switcheroo – Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling

This post is part of an ongoing project to bring more voices to the IF Comp conversation. I have been reaching out to players and authors who aren’t part of the intfiction community, and also to some veteran intfiction denizens who might not have time to cover the whole comp but who are likely to have especially useful feedback in particular areas.

Here IF author Lucian Smith writes about Switcheroo, and especially about the narrative of foster care and adoption, from the perspective of his own experience. I am grateful to everyone who has agreed to help with this project, and I am especially grateful to Lucian for the openness of what he writes here.

Continue reading “IF Comp 2015 Guest Post: Lucian Smith on Switcheroo”

The 21st annual Interactive Fiction Competition is currently on, through mid-November. Voting is open to the general public; the only prerequisite is that you not be an author, not vote on games that you tested, and submit votes on at least five games. (You emphatically do not have to have played them all! In a year with 55 entrants, it is very unlikely that most judges will get through anywhere near all of them.)

If you are looking for other reviews, this ifwiki page contains a list of places currently carrying them.

Switcheroo is the third in a series of Undum children’s stories about Mrs. Wobbles, a foster parent who lives in a big mysterious tangerine-colored house with many foster children. (Previously reviewed here: Book 1, Book 2.) It is fairly linear but has an important choice near the end, and allows for some playful interaction in the middle as well, including a couple set-piece elements that play as mini-games. Once again I fail at accurate timing, but it took me less than an hour to read.

Continue reading “IF Comp 2015: Switcheroo (The Marino Family)”