Posted by Shapermc
Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:07:00 GMT
The Interactive Fiction Little Falls claims to be an experience rather than just a story. Released earlier this year by Mondi Confinanti in English (originally published in Italian), Little Falls has the widest range of multimedia I’ve ever seen used in an IF. Images and sound add to the story in a way that makes them inseparable from the experience (even though you can play the IF without them).
The main character (aside from being You) is a police officer from the small Minnesota town of Little Falls. The IF starts in the police officer’s past, the root for a myriad of his problems which the game attempts to deal with. In this town a maniac stalks young women, and You are investigating him. A compelling hook in the beginning keeps the story going for a while, even through some frustrating puzzles (as a bit of a non-spoiler tip: the title of this game contains a very helpful verb).
As successful an experience Little Falls is, it still fails on fundamental level of storytelling. I’ll give the game a little credit for being translated from a foreign language—I’m sure some subtleties are lost in translation—but the writing is so heavy handed that there’s no real sense of mystery or fear. The added visuals and audio nearly compensate for this though, allowing the story to unfold in a pleasing manner.
For someone who’s looking to develop a more story based game Little Falls will offer some excellent inspirational fodder, and may give you a new avenue to look into for game development.
Posted in Interactive Fiction | 8 comments
Posted by BMcC
Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:11:00 GMT
Just a friendly reminder that the 13th Annual IF Competition is underway. As a recent convert to IF myself, I gotta say, I’m excited!
Now, if only I had enough time to play through all the games and vote before the November 15th deadline… Oh well—hopefully you loyal readers will pick up my slack!
Download all the games here.
View the complete list of entries (with individual downloads) here.
EDIT: Don’t know where to start?
IF author Emily Short is currently reviewing each entry on her blog. (Thanks Terry!)
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Competitions | Tags IFComp | 18 comments
Posted by Xander
Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:05:00 GMT
It would come first, but I apparently slept through a tornado this morning…
Textfyre Inc are a recently formed company (so recently that their website is close to the size of a novel’s blurb at the moment) with a relatively ambitious goal. Comparable I’d argue to deflecting a cataclysmic meteor with your face. To quote the company themselves on this;
“Over the last year we’ve been diligently working to build a new publishing company, to create new interactive fiction works, and to bring those works to the public. As of June 2007, we’re getting closer and closer to an official launch date. We still have a lot of work ahead of us and as we pass each milestone in our development processes, we’ll report back to you here about it.”
So, their mission statement is simple; Revive the interactive fiction genre. It’s an interesting goal, because it isn’t really like the genre is dead (Although it does depend on your distinction between Text Adventure and Interactive Fiction, so the following may sit less well with some than others). We did just have Pacian’s fantastic Poizoned Mind for the B-Game competition, and of course the IF Comp which always draws a strong creative response (Deadline for uploading is on the 29th don’t forget! I want to play!). However, the genre has been isolated from the commercial market for longer than I’ve been alive, with just boxed copies of ‘Zork’ and ‘Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy’ for me to know that era by.
It definitely seems a challenge to try and sell these kinds of games again when such accomplished efforts as Slouching Towards Bedlam exist not only as incredible freeware IF, but also despite this greatly unknown and underappreciated. As much as I would love to see Adam Cadre works as successful financially as they are in my pants, I also know that it’s a long shot. A very long shot. From a bouncy castle. Covered in landmines.
(Source: Kotaku)
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Community, Freeware | 17 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:19:00 GMT
Lovecraft’s “Commonplace Book” was a notebook in which he jotted down his various ideas, many of them disjointed and cryptic; most of these musings never became real stories. The Commonplace Book Project is a collection of text adventures (interactive fiction games) which are based on these notes. Great idea!
I’ve only tried out one so far: Ecdysis. It’s based on the note “insects or other entities from space attack and penetrate a man’s head.” Good one, right? Well, without spoiling anything, this game is a great mindfuck and does a more-than-competent job of capturing what’s great about Lovecraft’s stories: the feeling of overwhelming dread. It comes as a playable executable and is good for newcomers to IF.
I always thought it was funny that Bethesda made (correction: produced) an FPS out of H.P. Lovecraft. What’s next? Vin Diesel as Cthulhu, riding a motorcycle out of R’lyeh as it explodes behind him? Directed by Michael Bay? Okay, that actually does sound appealing in its own way.
(Source: The Random Gnome’s Lair)
Posted in Macintosh, Interactive Fiction, Highly Recommended, Windows | 17 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:46:00 GMT
Masq is a visual novel game that puts you at the head of a fashion design company that needs money to advertise its new line of clothing. A line of clothing that apparently combines the chic of being a clown with the elegance of practically being nude!
I have very little experience with visual novels, but I have plenty of experience with Choose Your Own Adventure books (I once famously tried to do a book report on one in the third grade). Masq is very much like a baudy, hardboiled CYOA book, and as such, it suffers from the same problems. Namely, that the consequences of your actions feel very arbitrary and also, in order to see all the possible outcomes you have to go through the same scenes and choices over and over again.
The game actually is quite fun, though, and it’s easy to get caught up in the story and characters. It’s also very fast-paced, often moving forward if you take too long to respond – this definitely alleviates some of the repetitiveness. It’s just not the kind of emotional thrillride that it is touted as on its webpage.
Update: According to the author, the game must be played online, which is a fallout from when it would track your “lives” and charge for more. Now, however, the game is completely free to play.
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Windows, Freeware | Tags AlterAction | 9 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 02:56:00 GMT
Speaking of Interactive Fiction, Gamasutra has an interview with Emily Short, who wrote Floatpoint, a two-time winner at last year’s XYZZY Awards, and Savoire-Faire, which has won four awards, including Best Game of 2002.
The interview itself is excellent, mostly due to the thoroughness with which Emily answers questions about her design process. Not surprisingly, she’s quite adept at explaining how she sets out to create good pacing, rewarding challenges, and interesting narratives. Even though she works with IF, her methodology could easily be applied to other types of games with great success, I think.
I personally haven’t had much experience with IF other than a brief stint with Colossal Cave Adventure as a kid, followed shortly thereafter by some prepubescent amusement with the hilariously-titled and really poorly-made Madame Fifi’s Whorehouse. But after reading this interview I think I’m going to give Savoire-Faire a spin.
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Developers, Interviews | 5 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 02:41:00 GMT
[Originally written by Shih Tzu for Independent Gaming; reposted with his permission. -Derek]
This actually happened a month ago, but the winners of the 2006 XYZZY Awards for interactive fiction have been announced! Top honors went to Eric Eve’s science fiction story The Elysium Enigma, while Andrew Plotkin’s Edward Gorey homage Delightful Wallpaper and Emily Short’s Floatpoint were among winners in several other categories.
The Elysium Enigma casts you as an Imperial officer charged with contacting a mysteriously technophobic settlement on a remote planet. I’ve only had a chance to play the first five minutes of it, but the premise seems intriguing so far.
For elegant multi-platform interpreters that should be able to run most or all of the nominated titles, I recommend Gargoyle for Windows or Spatterlight for Macintosh systems.
(XYZZY Awards 2006 summarized at Baf’s Guide and ifwiki.org)
Posted in Macintosh, Interactive Fiction, Windows, Competitions | 7 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:28:00 GMT
You are a TIGSource reader. You are reading a terribly-written, poorly-researched rather innovative TIGSource entry by Derek about about Which Way Adventure, a flash-based “Choose Your Own Adventure” game. Do you:
(Thanks, Echo!)
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Browser Games | 7 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sat, 16 Dec 2006 02:12:00 GMT
Shih Tzu writes:
“Star Foster, co-author of Slouching Towards Bedlam, passed away
unexpectedly on Dec. 10 at the age of 33.
Slouching Towards Bedlam took 1st place in the 2003 Interactive
Fiction competition and also went on to win several XYZZY Awards,
including Best Game of 2003. Although Slouching was her only
experience writing IF, she was active as an apparently prolific
blogger and writer.
If you haven’t played the (excellent) game, try it now in her memory!”
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Community | 9 comments
Posted by BMcC
Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:11:00 GMT
This just in from our man who likes Japan, Shih Tzu:
The 12th annual Interactive Fiction Competition started October 1st and runs until November 15th. The IFComp is a community-driven competition of homebrew text adventures in the style of the old Infocom games (think Zork).
Everyone is encouraged to download the games and rate as many as possible.
Also! Defcon has been reviewed by The Onion A.V. Club, “proving
once again that they are totally deliciously indie.”
Thanks, Shih Tzu!
Posted in Interactive Fiction, Windows, Competitions | Tags IFComp | no comments
