Links below the fold for those who find them useful; the fold itself is here to acknowledge that the movement I wrote about fifteen days ago is ongoing even if media coverage is somewhat decreased; and that the work of change is more important than anything in the rest of the post.
I’ll put this up here, though: if you have not encountered it yet, you may be interested in the itch.io bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.
Events
June 20 will be the next virtual meeting of the Baltimore/DC Area IF Meetup, to discuss Captain Verdeterre’s Plunder.
June 24 will be the next virtual meeting of the Boston Area IF Meetup.
July 4 is the next meeting of the SF Bay Interactive Fiction Meetup. (Maybe? It being July 4 might be postponed, I’m guessing. But that’s what’s on the schedule currently.)
The Oxford and London Meetup has not scheduled anything this month.
NarraScope 2020 has, at this point, come to an end. But because of the nature of this year’s virtual event, there are many resources available to those who were unable to participate. Most (if not all) of the 2020 talks are available on YouTube.
If anyone missed the NarraScope presentations, there is included (among many other talks) an update by Graham Nelson on some of the recent developments taking place with regard to Inform 7. If anyone prefers to read the info instead of watch a video, a written version of the presentation is available here on the Inform site.
Competitions
The Next Adventure Jam continues through July 4. The 8-Bit-Centric contest welcomes games developed with Adventuron Classroom. Contest rules are in the link, and additional information about Adventuron can be found here, including an intro text adventure for anyone new to the experience.
Crowdfunding
On Kickstarter right now, Zaire Lanier’s Afropunk Fantasy Horror comic The Bone Herder. This piece is not interactive, but Zaire also does game writing and narrative design, which is how I heard of her.
Tools & Design
Branching story design can be a challenge even for experienced writers, if they have a background that’s primarily in other forms of fiction (Sharang Biswas discusses this briefly in a recent Sub-Q interview).
One of the most recent tools to try to address this issue is Celestory, a code-free application that allows you to test your storylines without demanding that you use one particular system or another, but does also allow you to export a complete application. You can also share and get feedback from others, should you wish to use the tool’s collaborative features. There are free and multiple premium versions of the system. (I have not yet had time to play with it much myself.)
New Releases
The most recent offering from Choice of Games has arrived. Light Years Apart is a 230,000-word interactive sci-fi novel by Anaea Lay, where your choices control the story.
Can you and your sister outfox a galaxy-spanning AI to save your home planet? A rollicking adventure with space pirates, spies, and snarky computers.
Talks, Articles, and Podcasts
Over the years, I’ve included a fair number of links to the magazine Sub-Q. They’ve frequently published intriguing articles about the methods underlying IF––sometimes focusing on practical application, sometimes delving into more philosophical or abstract ideas.
The magazine is going on indefinite hiatus starting in August of this year. While there are many legitimate reasons for that (outlined here) their voice will certainly be missed. If you feel like contributing a little to their operating expenses for the summer, you can support them here.
Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling 