Work In Progress: Yuck

I'm working through the parts of the game in the order players will see them. I've completed most of the fourth one (of seven in total).

Town; Afternoon in the House of Secrets

Town and Afternoon in the House of Secrets
By: Anna Anthropy
Format: Browser

These two games are simple, succinct, and controlled entirely by clicking hyperlinks in the text. They're notable to me in particular because of how similar they are to what I'm attempting to do with my current work in progress, and they also happen to be fun, well written adventures to boot.

Of the two games, Town presents less of a challenge, but also, I think, makes better use of the format.

The King of Shreds and Patches

The King of Shreds and Patches
By: Jimmy Maher
Format: Glulx
Homepage|@IFDB|@IFWiki

The result of over two years development, The King of Shreds and Patches is a Lovecraftian mystery set in a carefully researched depiction of Elizabethan London.

The game includes a graphical map, a hint system, and a (perhaps incongruously chatty) tutorial mode for those new to Interactive Fiction.

Work In Progress

So I'm working on a short, keyword-driven IF game following the adventures of a pair of crime fighters in a retro-futuristic, 1910s/20s styled city. I've planned seven separate locations, each with their own little puzzle, conversation or event, and so far the first two are pretty much done.

This has been a good two or three months in the planning, but hopefully implementation will be finished in a month or two.

My Uncle George

My Uncle George
By: Filipe Salgado
Format: Z-Code
Homepage|@IFDB

My Uncle George is a short, deeply implemented game with a strong narrative voice. It's not perfect - there are a few typos and the player seems to take more of a reactive than active role in events - but it's short and to the point, and it's relatively rare to see an IF game with such a strongly characterised PC.

IF Progressive One

IF Progressive One
By: The IF Progressive Team
Format: Z-Code
Homepage|@IFDB|@IFWiki

This is a rather strange little thing. I'm all in favour of unusual titles, but such a dry moniker seems like a short, unfair route to obscurity. IF Progressive One is the result of 'an experimental IF game project in collaborative authorship' - possibly inspired by Alabaster. Eight different authors worked on the game, each subsequent author being allowed full access to all the preceding segments.

Where Alabaster pulled off the impossible feat of having a very strong, unified voice, despite its collaborative authorship, this game goes quite in the opposite direction. The first segment is a richly described, puzzle-free and wonderfully characterful piece of IF. The second... Well, it begins like this:


Suddenly there are almost no descriptions, and the player is still expected to... well, there's no obvious direction or motivation for this segment either, or hints (so this is where my time with the game came to an end). Still, a game that can change from completely fiction focused to a completely old-school puzzler at the drop of a hat suggests that those interested in collaborative IF might find this to be an experiment with very interesting results.

SPAG #55

SPAG - the Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games - is a quarterly e-zine featuring reviews and articles on Interactive Fiction. Issue 55 has just been released here.

I'm not just plugging it because it features a glowing review of Dead Like Ants.

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