I’ve been playing more of the games from this year’s Spring Thing. (You too can play! And vote! And review, if you wish!) The Xylophoniad is a parser adventure by Robin Johnson, a good-natured spoof of Greek mythology with cameos from Achilles, Sappho, Daedalus, the Minotaur, and assorted other crowd favorites. Unlike the author’s recent Draculaland, … Continue reading “Spring Thing 2016: The Xylophoniad; Foo Foo”
I’ve been playing more of the games from this year’s Spring Thing. (You too can play! And vote! And review, if you wish!) Dr. Sourpuss Is Not A Choice-Based Game is a lightly puzzly piece about the destructive nature of standardized testing, the fact that a lot of challenges are really multiple-choice even if they look … Continue reading “Spring Thing 2016: Dr Sourpuss is Not A Choice-Based Game; Three-Card Trick”
I’ve been playing more of the games from this year’s Spring Thing. (You too can play! And vote! And review, if you wish!) Ms. Lojka is a horror Twine about a beastly supernatural killer in New York City, with some references to Babel and Rasputin, backed by some (I thought) rather effective illustrations, as well as … Continue reading “Spring Thing 2016: Ms. Lojka, Tangaroa Deep, Sisters of Claro Largo”
The 17 IF games of Spring Thing 2016 are now available! This is a huge crop: historically Spring Thing has tended to have entry numbers in the single digits. I’m delighted to see it, because I think it’s useful having other events that at least somewhat rival IF Comp in size and attention. The trend … Continue reading “Spring Thing 2016: Evita Sempai, Harmonic Time-Bind Ritual Symphony, and Standoff”
Robin Johnson’s Versificator engine is designed to give the player access to a parser IF-like world model but a choice-based interface, free of verb-guessing. The two previous games in this space, Draculaland and Detectiveland, feature navigation and inventory puzzles that feel quite text adventure-like, but in a more accessible format. At any given time, the … Continue reading “Zeppelin Adventure (Robin Johnson, Spring Thing 2018)”
Venience World from Spring Thing 2018 offers another possible revision on the parser. Every turn, you have a command line, but listed below it are suggested autocompletions, one word at a time. You can select an autocompletion with up/down arrows, or you can click on one, or you can type out the contents. After you’ve … Continue reading “Venience World (Daniel Spitz, Spring Thing 2018)”
Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling 