Thursday, December 31, 2015
Undo Restart Restore: Best of 2015
Game of the Year: Her Story Sam Barlow's (of Aisle fame) Her Story has already sweeped most of the GOTY awards, and rightfully so. The gameplay consists solely of searching a database for interrogation film clips and piecing together the full story. It's something that shouldn't work but it does, and it works so well. Continue reading Best of 2015 →
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Emily Short: Cibele (Nina Freeman)
Cibele is Nina Freeman’s game about being a 19 year old college student who spends a lot of time in an online game, and who meets an Internet Friend who becomes more; and about what happens to their relationship next. … Continue reading →
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Renga in Blue: EGYPTIAN WALKING SIMULATOR
I took the map I already had from Greg Hassett’s game King Tut’s Tomb, used Trizbort’s feature to export source, and made a “game” out of it, but “dadaist art experiment” might be more accurate. Download EGYPTIAN WALKING SIMULATOR Play EGYPTIAN WALKING SIMULATOR
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Renga in Blue: King Tut’s Tomb (1978)
Greg Hassett has already graced this blog in Journey to the Center of the Earth Adventure and House of the Seven Gables. The former felt incomplete and had only one real puzzle, and the latter had a few more puzzles but was still a goofy pastiche. They held in common a highly tenuous relationship with […]
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Segue: 2015 in Review: Thank-yous and shout-outs
As the year heads to a close I have been busy sending thank-you notes (well, emails). This list is in no particular order and, inevitably, incomplete; if you feel like I have missed you, I am sorry.
- My testers, too numerous to name but incredibly important; any remaining bugs and typos are entirely my fault.
- Tory Hoke, Devi Acharya, Kerstin Hall, and the rest of the sub-Q team: You’ve made a dramatic change to how I look at writing IF. This has been an incredible year, and sub-Q is responsible for a lot of that.
- Carolyn van Eseltine, Aaron Reed, Neil Butters, and Jason McIntosh: That is, the people whose competitions I entered this year. People consistently underestimate how much work organising those events is, and the least I can do is thank the people who inexplicably continue to do it, expecting no reward whatsoever.
- The good people at &if, including furkle, Brendan Patrick Hennessy, Chandler Groover, Emily Short and others, who’ve made the last couple of months a terrifying delight. There’s a million things we haven’t done; but just you wait.
- greenie, chromakode, and intortus, the Euphoria crew, for giving me this wonderful space to do terrible things with.
- Last but not least: Cat Manning. You know what you did (and continue to do).
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EGYPTIAN WALKING SIMULATOR
I took the map I already had from Greg Hassett’s game King Tut’s Tomb, used Trizbort’s feature to export source, and made a “game” out of it, but “dadaist art experiment” might be more accurate. Download EGYPTIAN WALKING SIMULATOR Play EGYPTIAN WALKING SIMULATOR
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The Maddening Lord Montwood by Vivienne Lorret
Another story where the epiphany involves the heroine realizing what a dumbass she is. Scary thing is: her boyfriend's dumber.
The post The Maddening Lord Montwood by Vivienne Lorret appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Emily Short: December Link Assortment
Upcoming Events: The Boston IF meetup for January will be Wednesday, January 6, 6:30 pm, MIT room 14N-233. * Folks have been continuing to hang out at the Euphoria chat space originally used for the IF Comp post mortem, so … Continue reading →
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Wednesday, December 30, 2015
2015 in review
Happy new year, gamebookers! 2016 is just around the corner, so I thought I’d be original and go review the past year and talk about what’s going on in the future. Year in reviewAsuria Awakens!!!! Yes, my Gamebook Adventures book came out this September. It felt great to finally get my book out to the […]
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Web Interactive Fiction: IF Goals for 2016
The story is the story. The user experience should be a separate endeavor. This is my vision for 2016 (and going forward).
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Updrift by Errin Stevens
There are interesting atmosphere and premise here, but the whole thing is too big for its length and size.
The post Updrift by Errin Stevens appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Tuesday, December 29, 2015
what will you do now?: Pale
By Ally Vordan (Twine; IFDB; play here) Pale starts with what was, for me, an off-putting technical note. Okay, I can choose to play from Tobias’s (whoever that is) point of view… and I can’t play from Klaudia’s (whoever that is)? Perhaps this is/was a work in progress. Anyway. You’re Tobias, the handyman around these […]
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Renga in Blue: Castle: Finished
Or rather, finished one ending. According to the source there’s three endings, but they require an action in the winning path that crashes the game. I’ve worked out enough to describe what happens, though. (Click the image above for the full map.) First, how I escaped the forest, which had the odd attribute of being […]
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Castle: Finished
Or rather, finished one ending. According to the source there’s three endings, but they require an action in the winning path that crashes the game. I’ve worked out enough to describe what happens, though. (Click the image above for the full map.) First, how I escaped the forest, which had the odd attribute of being […]
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Segue: 2015 in Review: My Work
I was originally going to release this year-end rundown all in one piece, but I realised it’s very long and therefore probably best split into three parts. First, the most skippable part: A look back at games and stories I released this year.
This has been a whirlwind year for me; when I wrote Terminator Chaser, I didn’t think I would then release nine games in a year (including the tiny It Is Not So Much a Story and a game for Space Fucking Jam), produce not one but two pieces of commercial IF (sub-Q wasn’t even on anyone’s radar when this year started!), and publish the second-highest rated piece of hypertext fiction in the IFComp. And yet, here I am.
Terminator Chaser
A hard science fiction thriller that suffered from less than great puzzle design (the airlock doors, my God). Terminator Chaser is my first IF game release, but it’s also hard not to rank it at the bottom. I bring it up mostly to remind people that yes, I do write parser fiction.
I think in a lot of ways I enjoy the process of designing systems using Inform 7 (which is a wonderful tool) more than players enjoy the resulting systems. The person who got the most enjoyment out of the airlocks in Terminator Chaser, I think, was myself.
Mere Anarchy
Mere Anarchy is cursed by the fact that I could never figure out how to write a good blurb for it. Nevertheless, I believe it came out as a very coherent piece of work; there’s some clunky writing in there (most of the dialogue) and some great writing in there (most of the descriptions). It also led directly to the development of Raconteur.
When The Land Goes Under The Water
Pseudonymous entry into Shufflecomp: Volume Two. Deliberately very limited in scope so I could finish it in time for the comp; WTLGUTW is a sort of love letter to the power of room and object descriptions. It’s also a bit of a sacrilegious stab at implicit storytelling, blending explicit declaratory statements about the history of that place in with its suggestive descriptions.
Lesson learned, though: For the most part, players have strong feelings about being instructed not to replay a game. This isn’t a complaint, mind; I just didn’t anticipate the reaction that came out to it.
Prospero
The first thing I wrote for sub-Q Magazine this year, a strange revisionist take on Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. Surprisingly hard to write; though it contains a decent chunk of verbatim Poe text, it also has a lot of painstakingly written Poe pastiche.
I’m also very proud of this piece for another reason: It’s part of the first flight of sub-Q stories, written and developed before the magazine started publishing. I’m in good company there, and one of my hopes for 2016 is that sub-Q finds the success it so richly deserves.
Cape
A novella-length choice-based narrative about superheroes, politics, and violence; fifth place at the annual Interactive Fiction Competition. Buggy on Firefox on release (I blame Mozilla). My feelings about Cape and the reaction to it are quite complicated, and I haven’t really finished figuring things out yet; particularly, I find it hard to gauge how much of the piece’s perceived issues are things I failed to do as a writer, and how much of it is ideological mismatch between myself and various reviewers. I expect figuring that out will take a long time regardless.
Lyreless
Another revisionist adaptation for sub-Q, this time taking on the Orphic myth. Much, much easier to write without having to pattern myself on a specific writer’s style; Lyreless came out very quickly. I’m very fond of the writing in it, and though I don’t personally think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written, this is definitely a sentiment I’ve heard from others.
The World Turned Upside Down
I wanted to get a couple more games in before the end of the year, and I also really wanted to do a Christmas special; something that would be more intended as a gift to people who’ve followed and supported my work than as a piece of art or entertainment for general audiences. I think of The World Turned Upside Down as a third place game; it’s not quite a private game, but it’s also not fully public. Its audience isn’t “people who play IF” or “people who like fantasy”; it’s people who specifically played both Cape and Mere Anarchy, and even more so it’s people who hang around on Euphoria and people within that group whom I consider friends.
Cultural Exchange
A game about pornography, mistranslation, reproduction, and space. Released only yesterday on Itch for Cat Manning’s Space Fucking Jam.
I hope that out of all this, you enjoyed at least one thing. As always, my Twitter presence is there to take your comments. And finally: If you played, reviewed, tested, or otherwise supported my work this year, thank you so much.
TOMORROW: I look back at things I read, played, or watched in the year that I think are relevant to talk about.
DECEMBER 31st: Before the year ends, I hand out public thank-yous and shout-outs to a bunch of brilliant people.
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Silken Tide by Danielle E Gauwain
The hero is such a big weenie king that he's quite the spectacle to behold.
The post Silken Tide by Danielle E Gauwain appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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The Spinster’s Guide to Scandalous Behavior by Jennifer McQuiston
Idiot heroine goes on a road trip to discover the truth about herself: she is an idiot. You have to read this gripping story!
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Made in the A.M. by One Direction
Aww, these boys have broken up, I mean, taken a hiatus. The world will be missing a special Backstreet Boys tribute band.
The post Made in the A.M. by One Direction appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Monday, December 28, 2015
Ron Newcomb: Bronies, Smashers and Others Battle Cancer - by Ron Newcomb
Want to have your game as a star attraction at EVO, the world's biggest fighting game tournament? Beat Bronies and Smashers alike in a battle for cancer awareness.
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Resplendent Ruin by Bella J
Her hubby-to-be is too busy working to pay the bills, so the heroine cheats on him with the hero who gets her tramp juices flowing. Resplendent!
The post Resplendent Ruin by Bella J appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Silken Embrace by Zuri Day
There are some interesting twists on age-old tropes in here. Shame that the whole thing ends up rather blah.
The post Silken Embrace by Zuri Day appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Storyteller by Carrie Underwood
There isn't much innovation going in here. So, how big of a fan are you?
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Sunday, December 27, 2015
There Be Monsters by Julya Oui
Oh boy, this one has problems, lots of them.
The post There Be Monsters by Julya Oui appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Tactical Pleasure by JC Wilder
It would have been fabulous if it had been longer.
The post Tactical Pleasure by JC Wilder appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Saturday, December 26, 2015
What Happens Under the Mistletoe by Sabrina Jeffries, Karen Hawkins, Candace Camp, and Meredith Duran
Four authors get together to show everyone how tired and played-out historical romance tropes can be.
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what will you do now?: Bell Park, Youth Detective
By Brendan Patrick Hennessey (Twine; IFDB; play here) Twelve-year-old Bell Park, Youth Detective, gets in over her head when she’s called to investigate a murder at a tech conference. What starts out as a favour for a friend to keep things low-key quickly becomes much stranger. I admit that I played this game after playing […]
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what will you do now?: Wolfgirls in Love
by Kitty Horrorshow (Twine; IFDB; play here) Two wolves go out for a night on the town. Neon. Cobblestones. Written for Porpentine’s Twiny Jam, in which one creates a Twine game within 300 words, the author eschews spartan sentences, instead using single words, linked with timed appearances. The combination of music, macros and the individual words […]
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The People's Republic of IF: January meetup
The Boston IF meetup for January will be Wednesday, January 6, 6:30 pm, MIT room 14N-233.
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Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
Remember when the author wrote kick-ass urban fantasy instead of werewolf soap opera? This is a throwback to that lost era.
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Friday, December 25, 2015
The Digital Antiquarian: A Pirate’s Life for Me, Part 1: Don’t Copy That Floppy!
February 3, 1976 An Open Letter to Hobbyists To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books, and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market? Almost […]
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Thursday, December 24, 2015
what will you do now?: The People’s Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game
By Taylor Vaughan (Parser-based; IFDB) (Cover art: pseudo-Soviet poster: game title in red on red background, with three figures looking at a portrait of Marx) Today is the day you’ve been waiting for! Today is the day when the Revolution arrives to sweep over this entire town, converting it to a worker’s paradise! Your heart […]
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Happy Holidays!
I want to wish everyone a happy holiday and hope that the new year brings good tidings to all!
There are a lot of exciting things happening for the studio in the new year:
- Showcasing at the Smithsonian Indie Arcade on January 16th
- Launch of Heroes Guard: The Journal!
- Card design Contest, where the winner will be included in the first content update!
- Kickstarting the Heroes Guard Tabletop Game that was so popular at conventions!
- Preview of a new puzzle game set in the Heroes Guard universe!
Although next year will be incredible exciting, 2015 was pretty unforgettable:
- Took Heroes Guard: The Journal to conventions and had its first beta - and folks loved it!
- Received a few articles, videos and mentions in the media - starting to gain awareness!
- Hosted a 48 game jam where the game made a top 5 list!
- Went from a social reach of 219 to 2,616 - that is nearly a 1,200% increase!
And the most exciting news of all: I became a dad!
Excited to see what the new year brings us all! :)
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How to Draw Top Down Mountains on a Map
Mountains are a defining piece of any world map. They are the largest features after the coastlines, they determine the borders of countries, and the obstacles adventurers must overcome. They are the home of lost treasures, dragons, and giants – as far from civilization as its possible to be. It can be hard to convey the majesty […]
The post How to Draw Top Down Mountains on a Map appeared first on Fantastic Maps.
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Segue: The World Turned Upside Down
The World Turned Upside Down is a tiny bit of parser fiction I wrote as a sort of thank you note/Christmas special. It’s very short and straightforward, so I’ll just direct you to the game page where you can play or download it.
Happy holidays, everyone.
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Wednesday, December 23, 2015
The Digital Antiquarian: A Little Christmas Gift
This being the time of year for such things, I have a little surprise that I hope some of you might really enjoy. I get asked on a fairly regular basis whether this blog will ever become a book — or, more likely, a series of books. While I do have aspirations in that direction, […]
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Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Castle: Starving for Progress
Well, I’ve made progress, but the hunger timer is so tight that gameplay feels like an IF version of Paranoia where I send out clone after clone to die, each time using knowledge from the last clone to get a little further. My suspicions from my last post were correct: I just needed to move […]
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Renga in Blue: Castle: Starving for Progress
Well, I’ve made progress, but the hunger timer is so tight that gameplay feels like an IF version of Paranoia where I send out clone after clone to die, each time using knowledge from the last clone to get a little further. My suspicions from my last post were correct: I just needed to move […]
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what will you do now?: Mainframe
By Liz England and Jurie Horneman (Twine; IFDB; play here) You wake up in an unfamiliar spaceship. Something is wrong with the ship’s mainframe and it needs help. Developed for ProcJam 2015, this game features procedurally generated locations and objects, the writing of which nonetheless felt natural. Indeed, the writing is one of the high points of […]
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Choice of Games: All of our games are 25% off or more in Steam’s Winter Sale
All of our Steam apps are 25% off or more until January 4!
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All of our games are 25% off or more in Steam’s Winter Sale
All of our Steam apps are 25% off or more until January 4!
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My Complete and Utter Dark Future Bibliography
Dark Future was released in 1988, the same year as Adeptus Titanicus. At least part of Games Workshop’s strategy was to get better at plastics before introducing them as a major part of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 product lines. It has been claimed that Bryan Ansell was also testing the competition’s tolerance by […]
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Monday, December 21, 2015
Sixth Grade Detective — Spy on your classmates for cash!
We’re proud to announce that Sixth Grade Detective, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. Round up the usual suspects—the mean girl, the new kid, the bully, the nerd, maybe even your best friend! As the sixth grade detective, you’ll spy on classmates for cash—will you keep their secrets or take the money? “Sixth Grade Detective” is a 109,000-word interactive young-adult novel by Laura Hughes, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your
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Renga in Blue: Castle [using Wander system] (1974)
In David Craddock’s book Dungeon Hacks: How NetHack, Angband, and Other Roguelikes Changed the Course of Video Games he uses the term “convergent evolution” to describe a phenomenon where multiple independent people (or groups) invent the same gameplay genre independently. In the case of roguelikes, Beneath Apple Manor (1978), Rogue (1980), and Sword of Fargoal […]
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Castle [using Wander system] (1974)
In David Craddock’s book Dungeon Hacks: How NetHack, Angband, and Other Roguelikes Changed the Course of Video Games he uses the term “convergent evolution” to describe a phenomenon where multiple independent people (or groups) invent the same gameplay genre independently. In the case of roguelikes, Beneath Apple Manor (1978), Rogue (1980), and Sword of Fargoal […]
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Choice of Games: Sixth Grade Detective — Spy on your classmates for cash!
We’re proud to announce that Sixth Grade Detective, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. Round up the usual suspects—the mean girl, the new kid, the bully, the nerd, maybe even your best friend! As the sixth grade detective, you’ll spy on classmates for cash—will you keep their secrets or take the money? “Sixth Grade Detective” is a 109,000-word interactive young-adult novel by Laura Hughes, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your
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Corporate Treachery Meets Otherworldly Forces in MetaHuman, Inc.
p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Damn. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this. It’s been a while since I posted anything on Lloyd of Gamebooks. The last few posts I wrote were back in the 2015 Summer of Gamebook Kickstarters (remember those heady days?), and each one of them was to promote various […]
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Sunday, December 20, 2015
what will you do now?: My Name is Tara Sue
by Maki Yamazaki (Twine; IFDB; play here) (Cover art: The text ‘My Name is Tara Sue’, with ‘TARA’ made out of Twine passages) You are Tara Sue and, simply put, you lead a pretty boring life. However, things are about to get more interesting… MNiTS follows a kind of time cave structure, which allows it […]
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Saturday, December 19, 2015
Renga in Blue: Adventure II: Finished! (sort of)
So there was indeed one last treasure, and finding it was interesting, but unfortunately when the endgame triggers the game crashes. A glance through the code indicates the endgame is identical to 350-point Adventure, so I’m safe to call this one done. The giant turned out to be the key, and the puzzle made clever […]
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Adventure II: Finished! (sort of)
So there was indeed one last treasure, and finding it was interesting, but unfortunately when the endgame triggers the game crashes. A glance through the code indicates the endgame is identical to 350-point Adventure, so I’m safe to call this one done. The giant turned out to be the key, and the puzzle made clever […]
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what will you do now?: Her Pound of Flesh
By Liz England (Twine; IFDB; play here) (Screenshot of game) Here’s a game set in another cyberpunkish, dystopian world, where biotechnology is so advanced that all you need to clone an organism – and indeed a human being – is a bit of their tissue and a special reagent. This is what you’ve resorted to, in […]
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sub-Q Magazine: Author Interview: Caleb Wilson
Caleb Wilson’s non-interactive stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. He has also written interactive fiction including HOLY ROBOT EMPIRE, Starry Seeksorrow, and Six Gray Rats Crawl Up The Pillow. He can be found online at Tumblr and Twitter. He and his wife live in Illinois. He is […]
The post Author Interview: Caleb Wilson appeared first on sub-Q Magazine.
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Friday, December 18, 2015
Renga in Blue: Adventure II: Painfully Close
For some reason I missed the presence of a really nice online port of Adventure II that comes with a hand-drawn map. (Link here) In any case, the map above alerted me to a treasure I missed for rather silly reasons. I’m not sure if I should blame myself or the game. I’ll let you […]
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Segue: Notes on the Euphoria chat
A brief reminder, since I haven’t posted about this on the blog ever since the comp postmortem: the Euphoria IF chat (&if) is still ongoing and regularly active. It’s an open channel, so anyone can join the conversation on Euphoria.
Euphoria is a “a platform for chat rooms you care about”, developed by some friends of mine; it’s a web-friendly, modern recreation of the IRC chat environment with support for threading and other cool features. As before, it’s a public chat that anyone is welcome to join in on.
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Choice of Games: “The ORPHEUS Ruse” on Steam
To celebrate today’s launch of Paul Gresty’s MetaHuman Inc., we’re also making his top-rated game, The ORPHEUS Ruse, available now on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux. (It’s still available for iOS and Android devices, too.) Infiltrate the enemy as a psychic spy, leaping from body to body by touch! But when your own body is stolen, you’ll race against time to find it before your mind disintegrates. The ORPHEUS Ruse is a thrilling interactive spy novel by Paul Gresty, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of
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Choice of Games: MetaHuman Inc. — The finest superpowers money can buy!
We’re proud to announce that MetaHuman Inc., the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 40% off until January 4th. As the CEO of a multinational corporation that sells superpowers to the highest bidder (“the finest superpowers money can buy”), you’ll cast powerful magic, invent futuristic technologies, and manipulate your stock price to impress shareholders! “MetaHuman, Inc.” is a thrilling 260,000-word interactive novel by Paul Gresty, author of “The ORPHEUS Ruse.” Your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the
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The Digital Antiquarian: Dungeon Master, Part 2: The Playing of
Like any cagey revolutionary, Dungeon Master doesn’t lay all its cards on the table when we first meet it. When the curtain goes up — or, rather, when the iron gate opens — on its first level, we might think we’re just in for a Wizardry with better graphics and the luxury of a mouse-driven […]
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That quiet sense of something
Hard to believe that another year has almost come and gone, and the time has arrived once again to mull over the ups and downs of twelve months in DQ world. To be honest, I almost wasn’t going to do my yearly review, as I rather off-handedly said to myself – well, there was no new book this year, so nothing to report. But then I realised, that really wasn’t true at all. In fact, this has been a great year for DestinyQuest and there is lots that is worth celebrating.
Granted, there has been no news on a fourth DestinyQuest book, but May did see the release of the mass-market paperback version of The Eye of Winter’s Fury. I’ve always preferred the smaller versions of the books over the larger trade paperbacks (which can be a bit cumbersome to handle), so it was nice to receive this new addition and place it on my shelf, to join The Legion of Shadow and The Heart of Fire.
And of course, there was also the German translation of The Legion of the Shadow hitting shelves in August. It really is a great looking book and you can read more about the German version here.
In the digital realm, QuestForge finally released their interactive version of The Legion of Shadow. Gone are the dice, paper and pencils – now you can play The Legion of Shadow in your browser, while on the move, or with your feet up on the couch. All the hard work and inventory management has been done for you. Result! For completionists, the digital version also has a wealth of flavour text for the hundreds of items and monsters that you will encounter. There may even be a few clues hidden in there to future books and storylines. (You can purchase the app here.)
Ah, future books. Well, that is the holy grail that still alludes me at the present time, although – as I have hinted at on more than one occasion – there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Patience isn’t one of my greatest virtues, but I am fast learning that the best things come to those who wait – so I am optimistic that 2016 will be a fantastic year for DestinyQuest.
Fandom continues to grow. Once again, a huge thank you to all the supporters and gamers who have taken time to contact me, post on the forums or share their love of the books through Twitter, Twitch and YouTube. I really appreciate the support and I hope that I can repay you at some point with further amazing DestinyQuest adventures.
Until then, I feel hopeful. I have John Williams’ Force Awakens soundtrack resonating in the background, its sonorous beats both familiar and new. There certainly has been an awakening in the Force – and I hope that same surge of positivity and excitement drives us into 2016 with lots of surprises and awesome DQ goodness. Here’s hoping.
Have a great Christmas and New Year.
Happy gaming.
MJW
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Leia, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca - it's so good to see all of you again. Oh, and hi, new kids, I guess they ain't so bad.
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Thursday, December 17, 2015
Inkle: Going round and around...
80 Days is an adventure that spans the entire globe. There are hundreds of routes to choose from. But won't that mean players only see a tiny proportion of the content?
Like everything we've done so far, 80 Days takes existing ideas and pushes them a little further. Last year, when we were developing the first part of our Sorcery! series we made the discovery that pinning an interactive, choice-based story onto a map gave it an amazing sense of breadth, openness and exploration. With Frankenstein - which had no such visual map - the number one question we were asked was, "Do my choices make any difference?" With Sorcery, it was "how many different ways are there to explore?"
But that breadth of content also made for a game that was very wide, at the cost of making a game that was long and a lot of reviews complained about this. Our response was to make Sorcery! 2 about four times bigger - but also, to build a mechanic into that game to help players see more of that content. (No spoilers! You want to know what that mechanic is then play the game.)
Replayable interactive fiction
For 80 Days we're developing that approach further. We want to make a game that you don't play once, but can play and replay several times, and will always have more to offer you. Mixing authored content with randomised elements, every game will be a bit different, with new secrets to discover and short-cuts to take.
What might be a profitable route on one journey could be disastrous on the next - so every time you travel, you'll need to pay close attention to the hints and clues you can learn from the people you meet about which way to go.
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Inkle: New Adventures
With Sorcery! 4 well underway, we're looking ahead to our next big project. After four years of adapting books - interactive and otherwise - into great, interactive reading experiences, we're looking to expand outwards a little.
A new game is a precious, fragile thing: this game doesn't have a name, and any mechanics and systems it might contain could be flung away at a moment's notice if a better idea comes along. 80 Days went through ten or so major iterations before reaching its final combination of cities, journeys, trading, health and conversations.
The Pillars of the Game
But there a few things we're certain of - the pillars of the game, around which we hope to build our temple.
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It's going to be made in Unity. After so long making iOS-first games, this is quite a change for us, but we want to be releasing our games across as many platforms as we can.
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It's going to use a next-generation version of our ink writing engine. We'll talk a bit more about this in the coming months, but ink2 takes all the best parts about ink1 and adds more flexibility and power.
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It's going to use dialogue. A lot of dialogue. In every game we've made, we've found dialogue is what works the best - so much so, that we told 80 Days entirely through one character's voice.
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It's about a partnership. Two characters are better than one, especially if you're game is about dialogue! We discovered this the moment Jann the Minimite first appeared back in Sorcery!, and the combination of Passepartout and Fogg is at the heart of 80 Days.
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It's going to be beautiful.
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It's going to take you somewhere you have never been before. For the first time, we aren't adapting anything, but starting from scratch. That's exciting, but also terrifying - what if people don't like the world we've created?
That's what we know for certain so far. Discovering the rest of the game is like caving - exploring dark passages, retreating from dead-ends, and occasionally holding one's breath to swim through a flooded, darkened chamber in the hope of coming up on the other side...
We'll tell you more, once we get there.
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Inkle: Should you play 80 DAYS?
Going the Extra Mile
We've been lucky enough to enjoy some excellent reviews of 80 DAYS since its launch (such as this one). But we've never seen anything quite like this from Cool Ghosts... Moustaches at the ready!
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Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Renga in Blue: Adventure II: Sewer Maze
I posted long ago about what I thought was a general instant-death: d YOU ARE IN AN INCLINED SHAFT WHICH STEEPENS AT THIS POINT. THE WALLS ARE COVERED IN A THIN LAYER OF SLIME MAKING IT VERY SLIPPERY. BELOW YOU THE SHAFT IS FILLED WITH DARK WATER WHICH SURGES RHYTHMICALLY. THE SMELL OF THE SEA […]
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Sibyl Moon Games: A great article I couldn’t have written – Max Gladstone, on fight scenes
I wrote my first fight scene in 2012. I know this because I was bewildered by how difficult it was to write, and then abruptly realized that I’d never written one before. Despite increasing practice and experience, I am still fumbling about in the dark, and I am not the … Keep reading →
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Renga in Blue: imaginary games from imaginary universes: Phase 2 update
(Read the original post for more details on the rules.) We currently have 32 participants busily working on their entries. Please note that Phase 2 allows late entrants, so if you are still wanting to participate, let me know and I can send a review set.
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Feel the Burn by GA Aiken
Bloodthirsty loonies need love too, and GA Aiken knows all their stories.
The post Feel the Burn by GA Aiken appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Cthulhu 1776: Converting Colonial Gothic to Call of Cthulhu
A few months ago I posted about the release of the Colonial Gothic: Lovecraft sourcebook. The shadow of the Colonial period looms over much of Lovecraft’s writing, reflected in his descriptions of Innsmouth and Arkham and taking a more active role in stories like The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and […]
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Sibyl Moon Games: Your Game Idea Is Too Big (But You’re Making It Anyway)
In a recent post at intfiction.org, a poster asked for advice on a (very) complex text-based game they wanted to create. The postscript read:
Also, yes, I am aiming WAY too high, thank you for noticing, especially considering my complete and utter lack of skill, practice, and focus, but … Keep reading →
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The Billionaire’s Christmas Bargain by Joely Sue Burkhart
How cute - the hero's best Christmas gift is discovering how much he likes being a submissive.
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Monday, December 14, 2015
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Undo Restart Restore: ICIDS 2015: Highlights
Last week I attended the ICIDS 2015 conference in Copenhagen. The conference was about academic research on Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) which is very close to what we call Interactive Fiction, with some key differences. The topics revolved mostly around making computer-generated story content, emergent gameplay, and autonomous non-player characters. In a nutshell you could Continue reading ICIDS 2015: Highlights →
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Twelfth Krampus Night by Matt Manochio
This sickening, violent, and gory mess is just what every Christmas needs.
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The Christmas Promise by Sean D Young
Hey look, it's a bad communication story!
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Saturday, December 12, 2015
Black Eagle by Karen Kay
Romances with native Americans can be a gamble, but this one isn't bad. Isn't great either, but hey, I'd live.
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what will you do now?: So long, farewell
A notice: all new game reviews and writings and whatnot will henceforth be posted...
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Emily Short: Deathless: The City’s Thirst (Max Gladstone)
Disclaimer: I currently have a contract with Choice of Games. I bought this game with my own money, but I am not financially disinterested in Choice of Games projects. I am writing about this one because I particularly liked it, … Continue reading →
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Renga in Blue: Adventure II: The Walkthrough Method
While I’ve played many, many adventure games throughout my life, I usually have relied on hintbooks, walkthroughs, or the like to take them to completion. The most adventure difficult game of any length I’ve ever beaten without hints is Peter Killworth’s Countdown to Doom (from 1982). I am still not sure if it was simply […]
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Adventure II: The Walkthrough Method
While I’ve played many, many adventure games throughout my life, I usually have relied on hintbooks, walkthroughs, or the like to take them to completion. The most adventure difficult game of any length I’ve ever beaten without hints is Peter Killworth’s Countdown to Doom (from 1982). I am still not sure if it was simply […]
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Witch Island by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime
The best thing about this story is the scenery.
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Bloodsworth Bayou
Frenchman Street had been decked with lanterns last night, and the jazz clubs thronged with revellers, their faces made oddly skull-like by the half-lights. A bottle of Restoration Ale firmly in hand, you accidentally trod on somebody's foot when exiting the Black Cat. The girl was Creole, and young, and startlingly beautiful, but her mouth twisted into a snarl, and she muttered something under her breath...
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December update and art preview
As 2015 comes to a close, progress continues on Volume One of Beyond the Morning Mountains and its upcoming release is within sight! All writing is completed, the time-consuming editing and checking process is now done, and plenty of new illustrations have been finished. After much thought I’ve decided to initially offer a special (and […]
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Friday, December 11, 2015
The Digital Antiquarian: Dungeon Master, Part 1: The Making of
After the first Ultima and Wizardry games debuted within months of one another in 1981, dizzying formal or technical leaps were few and far between in the realm of the CRPG for the next half-decade. Richard Garriott doggedly expanded on Ultima I‘s decidedly limited scope of possibility with each new iteration of his series, but […]
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Thursday, December 10, 2015
My Big Trip — To Brazil!
In a few days, my wife and I are headed on the trip of a lifetime. A bucket-list trip, if you will. We’re going to Brazil, first to take a boat down the Amazon, see the jungle, and then head to Rio de Janeiro to see the sites like the one above. I know what […]
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Deluxe Goblin Lake for Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls
Way back in 1977 I wrote the first mini-dungeon–Goblin Lake–for Flying Buffalo. Illustrated by the incomparable Liz Danforth, it told the story of a young goblin returning to his home in Fishsquish Lake after years of adventuring in the upper […]Continue reading «Deluxe Goblin Lake for Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls»
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Emily Short: Recent IF for iOS
Monstr (Laura Michet, Kent Sutherland, Meagan Trott, Emily So, Travis Ford DeCastro, Rachel Sala, and Rosstin Murphy) is a game in which you’re searching for the dating profile of a monster you saw at a bus stop. It’s made up primarily … Continue reading →
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低身長症とは？／ただ背が低いのは病気じゃない
「ただ背が低いだけじゃ低身長症とはいいません」低身長症とは、簡単に言うと「規定値以下しか身長が伸びない病気」をいいます。規定値はこちらのページで紹介しているように△2SD以下の身長をいい、多くは成長ホルモンの分泌不全が原因です。低身長症は、「小人症」ともいいますが、差別的な用語ということで今は使っている方は多くありません。その低身長症ですが、大きく分けて５つの病名に分かれます。SGA性低身長症（胎内発育不全性低身長）成長ホルモン分泌不全性低身長症染色体異常による低身長ラロン型低身長症特発性低身長多くの場合、５番目の「特発性低身長」と診断されます。それぞれの病名について簡単に解説してきます。SGA性低身長症（胎内発育不全性低身長）母親の胎内にいる段階で、何らかの要因から身長が伸び悩んでしまったことによる低身長症です。2才～3才の段階での身長が△2SD以下が基準です。こちらは多くの場合5才になるまでに基準値まで背が伸びることがほとんどのため、それほど心配はありません。成長ホルモン分泌不全性低身長症腫瘍などの病気や、交通事故などの外的衝撃によって成長ホルモンの分泌が少ない、もしくはまったくされなくなってしまったことによる低身長症のことをいいます。染色体異常による低身長遺伝子異常による低身長症です。父親の精子のDNA染色体異常が原因となり、年齢を追うごとに2％づつ発症率が高まるといわれています。ラロン型低身長症こちらは他の低身長症とは違い、成長ホルモン自体は分泌されますが、肝臓の働きが悪く成長ホルモンが身長が伸びるまで及ばない症状です。特発性低身長この突発性低身長がもっとも多く診断されますが、「原因不明の低身長」を総じて突発性低身長と診断されます。現代医学では解明できない「その他」の病気です。以上のように、低身長症は５つの病名に分類されます。ただ単純に背が低めというだけでは「低身長症」と言わないことに注意しましょう。.
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Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
He's a cold-hearted rake! Look into his eyes! Ooh... those eyes... I'm feeling sleepy...
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Wednesday, December 9, 2015
These Heterogenous Tasks: A Year Without Zombies 11: I Aten’t Dead
(For 2015, I am trying to avoid playing any games or consuming any static media with zombies in them. My reasons, and other fun things like ‘what exactly counts as a zombie?’, are explained here.) Most of my game energies have … Continue reading →
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Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan
Now I remember why I don't like kids. Sneaky little bastards, all of them.
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Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Renga in Blue: Adventure II: Tidy Dwarves
(It has been a while, so you might want to refresh yourself with my previous two posts on Adventure II.) (Three different commercial release covers. Notice how two of them feature a sword, but there is no sword in the game. Pictures via Pintrest, Ye Olde Infocom Shoppe, and Maximum PC.) I originally planned to […]
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Adventure II: Tidy Dwarves
(It has been a while, so you might want to refresh yourself with my previous two posts on Adventure II.) (Three different commercial release covers. Notice how two of them feature a sword, but there is no sword in the game. Pictures via Pintrest, Ye Olde Infocom Shoppe, and Maximum PC.) I originally planned to […]
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Sibyl Moon Games: On Risk Legacy, and failing to do the math
Risk Legacy is a campaign version of Risk. It plays like a house-rules version of Risk initially, but the game changes dramatically over time as players customize it. Not only do players write on the board and put terrain-altering stickers and notes on the board, but the various factions … Keep reading →
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Emily Short: Writers’ Guild Awards 2016
Short lists have been announced for awards from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, and there is a category for video game writing. I am pleased about this because a) it’s cool to have recognition alongside writers for screen, radio, … Continue reading →
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Segue: Impressions: Lime Ergot
Lime Ergot, by Caleb Wilson, has just been republished by sub-Q Magazine – Which, full disclosure, also published my work in the past, particularly Lyreless which came out last week. I think of Lime Ergot as a pretty important entry in the canon of parser fiction, and also a very good starting point to introduce players new to parser IF, so I’m taking the occasion to make it all about myself and write a few impressions of it. This post contains mild spoilers.
x general
General Livia Tudor-Adolphus is the senior colonial officer left on St. Stellio. She is a tiny woman in her eighties. She is wearing a dark green uniform. Beneath a peaked hat, and a wig made of white metal molded into the shape of tight curls, her face is tanned and wrinkled. Her eyes are like small and perfectly formed spheres of ice.
The rotting corpses of colonial empires are not a standard-issue settings for horror; we like our decline and decay distant, preferably European and Gothic. There is a heat-rash rawness to Lime Ergot that discomfits, and its backdrop in the ugly haze of postcolonial states is crucial to building it.
We don’t associate horror with heat or with tropicality at all, of course; in our horror stories, people waste away from consumption or freeze to death.
A year or so ago, during one a pretty bad outbreak of dengue fever in São Paulo, I came down with it. Given modern medical treatment, one’s first such infection is not much worse than a nasty bout of influenza; you spend about a month laid up and experiencing the umwelt of hot garbage baking on the pavement.
This is a disease that has no antiviral treatment presently available and which, in its worst possible form, causes internal bleeding until death if untreated.
There is not, I don’t think, nearly enough horror about mosquitoes silently carrying deadly disease, about malarial delirium states, about the self-defeating panic inherent in heatstroke.
x tangle
This tangle of bushes grows from water at the end of the pier. Deep inside the maze of stems and leaves you spot a skull. Beside the skull is a rusted sword.x sword
Sitting beneath the rusted sword is a fat lizard, motionless as a statue.x lizard
The lizard sits curled around the rim of a golden goblet scaled with grime.x grime
After a few years on St. Stellio, everything becomes grimy.
Lime Ergot is a telescoping perception puzzle. This is where its importance to the parser medium lies: it uses the traditional construction of objects and subobjects to recast movement and perception. For decades, the parser was very concerned with “mimetic” representations of realistic space, with achieving a form of immersion that is present, also, in graphical video games; particularly with achieving the sort of materiality and space that is also found in those games.
Works like this upend this ideal. They present a space that has to be traversed on different terms. You play Lime Ergot by falling into its descriptive text, one layer at a time. Most uses of this device only go a couple layers deep and rely on increasingly-minute detail; Lime Ergot discards our spatial expectations entirely, and not only builds in an implausible number of layers of perception, many of the moves are lateral or even not spatial at all. It’s probably one of the best representations, in fiction, of a hallucinatory or dissociating state.
It’s also very much of its medium, so much of its surprise and power deriving from the veiled way in which the parser can only ever suggest what you might do but never entirely enumerate options for you. In many instances, this haze of unknown quantities presented by the parser is a hindrance; in Lime Ergot, it’s a core strength of the piece.
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小学生の身長を高めるサプリメント｜料理が苦手ならコレ！
小学生の子供の身長が伸びない！背を伸ばすのに栄養が必要なのは分かってるけど料理下手で・・・身長に必要な栄養素なんて毎日料理で補えない！小学生の頃の身長に必要なのは、栄養運動睡眠です。運動と睡眠は比較的簡単にクリアできますが、意外に難しいのが「栄養」ですよね。特に料理が苦手なママにとっては、毎日の献立考えるので精一杯。栄養価のことまで考える余裕なんてないはず・・・。それでも何とか子供の背を高くするサポートをしたいなら、「サプリメント」という選択肢もあります。サプリメントってなんか怖い 「サプリメントってなんか怖い、副作用とか大丈夫なの？」昔ニュースでダイエットサプリの副作用問題で騒がれたことがあります。それでなくとも「サプリメント」って響きが怖いですよね。実際にサプリメントといっても様々で、中には危険な成分を含んでいるものもあるかも知れません。特に子供が口にするサプリメントですから、安全性にはより一層の注意が必要ですよね。そこで、サプリメントが安全化どうか？の簡単な調べ方を教えます。【サプリメントの安全性の確認方法】商品自体に知名度がある。これが一番手っ取り早く、なおかつ確実かも知れません。商品自体に知名度があり、飲んでいる方も多いサプリならば一定の安全性があると考えられます。もし、問題があれば早いうちに騒がれているでしょうし、サプリを飲んだ方の評判なども調べやすいから便利です。逆に知名度の低いサプリの場合、口コミや評判を確認することも難しく、知名度が高いものに比べて安全性が低いと考えた方がいいでしょう。成分に添加物が記載されてない、もしくは少ない「添加物」この響きがクセモノです。添加物とは：食品を作る際に必要な製造溶剤つまり、着色料や凝固剤、甘味料、酸化防止剤などなど、「その他のもの」という位置づけです。正直なところ何が入っていても不思議ではありません。もちろん、最低限の添加物は必要なのかもしれませんが、「添加物が主成分」のようなものは避けましょう。見分け方としては商品パッケージの「成分表示」です。成分表示は含有量が多い成分が前の方に記載されるようになっているため、・添加物の表示がない・添加物の表示が成分表示のなるべく後ろの方にあるものを選ぶのがいいでしょう。品質チェックを受けている最後に、サプリメント自体が品質チェックを受けていることが明確なものなどが挙げられます。特に外部の品質チェック機関からの承認が下りているものは安心ですね。内部のチェック機関であっても、この品質チェックがされているだけでも安心感が増します。また、製薬会社自体がサプリメントを販売しているケースもあり、この場合も安心感が強いといえるでしょう。子供の背を高くするためのサプリメントの選び方サプリメントの安心な選び方は上記の３つを守っていれば大丈夫だと思います。ですが、身長促進サプリメントは非常に多くの数が販売されており、それら全部を親の目でチェックするのは非常に難しいですし面倒です。そこで当サイトで知名度の高い子供の身長を応援するサプリメントを紹介しておこうと思います。カルシウムグミノビタセノビックドクターセノビHGHデルタバランスアルファGPCドクターズチョイス身長革命スクスクカルシウム食べる海藻カルシウムこの辺りのサプリメントは有名です。じゃあ、この中で一番コスパがいい、もしくは身長を伸ばすのに効果的なサプリメントは？というのは、別のページにてご紹介したいと思います。サプリだけで背が伸びるわけではないけど、サポートにはなるサプリメントを飲めば、それで背が伸びる、というのは間違いです。もちろん、サプリメントには背を伸ばすのに必要な栄養素が含まれているためたまたま身長が伸び悩んでいる原因をサプリが解決してくれる。その結果として一気に身長が伸びたというケースも少なくありません。大切なのは毎日の食事、睡眠、運動です。サプリメントはあくまで「身長を伸ばすための補助」としてサポート的に使うのを忘れないでくださいね。
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子供の身長が低いのは遺伝？【無関係】背の高さと遺伝の関係
子供の 身長は遺伝だけでは決まらない!「うちの子もうすぐ小学校４年生にもなるのに、なかなか身長が伸びない。」「でも、ママもパパもでは高くないから仕方ないのかな?」そんなことで悩んでいませんか?大丈夫！身長は遺伝だけでは決まりません。慎重に必要なのは適切な睡眠、栄養、運動の3つです。この3つの要素を満たすことにより子ども物から成長ホルモンが分泌されそれによって背が伸びていくのです。成長ホルモンを分泌させるこれら睡眠、栄養、運動のについてはこちらのページで説明していますので参考にしてくださいさて、身長と遺伝の関係ですが、もし身長が遺伝だけで決まってしまうのであれば、今と昔では日本人の平均身長は大きく変わらないはずです。でも、日本人の平均身長は極端な話、江戸時代が140センチだったのに対し、今では平均身長170センチというのも珍しくないですよね。昔と比較して睡眠と栄養、運動という面では睡眠と運動は大きく減っているかと思います。ですが栄養という点においては、昔と比較したら現代の方が多く摂取できているはずです。成長ホルモンの分泌にはアルギニンという成分を摂取することが有効です。アルギニンは肉類に多く含まれていますが、昔は肉を食べる機会というのはあまり多くありませんでした。しかし食べるものが西洋化している現代では、主に肉食が中止になっています。あなたのお子様もハンバーグやステーキなど肉類が好きではありませんか?こうした肉類の中に含まれているアルギニンという成分が成長ホルモンの分泌に大きく役立っているのです。そのため、もしあなたが子供の成長が思うように伸びないと思っているのであればそれは遺伝ではなく、その他の要因によると考えた方がいいかもしれませんね。まとめ遺伝と身長はの関係は大きくない子供の身長が低いと思っているならば、その他の要因を考えてみる。子供の身長に必要な４つの要素については下記を参照>>子供の身長を伸ばす４つの要素へ
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His Housekeeper’s Christmas Wish by Louise Allen
This is the story your Christmas needs. Keep alcohol close, though, just in case.
The post His Housekeeper’s Christmas Wish by Louise Allen appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Monday, December 7, 2015
背を高くするための「最強」運動法はコレ！
昔から運動をすることによって背が伸びなくなる、逆に背が伸びやすくなると色々な説がありますが、結論から言うと「適切な運動をすることで背は伸びやすくなります」しかし運動にもジョギング、水泳、バスケット、バレーボールなどのスポーツ。追いかけっこや鬼ごっこ、かくれんぼなどの昔ながらの遊び。バーベル上げや加圧トレーニング、スクワットなどの筋トレなどなど。様々な運動があります。その中でも「小学生の身長を高くするために最強の運動」を教えます。結論から言うと、「子供が楽しくできて、全身を使う運動」これが最強の身長を高くするための運動です。極めてあいまいですが、これには理由があります。背を高くするための運動の条件は以下の２つ。楽しく継続できる運動であること全身を動かす運動、ジャンプなどが伴うものだと尚良しこの２つの条件を満たしているものであれば、なんでもＯＫです。バスケやバレーは確かに全身運動ですし、ジャンプなどの縦の動きも伴いますので身長を伸ばすための条件はそろっています。しかし、肝心のお子さんに興味がない、または好きではなければ精神的なストレスになります。ストレスは身長を伸ばすためにデメリットとなりますので、「興味もなければ好きでもないスポーツをやっても効果は薄い」ということです。それであれば、楽しく友達と鬼ごっこでもしていた方が背を伸ばすための条件には当てはまります。ただし、「運動しすぎは禁物」です。あまりに激しく運動しすぎると、・切れた筋肉の補修にタンパク質が使われる・疲労回復にタンパク質が使用される結果として成長ホルモンの分泌の妨げになります。何事も「ほどほど」が重要ということですね。
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Sunday, December 6, 2015
Emily Short: ProcJam Entries, NaNoGenMo, and my Generated Generation Guidebook
ProcJam happened last month, pulling together lots of different awesome things: A procedural château generator (or perhaps you’d prefer a procedural Palladian façade generator). A Twitter bot that tweets about odd clothing combos. Ordovician generates strange sea-creatures that swim across your … Continue reading →
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Magic systems that don’t warp the world
I’ve been taking some time away from my Legend of The Wayfarer last month to do some Advanced Fighting Fantasy stuff and real life stuff, but I’ve updated the system (and I’ll be updating books 1-5 to fit it later) and I’m about half way through book 6. One thing that I had an issue […]
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Convalescence by Maynard Sims
Ooh, a creepy Gothic kind of chiller tale... with a twist that can be seen coming from a mile away.
The post Convalescence by Maynard Sims appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Wrapped Up in a Beau by Angelita Gill
A pleasant story, but the author seems to be on a mission to cram as many details in as few sentences as possible.
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Strictly Business by Sheryl Nantus
Why have a Domme if she's just going to be Bridget Jones in a leather corset?
The post Strictly Business by Sheryl Nantus appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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The Rats of Midnight by Sean Munger
Her office is full of human-sacrificing rat-worshiping creeps, but she is more concerned about how to respond to her superiors' emails.
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Saturday, December 5, 2015
Paired Pursuit by Clare Murray
"Oh god, I was so scared trying to get out of town - TWO HOT GUYS OH MY GOD I MUST TAKE THEM ALL IN AT ONCE!"
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背を延ばすのに必須の「成長ホルモン」を出すための【重要項目】
成長ホルモンを分泌させる４つの重要項目！１．睡眠２．運動３．食事４．精神的な安定小学生の身長を高くするために必要な「成長ホルモン」この成長ホルモンがでなければ背を高くすることができません。ここでは身長に重要な「成長ホルモンを分泌させる４つの重要項目」ということでそれぞれ説明していきたいと思います。睡眠「寝る子は育つ」という言葉にもあるように、身長に必要なものの最重要項目が「睡眠」です。現代っ子は夜更かしをして当たり前、というように考えている親御さんも多いですが、これは大きな間違い。やはり睡眠時間の不足は身長に悪い影響を及ぼすだけでなく、様々なデメリットがあります。・背が伸びにくくなる・学習能力が落ちる・食欲不振になる、逆に過剰な食欲が出る・精神的に不安定になりやすい今回のテーマである「身長」についてですが、成長ホルモンは睡眠時にもっとも多く分泌されます。中でも夜の１０時から深夜３時くらいまでが最も多く分泌されるんです。そのため、理想的には夜９時には布団に入っているくらいがちょうどいいでしょう。また、睡眠が深い場合の方がより多く成長ホルモンが分泌されます。深い睡眠をとるために、テレビやゲーム、スマホなどの電子機器の使用は睡眠前は控えてください。 運動適切な運動は成長ホルモンの分泌を活発にします。運動の質も重要で、体をゆっくりと動かすジョギングのようなものより、飛んだり跳ねたりする激しめの運動の方が成長ホルモンの分泌が多くなります。この理由は筋肉を傷つけるような運動をすることで、傷を治す成分が脳から発せられ、その過程で成長ホルモンも分泌されるからです。ただし、やりすぎは禁物。過度な激しい運動は逆に成長の妨げになりますので、適度な運動をしましょう。野球やサッカー、バスケットボールなどお友達と遊ぶ程度の運動でも十分です。 食事毎日の食事の中でも成長ホルモンの分泌がされやすい、されにくい要因の１つとなります。成長ホルモンが分泌されやすい栄養成分に「アルギニン」というタンパク質があります。このアルギニンは肉や魚に多く含まれていますが、成長期の子供に必要十分な量のアルギニンを摂取させるためには、毎日の食事にも相当気をつけなければなりません。そのため食事面で少しでもケアしたいならば、アルギニン配合のサプリメントで補うという方法もあります。また寝る前の２時間前までに食事を済ませることで、睡眠中の成長ホルモン分泌を促進することができます。 精神的な安定意外に知られていませんが、子供の身長と精神状態には関連性があると言われています。ストレスの多い環境の子供と、ストレスの少ない、安定した精神状態の子供では背の伸び率に大きく差が出るんです。もちろん、精神的に安定している環境の方が背が伸びやすい傾向にあります。これは脳から分泌される成長ホルモンが安定時の方が多く分泌されるということが原因です。 このように、背を伸ばすために必須の成長ホルモンには大きく４つの項目があります。親としては子供の背はある程度伸ばしてあげたいと思いますよね。「うちの子は言うこと聞かないから・・・」ではなく、少しでも上記の事を注意して話し合ってみてください。
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Emily Short: Imaginary Cities (Darran Anderson)
So this year I’ve been trying (with only partial success) to publish a review of a CYOA book on the 5th of each month. “CYOA book” here may be a paper book or a Kindle ebook with links. This month, … Continue reading →
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Easy Target by Kay Thomas
Once again, America will save the world. After it cleans up some mess in its closet first, of course.
The post Easy Target by Kay Thomas appeared first on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.
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Temptation of a Governess by Sarah Mallory
The hero wants to toss the heroine and his late brother's brats out of their home so that he can have drunken orgies. How heartwarming!
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what will you do now?: Voice Box
by B Minus Seven (Twine; IFDB; download to play from here)In this Ectocomp 2015 entry, the unnamed...
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Friday, December 4, 2015
A LETTER FROM PAUL
My name is Paul Gresty. I'm the lead writer for The Frankenstein Wars. I was watching our Kickstarter page very closely the morning the project finished. When that countdown counter clicked to zero and I saw that we'd hit our target - and we'd reached it literally seconds before - I was elated, and proud, and supremely thankful to our backers, and everybody who'd done so much as share a link to the project online.
That first feeling of elation lasted for about twenty-five minutes. Then came a looming anxiety, a sense of 'Wait - now we're actually going to do this.'
The taskmaster was like this guy, but about 10% more brutal.
The Cubus guys and I had some further planning discussions, the first time we'd been able to do so with an exact budget for the project in mind. Jaume Carballo taught me to write code in a way that the Cubus parser would find agreeable. He was a harsh taskmaster.
The fact that we'd grazed past our minimum target for the project imposed some restrictions on us. Not so much from a technical standpoint - we'd always maintained a realistic view of what we could achieve. The greater pressure came from time limitations. Put simply, as we wouldn't be making any money on the game in the short term, it became difficult to make it top priority - we all had to work on the game while simultaneously pushing forward with other projects.
Time constraints notwithstanding, I began writing. The first section of the story takes place on the island of St Helena. The second occurs at the Clerval family home, a chateau a little ways south-east of Paris. I worked on both segments together, sending regular updates to the Cubus guys to check over.
It was around the 20,000-word mark that we realised that the text wasn't ticking the right boxes for us. As a standalone gamebook-style story, it was pretty good. The player takes the role of Anton or Thomas Clerval; the story moves forward as the player attains various objectives, overcoming obstacles and defeating enemies along the way.
But that was never our mission statement with this game. The Frankenstein Wars has always been intended as a more three-dimensional game. It is a story of the transition between fanatical devotion to a cause, and disillusionment with that cause. Of the closeness and the tension that exists between two brothers who are in love with the same woman. The reanimated lazarans of The Frankenstein Wars are neither mindless zombies nor indestructible revenants - rather, they are people who have died once, and been dragged back to life; they must continually question the purpose they find in this new existence when they have already tasted oblivion. Yes, it's a story about remarkable technologies, and how those technologies can be turned to the age-old business of warfare. But, above all, it's a story about the seismic impact of this technology on people - both living people, and the resurrected. And that wasn't coming through.
To my knowledge, these sorts of character-led themes have never really been attempted within the quite specific format of interactive fiction - and we're aiming for a particularly compact style of IF. So, we're exploring and learning as we go along. And that's slowing things down.
The bad news: it's going to take us longer than planned to get the game out to you, our backers. Sorry about that.
The good news: we're behind schedule on this game precisely because we're working hard to create something really innovative and absorbing. We have no intention of phoning in a mediocre IF app. We want The Frankenstein Wars to be something you'll remember.
For my part, I'm succeeding in extricating myself from other time-leeching obligations. I'll very shortly able to work on TFW full time (or very nearly full time). I think progress will come thick and fast thereafter.
And, a bonus: if we ever get around to making a special '20th anniversary edition' of this game, I have a ton of deleted material I'll be able to include as extras.
More news soon, Franken-fans.
P.
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Post Position: A New, Untitled Poem
I hope you enjoy this one, and don’t dismiss it as lighght verse.
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Signed Books Make the Best Gifts!
Looks like it’s a tradition now. First, I offer up my favorite reads of the year. Then, I offer to sign some of my books for you. Which is what’s happening now. If you’re interested, I’ll sign and ship to you, a friend, family, co-worker, Secret Santa, whoever or wherever. Call it $20 even and I’ll […]
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The Digital Antiquarian: The Faery Tale Life of MicroIllusions
With the notable exception of Electronic Arts, the established American software industry was uncertain what to make of the Amiga in the wake of its initial release. Impressive as the machine was, it was also an expensive proposition from a parent company best known for much cheaper computers — and a parent company that was […]
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低身長に効果的といわれる成長ホルモン治療とは
低身長から脱出するために効果的な成長ホルモン治療について分かりやすく説明します。「うちの子、もしかして低身長？」ということで病院に行き、お医者様に低身長症の診断を受けた後の治療法が成長ホルモン治療です。身長を高くする、背を伸ばすためにもっとも重要なのが成長ホルモン。低身長症のほとんどの原因が成長ホルモンが適切に分泌されていないことにあります。この本来であれば分泌されるはずだった成長ホルモンの補充をしてあげるのが「成長ホルモン治療」です。
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Choice of Games: New Hosted Game! “Community College Hero: Trial by Fire” by Eric Moser
There’s a new game in our Hosted Games program ready for you to play! Outwit your professors at superpower school! Ace your exams, date your classmates, and bring down the nation’s most wanted villains to earn your degree. Community College Hero: Trial by Fire is a thrilling 168,000-word interactive novel by Eric Moser, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. You’ve won a scholarship to the nation’s newest college course for heroes! But can you discover your classmates’ secret identities before they learn yours? Choose
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Choice of Games: Pendragon Rising — Seize the throne in the age of King Arthur!
We’re proud to announce that Pendragon Rising, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 25% off until December 11th. Seize the throne in the age of King Arthur! Lead an army of Britons against the darkest of enemies in this epic interactive medieval fantasy novel. “Pendragon Rising” is a thrilling 112,000-word interactive novel by Ian Thomas, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. As the bastard offspring of the aging
from Planet Interactive Fiction http://ift.tt/1IJ7Su3
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