Piece, The Lighthouse, Project Delta, The Absolute Worst Game in IF History, and Freedom. Those last few reviews are related and so are reviewed on the same page; beware of spoilers if you only want reviews of some of them.

Generally speaking, my reviews do not include scores; this is because my scale is about 75% "curved to the comp"; a score of 8, for instance, means more in a good year than in a bad one.

Those of you using the Blorple interactive fiction browser can get an importable iFiction file for the IFComp 2008 games from the support files directory. Put the iFiction file in your Comp08 directory (so that zcode, glulx, etc. are immediate subdirectories) and then import it using the "Import iFiction" option in Blorple.

It covers all entries except for the Windows and Java executables.

This is a spoilery post about Channel Surfing by Mike Vollmer. Please do not read on unless you have played the game! (And in fact I have to add some meaningless words here so that the real review doesn't show up on feeds; although frankly it's not the words that are meaningless, and indeed, not even the sentences; I'm reading Carnap at the moment, and he is way too quick in saying that a

This is a spoilery post about Recess at Last by Gerald Aungst. Please do not read on unless you have played the game! (And in fact I have to add some meaningless words here so that the real review doesn't show up on feeds; although frankly it's not the words that are meaningless, and indeed, not even the sentences; I'm reading Carnap at the moment, and he is way too quick in saying that a

This is a spoilery post about Nerd Quest by RagtimeNerd. Please do not read on unless you have played the game! (And in fact I have to add some meaningless words here so that the real review doesn't show up on feeds; although frankly it's not the words that are meaningless, and indeed, not even the sentences; I'm reading Carnap at the moment, and he is way too quick in saying that a sentence is

The annual IF competition is now on! I’m reviewing the games here as I go along, and a number of other people are also doing blog write-ups. Here are the ones I know of: Peter Nepstad Victor Gijsbers Aric Gemma Bristow J. Robinson Wheeler “Newlin” Michael Martin Skeet ralphmerridew “Another Mr Lizard” Joshua H Wesley Osam Nick Bronson Mike Rubin Nitku Sarah Morayati (Lucea) Stephen Bond http://mybloglovesme.tumblr.com/ http://minimumsafedistance.org/ (warning: reviews don’t seem to [...]

Nick Montfort is interviewed on a podcast by First Wall Rebate. The author of “There’s a Snake in the Bathtub” offers a (spoilery) rationale for his creation. Another reaction to “The Baron”.       

Another IF Comp review, following my format for this comp. There is a cut, then any spoiler-free comments I have, and then spoiler space, and then more detailed feedback that assumes the reader has tried the game. But first, we have some obligatory filler to try to make sure that the RSS summary does not accidentally [...]

In this filler space I intend to show how space can be filled by typing a sufficient length of characters that will not spoil any part of the game I will be reviewing later. This will be done by filling writing in the style of an school essay, typing even more after that, and finally by obfuscating the rest of the post after the Read more! link below. In conclusion, I have wasted space by

Another IF Comp review, following my format for this comp. There is a cut, then any spoiler-free comments I have, and then spoiler space, and then more detailed feedback that assumes the reader has tried the game. But first, we have some obligatory filler to try to make sure that the RSS summary does not accidentally [...]

No spoiler-space for this one: I simply cannot rate it. I attempted to play with Spatterlight and Zoom on Mac OSX, but there were simply too many bugs that were probably interpreter related. I cannot attempt with my linux box as it is broken, and I do not have a Windows box. If anyone can offer advice for running this before the competition is over, please let me know so that I may review it.

There is a review below which will contain spoilers. The review will only be visible after you click the "Read more!" link. This sentence, however, is visible now. And it will keep going on until it has reached approximately 393 characters. So I'm going to type a little more. And a little more. And this should just about cover it. Why have you read all this anyway? It would have been

Let us talk about the games in the 2008 Interactive Fiction Competition. Instead of proclaiming judgement over the games and giving them a mark for all to see, I am planning to write reactions in the form of constructive criticism and advice to the authors. Hopefully, that will be more useful. (Specific bugs will be emailed directly to the author.) All these posts will contain spoilers -

Another IF Comp review, following my format for this comp. There is a cut, then any spoiler-free comments I have, and then spoiler space, and then more detailed feedback that assumes the reader has tried the game. But first, we have some obligatory filler to try to make sure that the RSS summary does not accidentally [...]

For those in or near Cambridge, MA:

STEVE MERETZKY
Monday (Oct 6) at 6pm
MIT’s Stata Center, 32-141

Award-studded “game god”* Steve Meretzky will speak on Monday (Oct 6) at 6pm in MIT’s Stata Center, 32-141.

Steve Meretzky’s first job in computer gaming was at the Cambridge company Infocom, which was the leading interactive fiction developer. Meretzky became the company’s most prolific author, writing Planetfall, A Mind Forever Voyaging, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos and co-authoring The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas Adams.

Meretzky has since worked at Legend Entertainment, Boffo Games (which he co-founded), and WorldWinner. He is currently at Blue Fang Games.

Meretzky won the 2008 Game Design Challenge at GDC and recently starred in the MC Frontalot video “It Is Pitch Dark.”

Meretzky will speak, have a public conversation with Purple Blurb host Nick Montfort, and then take questions from the audience. The event is free and open to the public. To learn more about the Purple Blurb series of which this talk is a part, see: http://nickm.com/if/purple_blurb

* According to the magazine PC Gamer.

So I got all the IFComp 2008 games, unzipped them, and tried to play them. Then I found out I didn't have any decent interpreters for the games and couldn't find Ubuntu 64-bit binaries for them on the net. So I decided to start making packages.

Glulxe (using the glktermw backend) is now packaged and available in a Launchpad Personal Package Archive that I just set up. You can get it by adding the following software source to your Ubuntu machine:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-if/ubuntu hardy main

And installing the 'glulxe-term' package.

edit: Thanks to Peer Schaefer for the original packages, on which my packages are based. Sorry I forgot to mention in the initial post!

I hope to offer 'glulxe-gtk' package soon; ideally, I'll replace both of them with a 'glulxe' package that can dynamically use any Glk backend by making use of GlkLoader, but that'll probably require some real coding.

I'm also working on packages for Gnome Inform 7, but unfortunately they contain proprietary code so I can't publish them on the PPA. I'm hoping to be able to split that package so that I can create a 'gnome-inform7' package separate from an 'inform7' package, but that's iffy because it would make installing from .debs without a repository significantly more annoying - right now you just click the .deb link on the Inform 7 web site and then click "Install package".

Anyway, look out for more Ubuntu/IF work soon.

Moon Stories, The Trials and The Storyteller are three delightful miniature games (perhaps the last is a toy) by Daniel Benmergui. It takes a few seconds to start playing them, and they take a few minutes to master - or, you can check the walkthroughs. Whatever the case, check out the games, in which simplicity and uncanniness of presentation and play are combined in particularly pleasing ways.