Our next project takes us into the steamy jungle of Interactive Fiction! IF is a (mostly) text-based gaming system that dates back to the 1970s, really flourished in the 1980s, and then sorta kinda died out.
But like all the good movie monsters, IF wasn’t dead! No, a devoted band of programmer/player/writers resurrected it, creating interpreter programs that would allow classic IF games to run on today’s computers, and writing their own IFs.
Right now voting is open for the 15th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. These are all games that have been submitted by people who, like you, are being forced to compose your own IF. Just kidding. Not about the fact that you’re being forced to compose your own game. About them. They actually like writing these things. And maybe unlike you, they’re very, very good at it.
So, for class on Tuesday you are to head to the playable games page of the competition and play through the games. As these are all web-enabled, you can play these on any computer with an Internet connection and Java installed (which is most of them). You don’t have to play through all of them all the way through. Get a feel for what each one is like, what each one demands of you, how they differ from each other, and what structures they may share.
In class on Tuesday we’ll talk about these games, so be prepared. I will ask you which you liked the best, and why. Hint, hint.
You may also want to start thinking about what story/problem you want your game to explore. We’ll be starting work on the games themselves (which you’ll be working on in groups) on Thursday, so it’s not too early to start hashing out some ideas.
I encourage you to pick up ideas (of things you want in your game as well as things you don’t want) from the entries in the competition. There are more entries, but they’re not playable online and require an interpreter, which may not be feasible for you.
October 15th, 2009 by Richard Parent | Comments Off