Events
June 1 will be the next San Francisco Bay Area IF Meetup, exploring games from this year’s Spring Thing competition.
June 8 and 9, the London IF Meetup has talks (the 8th) and a workshop (the 9th) on interactive fiction designed for audio devices. We’re welcoming some out of town guest speakers for this one, one of our most ambitious events yet.
June 9 is the deadline to apply to exhibit a game or to speak at AdventureX, which is taking place November 2-3 at the British Library.
June 11 is the deadline for submitting Game Industry talk proposals to the IEEE Conference on Games (CoG). The conference itself will be August 20-23 in London.
June 10-12 in London is the CogX Festival of AI and Emerging Technology, where I will be speaking about the work we’re doing at Spirit.
Narrascope is set for June 14-16 in Boston, MA. This is a new games conference that will support interactive narrative, adventure games, and interactive fiction by bringing together writers, developers, and players. Both Graham Nelson and I will be there and will speak; I’ll be on a panel about Bandersnatch, and Graham will be updating people on the current status of Inform. More information can be found on NarraScope’s home site.
NarraScope will also be the Boston IF Meetup for the month of June. It’s worth noting that if you’re a Boston local and you missed the registration date, you might still be able to attend by volunteering for the event.
ICCC 2019 takes place on June 17-21 in Charlotte, NC. The event is in its tenth year and is organized by the Association for Computational Creativity.
July 2-5 will be the ACM IVA Conference, taking place in Paris. IVA 2019’s special topic is “Social Learning with Interactive Agents.”
July 13 will be the next meeting of the Baltimore/DC IF meetup (there is no meeting in June due to NarraScope). The discussion will center around The Missing Ring from the 2019 Spring Thing competition.
July 16-17 is set for the symposium Ludic Literature: The Converging Interests of Writing, Games, and Play. The two-day event is funded by the Scottish Graduate School and takes place in Glasgow, UK.
New Releases
“What manner of fool are you: the shrewd knave ever ready with a venomous quip? The renowned artiste at pains to stay above the political fray? The bawdy buffoon known as much for off-stage antics as on-stage mirth? Or the clever counselor whose real audience is the noble ear they whisper into? …The kingdom itself will be shaped by your choices!”
The latest offering to come from Choice of Games, Fool is a 420,000-word interactive novel by Ben Rovik. Play as a talented young court fool, navigating the scheming and treacherous world of the court of Breton.
Oslo-based independent game-developer Red Thread has just released Draugen, an ambitious first-person mystery set in 1920’s Norway. Described as “Fjord Noir,” players take on the role of an American traveler, searching the coastal Norwegian town of Graavik for his lost sister, and accompanied by a young ward.
Announcements, Articles, & Links
Starting on June 1, the IntroComp 2019 contest will be accepting “intent to enter” submissions, through June 30.
IntroComp is an annual contest that aims to give designers feedback on as-of-yet unpublished works that are not completely finished. Entries should be far enough along in the development process that they are playable, and all entries should also be interactive fiction. Cash prizes are available for the top few games (more information can be found on the site.)
On June 2, Fire Hazard Games will be launching The Extraordinary Voyage, a new immersive game at the National Maritime Museum.
The Extraordinary Voyage blends mobile games with interactive theatre, putting the player in the exciting world of seafaring and ocean exploration. Over the course of 90 minutes, players will explore objects in the museum, solve puzzles, and interact with real-life characters to create their own personal narrative.
The game is family-friendly and suitable for children 8 and up. Currently scheduled to run through July 7, although you’ll want to check the schedule for specific dates and times. More info can be found here.
Failing Forward: Bruno Dias discusses the topic of failure in storytelling, and the forms it can take in interactive narrative.
Olivia Wood and Jessica Krause appear on the ScriptLock podcast, talking about topics such as their favorite choices in games and what makes for a good NPC.
On his blog, Jason Dyer journals his trip into the classic 1979 game Kadath.
Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling 