Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling

Events

January 16 is the Boston FIG Fest, with the goal of fostering the next generation of game creators. The event is online this year, and registration is pay-what-you-like.

January 19 is the next meeting of the Boston IF Meetup.

January 24, the Oxford/London IF meetup will get together online; I’ll be talking about the design process for Orwell’s Animal Farm – people wanting to learn more about storylet-based IF design may find it interesting.

February 6 is the next meeting of the SF Bay Area IF Meetup.

February 21 is the next meeting of the Seattle/Tacoma Area IF Meetup.

Contest, Jams, & Festivals

The Gaming Like It’s 1925 game jam is now live. Participants can create either digital or analog games, drawing on inspiration from works created in 1925. Submissions are being accepted now through January 31.

The French IF Competition is also up and running, with ten games ready for judging now and for the next (roughly) six weeks.

New Releases

Oxford-based Cowleyfornia Studios is set to release a new game on January 28th. Sarawak is a combination of choice-based IF and point and click puzzles, embedded side by side in a novel-like layout, blending elements of mystery and adventure.

Articles & Links

Game designer Memalign has been hard at work exploring the potential of Listed Action IF, and has created an adaptation of some Counterfeit Monkey puzzles here. It’s a game very much not designed for that kind of presentation, so it’s curious to see what that looks like in a link-driven form.

Northeastern University is currently accepting applications for an Associate Professor/Full Professor of Games at their Boston Campus. Despite the listed deadline, they are still looking at additional candidates, and are seeking candidates “with an international record of excellence in research and/or creative practice in one or more areas including but not limited to: HCI, algorithmic bias, game analytics, creative coding, experiential technologies, extended reality, interdisciplinary design, player psychology, generative design, art games, serious games, and interactive narrative.”

Events

January 2 is the next SF Bay Area IF Meetup.

January 10 is the next Seattle-Tacoma Area IF Meetup.

January 16 is the Boston FIG Fest, with the goal fostering the next generation of game creators. The event is online this year, and registration is pay-what-you-like.

January 24, the Oxford/London IF meetup will get together online; I’ll be talking about the design process for Orwell’s Animal Farm – people wanting to learn more about storylet-based IF design may find it interesting.

Contest, Jams, & Festivals

For anyone interested in reading postmortems of IF Comp 2020, there is a fun thread here that covers many of the titles, including The Impossible Bottle.

Articles & Links

Now Play This has an open call for proposals for paid games work. This year’s edition is focused on the relationship between games, play, and the climate crisis. The submission deadline is coming up quickly on January 5.

Here is an interesting article on some of the work underlying AI Dungeon, focusing especially on the importance of analogy.

Events

December 22 is the next Boston Area IF Meetup.

January 2 is the next SF Bay Area IF Meetup.

Contest, Jams, & Festivals

IF Comp 2020 has wrapped, and results of the competition have been announced. This year we saw two first-place winners: The Impossible Bottle by Linus Åkesson and Tavern Crawler by Josh Labelle. All the games are still available for play on the site.

New Releases

Back in August, I mentioned that I was working with Nerial on a game adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. I’m pleased to announce that the finished product had its launch just a few days ago, and it’s now available on Steam.

If you enjoy escape rooms but can’t do one just now, you might get a kick out of the recently-released puzzle game / interactive story National Elf Service:

Additionally, Aaron Reed has just released Skycrawl, which you can get as either a PDF or full book:

Welcome to the Azure Etern.

This supplement for any fantasy roleplaying system gives you the rules and inspiration to run your own hexcrawl-style adventure in an infinite sky. Handle dangerous voyages through the clouds with a strategic Journey System, learn the secrets of Orcery to distill alchemical secrets from the winds, generate new flying peoples and ships of all descriptions, and peruse so many adventure seeds and encounter ideas, you won’t remember which way is up. Not that you’ll need to.

Articles & Links

And finally: people may be interested in this bit on how the story works in Watch Dogs: Legion, particularly the “play as anyone” feature.

Events

December 5  is the next meeting of the SF/Bay Area IF Meetup.

December 13 is the next meeting of the Seattle Area IF Meetup, including a discussion of Amazing Quest 3.

December 13 will also be the next meeting of the Oxford & London IF Meetup, doing a group play of some 2020 releases.

Contest, Jams, and Festivals

IF Comp 2020 has just completed its judging portion, and one should be able to peruse the site to see the top-rated games. For those interested in reviews of this year’s options, you can also check out the intfiction thread here (although spoilers abound, obviously).

AdvXJam has also completed its submission portion, but the games are still available to play here.

New Releases

Choice of Games has also recently added Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale to its collection, a 1.2 million-word “interactive comedy of manners by Kreg Segall. It’s a standalone sequel to Tally Ho, inspired by P.G. Wodehouse, where your choices control the story.”

Events

November 21-22 is the weekend for the 2020 WordPlay online festival.

November 24  is the next meeting of the Boston IF Meetup.

December 5  is the next meeting of the SF/Bay Area IF Meetup.

Contest, Jams, and Festivals

Hand Eye Society is hosting the 2020 WordPlay festival on November 21 and 22. The festival celebrates “the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games.” The event is taking place online, and it is free to attend.

The IF Comp voting deadline is fast approaching. Players have until November 29 to vote on their favorites of this year’s games.

IF Comp is also continuing to accept prizes and contributions to the Colossal Fund.

AdvXJam (a non-ranked game jam hosted by the Adventure X Team) is underway, continuing until November 28. The jam focuses on story-driven games, and is open to authors at all levels of experience.

Events

November 7 is the next meeting of the SF/Bay Area IF Meetup.

November 15 is the next meeting of the Seattle Area IF Meetup, focusing on games from this year’s IF Comp.

November 21-22 is the weekend for the 2020 WordPlay online festival.

Contest, Jams, and Festivals

Hand Eye Society is hosting its 2020 WordPlay festival on November 21 and 22. The festival celebrates “the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. Each year there will be a curated game showcase, talks by creators about the craft, and ways for the public to learn about making games.” The event is taking place online, and it is free to attend.

The submission window has closed for both IF Comp and Ectocomp 2020, but the voting period is now underway. For Ectocomp, you can cast votes on your favorite games until November 15. For IF Comp, you have until November 29 to vote.

IF Comp is also continuing to accept prizes and contributions to the Colossal Fund.

AdvXJam (a non-ranked game jam hosted by the Adventure X Team) is coming up during the second half of the month, November 14-28. The jam focuses on story-driven games, and is open to authors at all levels of experience.