Interactive Fiction

Does anyone here play or create interactive fiction games? Either the old school Zork/Hitchhiker's Guide parser based games, or the newer choice-based games written in Twine/Inklewriter/etc?

I was an avid hobbyist in my youth, even going so far as to create my own text parser in QBASIC before discovering that people had created engines that do most of the heavy lifting for you. I've been getting back into it lately.

...does "aware" count?
For long enough explored narratives and coded in php... if/else statements etc. A little bit time consuming to say the least.

I've 'written' a couple of interactives scoped out the arc etc, for something I have on the horizon that I'll be starting on shortly. As yet have not sat down and mastered Twine. I know there are plenty on iTunes based apps that will help too.

Counts well enough.

I'm currently working on an entry for IntroComp. You provide the start of a game that you intend to finish, and the judges vote on which ones they most want to see completed.

Got until the end of the month to finish my intro. It's been fun to work on.

I've heard of Introcomp. Good luck with it!

I'm in the process of writing a massive cyberpunk one using StoryNexus (so choice based, not parser). It's currently in beta; if anyone's interested in a private invitation to play it, please just let me know.

I used to spend faaar too much time playing Fallen London. StoryNexus is an interesting system.

In my own news, I had trouble uploading my IntroComp entry, but it should all be sorted now. Voting begins the first of August. I'm excited.

Voting is open. If you like interactive fiction, take a look, and vote for the games you would like to see completed.

Is anyone still writing / reading any interactive fiction (including CYOA)?

Love to hear what you're working on now and whether any of these mentions are published now.

Charles Parkes said:

Is anyone still writing / reading any interactive fiction (including CYOA)?

Love to hear what you're working on now and whether any of these mentions are published now.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm still working on my epic project. I'm not ready to publish a link yet, but I can send one via PM if anyone wants to test it.

cyberpunkdreams said:

Yes, I'm still working on my epic project. I'm not ready to publish a link yet, but I can send one via PM if anyone wants to test it.

Click to expand...

I'd certainly like to take a look.

I have a sweet spot for cyber punk IF : )

For the record, @cyberpunkdreams is working on an awesome piece of interactive fiction. Very much looking forward to its release some time in the future.

You can run gangs, smuggle goods, police the streets, seek answers to the reasons behind your mutations, splice your brain with hacking equipment, and blow yourself up on landmines.

And I've only just started alpha testing it.

Thanks! Not to mention dealing drugs, fighting street wars, drinking in dive bars, dealing in human organs...

This forum seems great for reading recommendations, so I'd love to ask what people recommend!

I loved:

- Metahuman Inc, [choicescript]
- Choice of the Vampire, [choicescript] - good example of too much choice killing any long progression of the narrative)
- Hollywood Visionary [choicescript]
- Choice of the Dragon [choicescript] - silly and fun

I enjoyed:

- Fallen London [storynexus] - bit too addictive and grafty in the end for me
- The Flower Shop [ren'py] - simple, but classic

Quirky but personal favourites

- Slammed [choicescript] - great example of an author taking a really niche field and making it interesting to people outside that field. In this case wrestling.
- Lords of Aswick [choicescript] - I think that while the narrative needs polish, the barony mechanic shows the potential for a narrative focused medium to use loops.)

I appreciate my choices are geared towards Choice of Games related CYOA and am trying to broaden my horizons!

Michael Coorlim said:

Does anyone here play or create interactive fiction games? Either the old school Zork/Hitchhiker's Guide parser based games, or the newer choice-based games written in Twine/Inklewriter/etc?

I was an avid hobbyist in my youth, even going so far as to create my own text parser in QBASIC before discovering that people had created engines that do most of the heavy lifting for you. I've been getting back into it lately.

Click to expand...

I absolutely love them. In fact, one of the things that got my wife and I together was a love for Infocom's classic, Trinity (Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" is 'one of our songs.')

My daughter is 30 years younger than I am (I am 43) so we have been touring the 80s year by year to share childhoods. One of the activities we do as a family (mom included) is play text adventures. We've found the Scott Adams games more conducive to that style of play.

The other day, on a long drive to L.A., my daughter created a text adventure on paper, a simple cave adventure, and ran me through it. 30 minutes to make. An hour to play. Lots of fun!