Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Warbringer! – Attempt 1, Part 2

Warbringer! – Attempt 1, Part 2

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srryfn9

When my faithful readers last saw (or read about) Avenger, he was about to bound down the staircase from the Palace roof, ready to do battle with whatever foe (most likely Orcs) awaited him.

I reach a corridor outside the Throne Room, and note a couple of orcs.  What is most telling about their appearance is their apparent fear of whatever creature is climbing the stairs towards this area of the Palace.

Braced for anything from a bail bondsman to a die-hard fan of Pretty Woman, I ready myself.

A three-meter tall Cave Troll (the books swap from yards to meters willy-nilly) emerges from the doorway, whereupon the gutless Orcs rat on me as an ‘enemy’ and it turns towards me, no doubt with a hungry appetite for lightly roasted ninja.

First order of business – Shuriken throwin’ time!

I hit the Troll IN THE FACE (specifically noted in the text) and manage to impair its vision, to the extent that I can now add 2 to my Defence in the inevitable battle.  I also can deduct 4 from its starting Endurance of 20 (!!)

My learned skill of the Kwon’s Flail kick gets a work-out!

Round 1

Kwon’s Flail lands, and does 6 damage.  The Cave Troll is accurate with its club, but I block the blow.

Endurance : Me 14, Cave Troll 10

Round 2

Still staggering from blocking the previous blow, we both miss.

Round 3

I hit (just) and do 3 damage.  The Troll hits, penetrates my block, but thankfully only does 3 damage (maximum was 12!)

Endurance : Me 11, Cave Troll 7

Round 4

We both miss again, no doubt tiring from the rigours of the day.

Round 5

My glorious spinning kick lands and causes the maximum 8 damage, meaning the Cave Troll, in the next life, can go find a bridge to hide under to scare children.

 

When I spoke of the Troll’s next life, I may have jinxed myself.  Although the Orcs flee the vicinity, I note that the Troll’s body begins the process of resurrecting and restoring itself.  I take the spoils of my (temporary) victory and leave the area, following the Orcs.

As I reach the entrance to the Palace, an Orc chieftan is attempting to rally his troops, using the ‘foulest language [I’ve] ever heard’.  What – did he compare them to Richard Nixon or Margaret Thatcher?

Anyway.

I can either feign an attack and then attempt to leap over their heads, or raise my Sceptre, commanding them to bow down before me as Ruler of Irsmuncast.

Yeah, I’m not confident about the second one, even if the first one didn’t sound about ten times more exciting.

Two of the Orcs are aware enough to fire their crossbows at me as I leap over the heads.  Ah, but they reckon without my skill at Arrow Cutting!

I manage to sweep both bolts away, as one subsequently buries itself in the back of an unfortunate Orc.

I lose any pursuit in a ‘twinkling’ and begin to try and save the city of which I am nominally ruler.

Sorry – short post today due to other commitments.  I’m sure there’s be more action and blood tomorrow.

Stats: Endurance : 11, Punch Modifier : +2, Kick Modifier: +3, Throw Modifier : 0, Fate Modifier : +1, Inner Force : 1

 





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May 31, 2016 at 09:56PM

Far Far Futures: Interactive Fiction’s Twitter Bots

Far Far Futures: Interactive Fiction’s Twitter Bots

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There are over a dozen authors of interactive fiction who have also made twitter bots. It’s a natural cross-over: in …

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May 31, 2016 at 06:23PM

Final Testament is Out!!!

Final Testament is Out!!!

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The Battlecruiser Alamo has finally located the Xandari Empire, the malevolent force that they ventured deep into unknown territory to find, and has stumbled into the middle of a decades-long war. With thousands of refugees depending on them for protection, enemy fleets in hot pursuit and saboteurs threatening to betray them all to their enemies, all depends on Lieutenant-Captain Orlova and her crew as they prepare for a desperate last stand against impossible odds...

Buy it now at http://ift.tt/1TVYLi4!





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May 31, 2016 at 03:21PM

Computer games – Battle for Wesnoth

Computer games – Battle for Wesnoth

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Battle for Wesnoth is a brilliant turn based fantasy strategy game for the low low price of $0.  I had a period where I just played that game in all of my free time and if you played it, you could see why. 

The concept is quite simple.  You are the commander of an army from a particular classic fantasy faction (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, dragonfolk, Lizardfolk, Merfolk being the most common).  You then summon units which you move around a hex map across different terrains in order to destroy the other faction. 

That is the essence of it but there are many aspects to the strategy of Wesnoth which make it so great.  The map is made up of different terrains which have different effects on defence and movement.  They are quite intuitive – for example, mountains offer the best defence and take up the biggest number of movement points.

There are also castle hexes which allow you to summon your units.  You cannot, however, summon whatever you want.  You are limited by a list and how much gold you have.  You get more gold by owning village hexes.  Units that stop in villages for a whole turn are healed. 

There are many different types of unit – each faction has variations on a theme.  There are units that are good at offense, units that are good at defence, units that heal, units that are fast, mounted units, units that are good at ranged attack (they still have to attack from an adjacent square but if the defender does not have a ranged attack then they cannot fight back) and units with special attacks such as slowing attacks or poisonous attacks.

Also, units gain experience with each battle or kill.  If they get enough, they can level up and become more powerful.  Most units start at level 1 and can go up to level 3.  If you are playing a story game then you can carry any surviving units over to the next scenario.

I haven’t even got round to unit alignment (chaotic, lawful or neutral) and how the time of day affects their attacks or how the game accounts for different attack types and how each unit has a resistance score for each type.  There are several more subtle details like this that make the game a great exercise in strategy. 

If all Wesnoth had were scenarios where you pick or create a map, your faction and an enemy faction, I could still play the game for ages.  however, it goes much further than that as the game also provides several story based games (campaigns) with interlinked scenarios.  The stories are far from the standard ‘kill all the opponents’ aim and usually have some great plot twists such as the original campaign Heir to the Throne.  Each scenario in a campaign offers a some interesting strategy choices.  Some scenarios involve you going from A to B.  Some involve you you killing a certain number of units.  Some involve you surviving a certain number of turns.  As well as the official aim, you also have to make sure that your units are getting enough experience so that they will level up for the more difficult, later scenarios. 

On top of that, there are an infinite number of other scenarios and eras (collections of new factions with interesting units) available from Battle for Wesnoth’s large and dedicated fanbase – enough to keep you happy for months.

Battle for Wesnoth is simple to learn yet very deep in terms of strategy, its rules providing an infinite number of units, scenarios and campaigns.  It will surely keep you hooked for months. 

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May 31, 2016 at 01:12PM

Computer games – Battle for Wesnoth

Computer games – Battle for Wesnoth

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Battle for Wesnoth is a brilliant turn based fantasy strategy game for the low low price of $0.  I had a period where I just played that game in all of my free time and if you played it, you could see why. 

The concept is quite simple.  You are the commander of an army from a particular classic fantasy faction (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, dragonfolk, Lizardfolk, Merfolk being the most common).  You then summon units which you move around a hex map across different terrains in order to destroy the other faction. 

That is the essence of it but there are many aspects to the strategy of Wesnoth which make it so great.  The map is made up of different terrains which have different effects on defence and movement.  They are quite intuitive – for example, mountains offer the best defence and take up the biggest number of movement points.

There are also castle hexes which allow you to summon your units.  You cannot, however, summon whatever you want.  You are limited by a list and how much gold you have.  You get more gold by owning village hexes.  Units that stop in villages for a whole turn are healed. 

There are many different types of unit – each faction has variations on a theme.  There are units that are good at offense, units that are good at defence, units that heal, units that are fast, mounted units, units that are good at ranged attack (they still have to attack from an adjacent square but if the defender does not have a ranged attack then they cannot fight back) and units with special attacks such as slowing attacks or poisonous attacks.

Also, units gain experience with each battle or kill.  If they get enough, they can level up and become more powerful.  Most units start at level 1 and can go up to level 3.  If you are playing a story game then you can carry any surviving units over to the next scenario.

I haven’t even got round to unit alignment (chaotic, lawful or neutral) and how the time of day affects their attacks or how the game accounts for different attack types and how each unit has a resistance score for each type.  There are several more subtle details like this that make the game a great exercise in strategy. 

If all Wesnoth had were scenarios where you pick or create a map, your faction and an enemy faction, I could still play the game for ages.  however, it goes much further than that as the game also provides several story based games (campaigns) with interlinked scenarios.  The stories are far from the standard ‘kill all the opponents’ aim and usually have some great plot twists such as the original campaign Heir to the Throne.  Each scenario in a campaign offers a some interesting strategy choices.  Some scenarios involve you going from A to B.  Some involve you you killing a certain number of units.  Some involve you surviving a certain number of turns.  As well as the official aim, you also have to make sure that your units are getting enough experience so that they will level up for the more difficult, later scenarios. 

On top of that, there are an infinite number of other scenarios and eras (collections of new factions with interesting units) available from Battle for Wesnoth’s large and dedicated fanbase – enough to keep you happy for months.

Battle for Wesnoth is simple to learn yet very deep in terms of strategy, its rules providing an infinite number of units, scenarios and campaigns.  It will surely keep you hooked for months. 






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May 31, 2016 at 01:12PM

Issue 15 - Published!

Issue 15 - Published!

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Issue #14 is now available for download from the site: http://ift.tt/1ukq1LK
104 pages of gamebook goodness. As usual, feedback is appreciated!



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May 31, 2016 at 12:54PM

Computer games - Battle for Wesnoth

Computer games - Battle for Wesnoth

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Battle for Wesnoth is a brilliant turn based fantasy strategy game for the low low price of $0.  I had a period where I just played that game in all of my free time and if you played it, you could see why. 

The concept is quite simple.  You are the commander of an army from a particular classic fantasy faction (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, dragonfolk, Lizardfolk, Merfolk being the most common).  You then summon units which you move around a hex map across different terrains in order to destroy the other faction. 

That is the essence of it but there are many aspects to the strategy of Wesnoth which make it so great.  The map is made up of different terrains which have different effects on defence and movement.  They are quite intuitive - for example, mountains offer the best defence and take up the biggest number of movement points.

There are also castle hexes which allow you to summon your units.  You cannot, however, summon whatever you want.  You are limited by a list and how much gold you have.  You get more gold by owning village hexes.  Units that stop in villages for a whole turn are healed. 




There are many different types of unit - each faction has variations on a theme.  There are units that are good at offense, units that are good at defence, units that heal, units that are fast, mounted units, units that are good at ranged attack (they still have to attack from an adjacent square but if the defender does not have a ranged attack then they cannot fight back) and units with special attacks such as slowing attacks or poisonous attacks.

Also, units gain experience with each battle or kill.  If they get enough, they can level up and become more powerful.  Most units start at level 1 and can go up to level 3.  If you are playing a story game then you can carry any surviving units over to the next scenario.

I haven't even got round to unit alignment (chaotic, lawful or neutral) and how the time of day affects their attacks or how the game accounts for different attack types and how each unit has a resistance score for each type.  There are several more subtle details like this that make the game a great exercise in strategy. 

If all Wesnoth had were scenarios where you pick or create a map, your faction and an enemy faction, I could still play the game for ages.  however, it goes much further than that as the game also provides several story based games (campaigns) with interlinked scenarios.  The stories are far from the standard 'kill all the opponents' aim and usually have some great plot twists such as the original campaign Heir to the Throne.  Each scenario in a campaign offers a some interesting strategy choices.  Some scenarios involve you going from A to B.  Some involve you you killing a certain number of units.  Some involve you surviving a certain number of turns.  As well as the official aim, you also have to make sure that your units are getting enough experience so that they will level up for the more difficult, later scenarios. 

On top of that, there are an infinite number of other scenarios and eras (collections of new factions with interesting units) available from Battle for Wesnoth's large and dedicated fanbase - enough to keep you happy for months.

Battle for Wesnoth is simple to learn yet very deep in terms of strategy, its rules providing an infinite number of units, scenarios and campaigns.  It will surely keep you hooked for months. 






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May 31, 2016 at 12:39PM

Sibyl Moon Games: Emily Short’s “Bring Out Your Dead” SemiJam

Sibyl Moon Games: Emily Short’s “Bring Out Your Dead” SemiJam

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Hi, everyone!

To quote Granny Weatherwax, I ATEN’T DED. (Just busy.)

Emily Short is organizing the online semijam “Bring Out Your Dead”, which runs from June 17 to June 24 this year. The details:

Bring Out Your Dead is an event for sharing dead WIPs and experiments that you don’t expect to finish, but that you’d like to show to someone anyway. It’s a chance to cleanse your hard drive, move on from old ideas, and salvage some learning from things that didn’t work out. It’s also an opportunity for your community to learn from your mistakes — which can be just as useful as learning from a success. Ambitious follies, bizarre experiments, toys, and notions that in retrospect never had a chance — all are welcome.

As you may have divined from my blog, I’m a big believer in learning from mistakes (mine and everyone else’s). My current plan is to bring Five Gods Exiled, my procedural generation experiment that never had a working elevator pitch. If someone bribes me with a felt dinosaur, I will also show off my failed Veedercomp entry, which is 5,590 words of extremely incomplete adorable.

If you’re on the fence about participating, I hope you’ll opt in. This is a fantastic opportunity for gamemakers to share knowledge, and I’m really looking forward to it!





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May 31, 2016 at 11:20AM

The XYZZY Awards: XYZZY Awards 2015 Results

The XYZZY Awards: XYZZY Awards 2015 Results

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The main event of the 2015 XYZZYs is complete for this year. And the winners are…

Best Game: Birdland (Brendan Patrick Hennessy)
Finalist: Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! (Steph Cherrywell)
Finalist: Hollywood Visionary (Aaron A. Reed)
Finalist: Midnight. Swordfight. (Chandler Groover)
Finalist: SPY INTRIGUE (furkle)

Best Writing: Birdland (Brendan Patrick Hennessy)
Finalist: Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory (Katherine Morayati)
Finalist: Midnight. Swordfight. (Chandler Groover)
Finalist: SPY INTRIGUE (furkle)

Best Story: Birdland (Brendan Patrick Hennessy)
Finalist: Arcane Intern (Unpaid) (Astrid Dalmady)
Finalist: Cape (Bruno Dias)
Finalist: Map (Ade McT)

Best Setting: Sunless Sea (Failbetter Games)
Finalist: Beautiful Dreamer (S. Woodson)
Finalist: Chlorophyll (Steph Cherrywell)
Finalist: Neon Haze (Porpentine, Brenda Neotenomie)
Finalist: Sub Rosa (Joey Jones, Melvin Rangasamy)
Finalist: Summit (Phantom Williams)

Best Puzzles: Sub Rosa (Joey Jones, Melvin Rangasamy)
Finalist: Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! (Steph Cherrywell)
Finalist: Chlorophyll (Steph Cherrywell)
Finalist: Oppositely Opal (Buster Hudson)
Finalist: Scroll Thief (Daniel M. Stelzer)
Finalist: Toby’s Nose (Chandler Groover)

Best NPCs: Birdland (Brendan Patrick Hennessy)
Finalist: Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! (Steph Cherrywell)
Finalist: Hollywood Visionary (Aaron A. Reed)
Finalist: Midnight. Swordfight. (Chandler Groover)
Finalist: Nowhere Near Single (kaleidofish)

Best Individual Puzzle: Understanding how the RPS cannon works in Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! (Steph Cherrywell)
Finalist: Catching the fairy in Oppositely Opal (Buster Hudson)
Finalist: The Hard Puzzle in Hard Puzzle (Ade McT)
Finalist: Identifying the murderer in Toby’s Nose (Chandler Groover)
Finalist: The skull in Sub Rosa (Joey Jones, Melvin Rangasamy)

Best Individual NPC: Bell Park in Birdland (Brendan Patrick Hennessy)
Finalist: Dmitri in Midnight. Swordfight. (Chandler Groover)
Finalist: Hana in Hana Feels (Gavin Inglis)
Finalist: Winter Storm Draco in Winter Storm Draco (Ryan Veeder)

Best Individual PC: Bridget in Birdland (Brendan Patrick Hennessy)
Finalist: Martin Voigt in Darkiss! Wrath of the Vampire – Chapter 1: the Awakening (Marco Vallarino)
Finalist: Opal in Oppositely Opal (Buster Hudson)
Finalist: Toby in Toby’s Nose (Chandler Groover)

Best Implementation: Midnight. Swordfight. (Chandler Groover)
Finalist: Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory (Katherine Morayati)

Best Use of Innovation: Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory (Katherine Morayati)
Finalist: Aspel (Emily Short)
Finalist: Midnight. Swordfight. (Chandler Groover)
Finalist: SPY INTRIGUE (furkle)
Finalist: Sunless Sea (Failbetter Games)

Best Technological Development: Raconteur (Bruno Dias)

Best Use of Multimedia: Secret Agent Cinder (Emily Ryan)
Finalist: Sorcery! 3 (Steve Jackson, inkle)
Finalist: Summit (Phantom Williams)
Finalist: Sunless Sea (Failbetter Games)
Finalist: We Know the Devil (Aevee Bee)





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May 31, 2016 at 11:20AM

Fighting Fantazine - Gamebooks Discussion Board

Fighting Fantazine - Gamebooks Discussion Board

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May 31, 2016 at 11:13AM

Emily Short: End of May Link Assortment

Emily Short: End of May Link Assortment

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Upcoming events

June 2-4, it’s Feral Vector in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. I will be there, talking about interactive narrative. Many other people will be there as well.

June 2, 7 PM, you can hear Matt Sheridan Smith talk about his game You Can’t See Any Such Thing in Brooklyn.

June 4, 1 PM, the SF Bay IF group meets.

June 14, 7 PM, the Oxford-London IF Meetup is meeting in London at the Failbetter headquarters to talk about IF and other media.

June 23, the Oxford Festival of the Arts includes some general game content and (at 7 PM) a panel with various Oxford-based indie games folks. Not specifically an IF event, but likely to include some interactive narrative components.

Upcoming Comps and Jams

Discworld Open Jam runs through July 28, and welcomes any works inspired by or set in Discworld.

June 18-25th, I’m running Bring Out Your Dead. Do you have a work-no-longer-in-progress that is gorgeously broken? Massively overambitious? Too niche to finish? Bring it, lay it on the pyre, let us gaze upon its face.

The rational explanation: good science looks at failures as well as successes. This is a chance to learn from one another’s quirky experiments and colorful failures, extremes of interaction that just didn’t work in practice, and other items that the IF community might find archaeologically interesting.

The emotional explanation: sometimes it feels like the hard drive is filling up with unfinished, unfinishable things, and it gets in the way. This is a chance at midsummer, before the height of comp season, to make a final use of those items and clear them out of the way, leaving mental space for the projects that are still viable.

Post-mortem comments and author notes are welcome, and so is checking out and commenting on other people’s work.

New Releases

Robin Johnson’s entertaining choice-parser hybrid Draculaland is now available as an app for Android.

Hadean Lands is coming to Steam, and will become available June 20. There is also DLC! Namely, a certificate in which you swear to solve the game without hints. I can’t decide whether this is genius or cruelty.

And this is not a new release, but Daniel Stelzer’s puzzle-rich Scroll Thief has received significant updates to puzzles. If you haven’t played it (and possibly if you have), now might be a good time to look.

Craft

Failbetter editor Olivia Wood gave a VideoBrains talk about sex writing in games and its pitfalls — with particular attention to Sunless Sea.

Business

Alexis Kennedy is leaving Failbetter Games. Failbetter has had a huge effect on the interactive fiction landscape, very much thanks to Alexis’ initiating vision. The company has of course grown to encompass a great deal of other talent, in writing and editing and community management and other areas, and I expect it will continue to be influential for quite a while to come. But it will be fascinating to see where it goes, and also what Alexis does next.

Elsewhere

IF author Caleb Wilson (Lime Ergot, Starry Seeksorrow, The Northnorth Passage, and others) has a short story coming out in this Swords v. Cthulhu anthology.






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May 31, 2016 at 06:19AM

Warbringer! – Attempt 1, Part 1

Warbringer! – Attempt 1, Part 1

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1741383

Full disclaimer to start with.

As mentioned in my initial posts for this project, this is the one book that I never owned as a youngster.  I borrowed a copy from a friend for a couple of attempts, but didn’t even come close to finishing it without cheating.  All I can remember is that Avenger has to recruit from various potential allies to try and defeat Honoric, and that following a successful attempt at recruiting, there is then a gamebook version of old-school wargaming.

I have one or two other memories of the book, which shall be acknowledged as and when they arise.

Oh, and it is very clear from the start that, unlike all the other books in the series, you do not get a chance to rest and recuperate between books.  You start in media res, as it were, atop the burning palace overseeing the burning city of Irsmuncast.

Its better than those shows that end on a cliffhanger, and then segue to the hero, a week later, drinking a cocktail and talking about how ‘last week’s adventure ended so well, didn’t it?’

So.

Back to the start of Warbringer! (way too many letters to type on a frequent basis).  As mentioned, I am on the top of the palace, wondering what the heck is going on, before I even get a chance to start wondering about Honoric’s invading army.  I have the choice of walking down the nearest staircase, into the interior of the Palance or examining the Orb and Scepter which I collected at the end of the last book.

Ah, Devil-Beast, how does it feel to die painfully and alone?

Even if I hadn’t read this book before, its obvious in the extreme that the Orb is intended to replace my lost eye.  What good the Orb might have otherwise done to rulers with two intact eyes is left to the imagination.  I examine the two trinkets which comprise my birthright.

In a startling surprise, the Orb is the right ‘size and shape’ to fit my empty eye socket.  Do I attempt to shove it in there??  Of course!  What could possibly go wrong with shoving a glowing green gemstone into an empty exposed gaping wound within my eye socket??

I place the Orb into the empty socket, and note that the flesh around it begins to ‘creep’ so that the Orb is being ‘sucked into place’ within my head.  Well, I’m going to assume that this isn’t a David Cronenberg movie, and that I won’t get taken over by the evil power of the foreign body part.  I allow the emerald to embed itself.

My flesh knits around the Orb (and I momentarily picture a group of elderly citizens knitting booties while sitting around a green glowing Orb) and I find that I can see the world through the Orb, now also including the ability to observe the supernatural plane as well.

Aside : There is a minor bug in the book here, in that it does not specifically acknowledge that replacing your eye with the Orb restores the -1 to all modifiers which occurred at the time the Grandmaster of Shadows sucker stabbed me at the point of death. I’m taking an executive decision to restore these modifiers now that I’ve got a glowing green eyes.

I then hear Orcish voices on the staircase below me, and leap down to ‘do battle’.  I suppose its more thrilling than leaping down to ‘do lunch’.

Aside : The skill of Climbing would have come in handy here (for an alternate option), but here we are.

Stats: Endurance : 14, Punch Modifier : +2, Kick Modifier: +3, Throw Modifier : 0, Fate Modifier : +1, Inner Force : 1

Awesome names : Only a nameless awesome glowing green eye.

 





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May 31, 2016 at 04:26AM

Monday, May 30, 2016

These Heterogenous Tasks: A Year Without Zombies: Envoi

These Heterogenous Tasks: A Year Without Zombies: Envoi

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Over the course of 2015, I did my best to avoid consuming or buying any media that contained zombies. It was about as difficult as I expected it to be, but more frustrating.

In much the same way that vegetarians are generally obliged to spend far more time than the general population on thinking about meat and its uses, this process involved thinking about zombies far, far more than I would otherwise have done. Here’s the complete series:

  • A Year Without Zombies, in which I rant about how kids these days enjoy things that are a threat to polite civilisation, and explain my abtruse definition of what is covered by the term ‘zombie.’
  • Preludes, Requiems and Chiptunes, in which the zombonym principle of elegant variation is established.
  • The Dead of Winter, in which the ‘Minecraft, but not for little kids’ genre rears its ugly head.
  • Dead March, in which is considered the zombie as invasion literature, and the rise of Donald Trump is predicted.
  • April Is The Ghoulest Month, including a peroration on the regrettable slaying of the formerly-loved zombie as relationship catharsis.
  • Zed is for Zion, in which I bemoan the mandatory tropes of fantasy.
  • Summer Cannibals, in which the zombie epidemic is attributed to being one of the rare parts of geek culture that’s not in copyright.
  • Bring Out Your Dead, which talks about zombies as geek banner and as a vector of disgust.
  •  Losing the Will to Live, in which I wonder whether my narrow definition of zombies really gets at the problem.
  • Down Among the Dead Men, in which the zombie is considered as a way of othering despised groups.
  • Necrotic Creep, in which zombies ruin your Secret Paranormal Subculture by staggering out and moaning all the time.
  • I Aten’t Dead, in which is considered the zombie as a confrontation of one’s own death.
  • Teach Us To Care And Not To Care, in which I collapse in defeat.

Since then I have returned to my regular habits, and the majority of games I’ve been playing have zombies in – in fact, possibly more than normal, since all the zombie things had been sorted out of my to-play stack.

I feel as though I should write a What Have We Learned piece, except that, honestly, there aren’t many neat conclusions. Sure, the experiment’s hypothesis is thoroughly confirmed – yes, zombies are hugely overused in geek media in general and videogames in particular, and it is very difficult to avoid them. But, well, I knew this and you knew this. The point was to figure out other stuff along the way.

Towards the end of the year I happened upon Jovanka Vuckovic’s Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead, which concentrates very heavily on film (though it does spend a few pages on videogames, and in doing so answers my head-scratcher about why Japanese gamers got their prediliction for zombies – because of Resident Evil, duh). The book also offers a suggestion about why the recent zombie epidemic seems so abrupt: zombie media, claims Vuckovic, went into a temporary slump in the 1990s, so if that’s your culture baseline then the recent resurgence will seem all the more sudden. (This lines up with the Ngram I linked earlier: the steady climb of ‘zombie’ goes through a temporary plateau through much of the 90s.)

This exercise has focused a lot of my thinking on zombies, but it has also made research kind of inherently difficult – several times I’d hear about a zombie thing and think ‘hunh, that seems interesting, maybe that would shed some light on that aspect of things’ and then, of course, I wouldn’t be able to actually find out. Boycotting media makes it harder to figure out the problems with it. (Sometimes this is an acceptable price.)

Sugar_Hill

Zombies: totally not about race.

Zombies are multi-purpose. A lot of people present pat theories on zombies – they’re about fear of a black slave-revolt, or of loss of individuality, or of the gross mortality of the body. And most of these theories are, for certain works and genres, right – but this doesn’t mean they’re true of zombies as a whole, or that any of them are the Most Basic Thing that Zombies are Always About Under The Surface. If I know anything about aesthetics, it’s this: distrust universalising theories, and particularly watch out for the genetic fallacy, the idea that a thing’s original meaning or purpose is forever the truest one. Zombies serve a broad spectrum of purposes – frequently several at once. Just because zombies are obviously being used by a particular work as a metaphor for the threat of immigration, say, doesn’t mean that they’re not also about natural disasters or loss of individuality or body horror.

blind_dead

Zombies: totally not a sex thing.

I have not covered all of the major recurring uses: for instance, there’s the zombie as erotic element, a thread which runs, in various forms, from the earliest movies to the Rule 34 present. (From what I can determine, there are two main erotic roles that – OK, OK, stay on target).

Even when we narrow this down to videogames, the situation isn’t that much clearer. Again, a whole number of factors contribute to the current glut of zombies in games: some are technical (easier animation and AI), some design-related (combat games are hard to design without low-level disposable mooks) many more are to do with culture and its marketing. There is much overlap: it’s genuinely difficult to sort out how much the pre-eminence of violence as game mechanic comes down to ‘other kinds of human activity are genuinely more difficult to represent in code and game mechanics’ and how much it’s because the medium has long been heavily shaped by the tropes of adolescent male pulp.

Still, at present and in general, the most consistent use of zombies in games looks like this: they are simple adversaries who, while presenting a non-trivial and mildly-scary threat, are predictably stupid and can be defeated by a smarter, better-equipped, tougher protagonist. Unexceptional, they reflect and support the player-character’s exceptionality.

Culturally, this feeds into one of the grand myths, the hero whose heroism is premised on winning when massively outnumbered. Samson with the jawbone of an ass, the Spartans at Thermopylae, Rorke’s Drift and the Alamo. This myth is not unique to Western culture, but it was a central element of the mythology of colonialism – and remains a vital underlying premise of modern asymmetric warfare.

I think that most of this is fine, in moderation. I think that among the things that games (as with fiction in general) can do for us is enabling an escape to a world where we are strong and brave and important, and triumph over our demons. Here’s that much-misquoted G.K. Chesterton thing:

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

This is such typical Chesterton – a dart of insight so brilliant that its glare distracts, at first, from the weird paternalistic assumptions that make up the background. The modern Pratchett / Gaiman misquotes – “children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed” are more ambiguous about the slayer, with the definite sense that it might be the child in question. It is better, we feel as moderns, to give the child the sense that they could have power over their own challenges than to give them the hope that a random white knight will swing through and do it for them. And even if you are not a baby, it can be heartening to inhabit a world in which the sum of your problems can be reduced to a dragon, and you have a divine right to a magic sword.

But in games, the pendulum has overswung. The baby must always be the one to defeat the dragon, over and over again. This inevitably means a watering-down of monsters, as the sense builds that we might be protesting too much.

*

I don’t feel as though I’m done.

If I were doing this properly, I think, as a journalistic exercise, I’d go and seek out zombie enthusiasts, the people who make zombie media and the people who eat it up. I’ve had some personal accounts from zombie enthusiasts over the course of this, but not many; on the whole, the kind of people I surround myself with also tend to be the kind of people who are down on zombies. I dunno how I set about doing this.






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May 30, 2016 at 01:14PM

Overlord! – Conclusion

Overlord! – Conclusion

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overlord

Well.

That sure was an experience.

Before I say anything else, I cannot stress enough how the first half of this book was a breath of fresh air among ‘gamebook’ fans.

Rather than book after book of fighting your way through dungeons, this book actually took the opportunity to give you (the reader) to make choices about something apart from which sword to use during a fight.

Strategic decisions (no matter how simplified) about government were simply AWESOME and formed the basis of a much more engaging book.

The one downside of this was that once (after a number of tries) you knew the correct path through the government route, the book became less of a GAMEbook and more a simple list of correct choices through the correct story.

The second half also had many strengths.  It was incredibly atmospheric, and the penetration of the Ninja lair conjured up visions of a great action movie.  In particular, the different encounters with the various ninjas and traps on the way to the ‘final boss’ made for a beautifully suspenseful sequence.

The extended battle with the Grandmaster of Shadows was a fantastic extended chain of choices, with the numerous options which managed to balance rewards for strategy against the fear of the unknown.

The only minor quibbles with the book were the points where a single unavoidable dice roll formed the difference between life or death.  As every reader of this playthrough knows, the encounter with the Horned Cyclops was, in a number of ways, fundamentally broken.  You can’t avoid this encounter and, if you don’t have the Escapology or Climbing skills, you must make two dice rolls, each of which has at most only a 60% chance of success, to survive.  This isn’t atmosphere, it is simply attrition by dice roll.

Less questionably, the fight with the Grandmaster of Shadows has a narrow path for success.  It is interesting that, if you don’t have Shin-Ren (as anyone who hadn’t played book 3 would definitionally not have) you MUST at one point succeed in a Fate roll in order to survive.  I would love for there to be an alternative, particularly one that rewarded strategic thinking.

Although it doesn’t get mentioned as much, I was particularly impressed with the last quarter of the book.  It involved difficult encounters, but ones which could be avoided or minimised through wise choices, either at the time or earlier in the book.

Fair warning – I have very limited memory of the next two books, and I’m both especially anticipating and dreading Books 7 and 0 because I have no memory of those at all….

 





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May 30, 2016 at 04:09AM

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

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May 30, 2016 at 02:00AM

Sunday, May 29, 2016

These Heterogenous Tasks: Pandemic Legacy

These Heterogenous Tasks: Pandemic Legacy

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pandemiclegacyPandemic is a co-operative board game in which you play an international response team fighting against global disease outbreaks. There’s a lot of Arkham Horror in Pandemic‘s genes: the gnawing sense of anxiety that you’re always just on the brink of being totally screwed, the war-room feel of co-operative planning – but it has a much simpler, tighter design that makes it playable in an hour or so.

Pandemic Legacy is a variant following in the footsteps of Risk Legacy: the idea is that you play a series of games, each game having lasting effects which change the balance of later ones.

[I don’t normally give spoiler warnings, but the experience of Pandemic Legacy relies fairly heavily on not knowing what’s to come, so if you’re already planning to play it but haven’t done so yet, you may want to skip this.]

The first thing to be clear about is that this is a $70 game which is destroyed in the playing. You’re going to write on character sheets, affix stickers to the board, tear up cards. One can imagine a world in which all of the Legacy elements were reversible and the campaign could be played through multiple times – but even then, much of the enjoyment lies in the anticipation of the unknown. Most of the developments in the game are hidden, sealed inside perforated boxes or within a pre-sorted event deck. Anyway, you’re going to get 12-24 games out of it, most likely skewed towards the upper end. I’ve got plenty of games I’ve used less.

Legacy introduces a ton of new stuff: new objectives, threats, characters, abilities. And it does this in a very videogame-like way: you play a level, then one or two new game elements get introduced and you have to learn them. Sometimes old elements become irrelevant or get taken out entirely. You figure out a strategy that will let you beat the challenge, and then the challenge becomes more complicated. Or, if you lose, you get another try: maybe the stuff you did in your losing game helps you out the next time around, or maybe the game offers a little help.

Moreover, this all adds up to a story arc. This is a pretty natural fit, because in a co-op game you’re mostly struggling against external threats, so it’s easy to make the story rotate around the progression of those threats. It is not a great story – it’s formulaic disaster-movie stuff – but it’s about what you’d expect out of a level-based strategy videogame, and it does its job of making the mechanical challenges feel more substantial. (‘This is great, it feels like we’re XCOM,’ observed one player.) Not all of the storyish elements work; you’re encouraged to give your characters names, and develop them a little bit like RPG-lite characters, gaining bonus abilities, developing Relationship powers with other characters, marking their campaign histories on their sheet. All this never quite translated, for me, into thinking of the characters as figures in a story; they were all subsumed into our greater-good planning, and the real narrative was about what was playing out on the map.

Still, it was fun and compelling; we played three or four games at a sitting, two or three times a day, over the Christmas holidays. We joked that busting open all the little packets was our Advent calendar. I haven’t played a tabletop game that intensively since the incident with the grounded helicopter pilot, Steve Jackson’s Illuminati, Aaron Reed and several litres of home-made chartreuse.

*

OK, spoiler time.

The initial variation of Legacy is a new, potent disease that doesn’t behave like the other diseases; this is not a shocking development if you’ve played regular Pandemic with any of its expansions. Through the early game, you gain more and more permanent advantages against the other three diseases, allowing you to focus more on the mutated virus.

Round about midway through the game, this virus undergoes a mutation which turns people into Faded. Narratively, the Faded are part-time zombies: they suffer episodes of uncontrolled rage, but (apart from alarming translucent skin and muscle) are normal otherwise. Regardless of the story, the game mechanics treat them exactly like zombies: they’re mindlessly violent, contagious mobs, and you can kill them en masse without compunction.

There’s something of a tactical fork in the game, if not precisely a narrative one. You start out with a whole bunch of medical professionals; then, as the Faded emerge, for a while all the new characters and upgrades and that become available to you are military. You can build roadblocks and military bases, switch medical characters out for military ones, and so on. Switching to new characters is encouraged – you can only create Relationship powers by creating new characters, for instance – but we were really happy with our existing setup, and weren’t all that keen on the trade-off. We used one military character extensively – the Quarantine Specialist is kind of indispensable for much of the mid-game – but otherwise we didn’t build a lot of military bases, virtually no roadblocks. We could sense the game trying to tempt us into relying more and more on the military, and we weren’t interested.

Anyway, as you’d expect from this kind of story, the plot turns towards tracking down a conspiracy within the CDC and military, secret unethical labs, and the usual stuff you’d expect from someone whose idea of the problems of government is primarily derived from watching The X-Files.

This is irksome, because the original Pandemic is kind of the opposite of a black-helicopter story. It’s a game about the importance of working together to accomplish needful things which would be impossible to tackle with individual action, and which aren’t warfare. There aren’t a whole lot of narratives that address that. It’s definitely safe, do-the-obvious writing, when presented with Pandemic and asked to expand it into a narrative arc, to respond with ‘OK, let’s add zombies and army men.’ But I think it’s a disappointing approach quite aside form being uninspired and predictable; it’s another version of the World-Destroying Conspiracy, that comfortable refusal to think about more real and troubling problems.






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May 29, 2016 at 11:08PM

Not Dead Hugo: "sandbox" modes

Not Dead Hugo: "sandbox" modes

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After completing Michael Berlyn's Suspended, a player is given a special command that allows configuration of the main game- moving robots here and there, changing the timer, etc.  I heard about this feature many years before I actually beat Suspended.  At the time, it sounded like overkill for a game that I had bashed my head against (although in hindsight, it's really not the Herculean effort I thought it was).

I have to admit that, having beaten the game and finally being familiar with how things fit together, the extra challenge mode seemed like a cool idea.  Wow, a player could really make this game as hard or easy as they want to; I could see a fun optimization puzzle emerging.  I have to admit that I never actually played much with this extra mode, but it was cool to see and finally understand.

I've pondered nice ways to provide a similar experience for players, and the easiest answer I came up with was to give the player a magic word when the game is completed that turns on debugging mode.  They'd be able to look at the object tree, move objects or the player around, or even control how daemons run.  I thought this would be a fun way to share the innards of the game with the player; for some reason, having game source available doesn't provide the same thrill unless it's, say, in Hugo and I'm applying new Roodylib functionality to it or something for my own curiosity.

Today's code sample supplies this magic word debugging system.



Now I just need to write a game that players would want to dig into!





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May 29, 2016 at 07:07PM

Future plans part 1 – gamebook theory

Future plans part 1 – gamebook theory

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Hello gameboookers. I hope you are having a fab time, wherever and whenever it may be. I’m writing with my planned response to this post with what you want.

The top three things, getting 13, 12 and 11 clicks were gamebook theory, interviews and kickstarter alerts. I’ll address each of those individually then I’ll address the bottom answers.

Gamebook theory

So a lot of you want to write a gamebook? Well, I can help with that. I ahve written a few posts on how to write a gamebook, but I realise that they are getting several years old. All of the “main” posts have been written and the remaining posts I have leftover from when I wrote a massive batch are on “minor” things. however, since writing these posts, I have done a lot more gamebook writing, which is why I want to revisit and update various posts. The ones I have in mind are listed below:

How to write a gamebook series (makes sense, I guess)

Dice (and other random elements) in gamebooks

Types of Choice (links in with a Bestiary of Player Agency)

Gamebooks for dummies

Characters

Magic systems

Stats

GameBOOKS vs GAMEbooks

Gamebooks that feel dangerous vs gamebooks that are dangerous

Enjoyable and challenging vs unfair and frustrating

Gamebook player types

Morality in gamebooks

Endings

Food and water

Minigames and puzzles

Once I have revisited them and refined my outlook, I can apply again and then refine it. In the long long term, I will be able to distill all the important points into a book about how to write a gamebook.

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May 29, 2016 at 05:42PM

Future plans part 1 - gamebook theory

Future plans part 1 - gamebook theory

http://ift.tt/25uM8SB

Hello gameboookers. I hope you are having a fab time, wherever and whenever it may be. I'm writing with my planned response to this post with what you want.

The top three things, getting 13, 12 and 11 clicks were gamebook theory, interviews and kickstarter alerts. I'll address each of those individually then I'll address the bottom answers.

Gamebook theory

So a lot of you want to write a gamebook? Well, I can help with that. I ahve written a few posts on how to write a gamebook, but I realise that they are getting several years old. All of the "main" posts have been written and the remaining posts I have leftover from when I wrote a massive batch are on "minor" things. however, since writing these posts, I have done a lot more gamebook writing, which is why I want to revisit and update various posts. The ones I have in mind are listed below:

How to write a gamebook series (makes sense, I guess)

Dice (and other random elements) in gamebooks

Types of Choice (links in with a Bestiary of Player Agency)

Gamebooks for dummies

Characters

Magic systems

Stats

GameBOOKS vs GAMEbooks

Gamebooks that feel dangerous vs gamebooks that are dangerous

Enjoyable and challenging vs unfair and frustrating

Gamebook player types

Morality in gamebooks

Endings

Food and water

Minigames and puzzles

Once I have revisited them and refined my outlook, I can apply again and then refine it. In the long long term, I will be able to distill all the important points into a book about how to write a gamebook.






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May 29, 2016 at 05:00PM

Whither Starfighter, Ancient Egypt, and New Mexico...

Whither Starfighter, Ancient Egypt, and New Mexico...

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Right, so, I might have an idea at last. I've been hitting my head against a brick wall for some time now, trying to work out a storyline that satisfied me, and one that I thought would be worth writing. I've discarded a lot because they just didn't work in my head. There was a fantasy series I pondered for a time, but there are good reasons not to go into that particular well at the moment, which I'll get to later on – because this is talking about long-term, as well as short-term.

About a year ago, I came up with an idea for a character and a story that was designed as an easily introduction to the Triplanetary universe. At that point, it was on Book 12, and I realized that it was going to potentially put people off diving into the Battlecruiser Alamo series, if they thought that they had to go back through such a large number of books to get into the story. (In actually, I think a lot of them stand-alone at least reasonably well, though there are a few I wouldn't recommend as introductions. If you are reading this and want to jump into the series – then Aces High or Triple-Edged Sword wouldn't be bad places to start.)

The character was Midshipman Pavel Salazar, the book was Aces High. The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that Aces High was Alamo 13, and Pavel Salazar has become an integral part of the main series. (Yes, I really like the character…) Nevertheless, the idea fizzled. Or perhaps expanded, instead. It rapidly became apparent that the story I was telling encompassed the whole crew, not just one man, and I needed to adapt it to fit that. I'm very happy with the story and the book – but as with me is all too often the case, it wasn't the book I originally planned to tell!

Nevertheless, the idea remains a sound one. The original specification is essentially unchanged – shorter novels, say 40,000 words, released in between Alamo books until the two series dovetail, which at some point they will do. Featuring one, or two point-of-view characters, at the $2.99 price point. I think now might be the time to introduce these into the story. Things have moved on for Alamo – a lot, in fact – and that provides significant opportunities for plot development. There are things moving back at Yeager Station as Commodore Marshall puts his task force together, and Logan Winter will be continuing his schemes. This provides a little window to look back to that, before their return to the main series.

Oh, was that a spoiler? Thought you'd seen the last of Commodore Marshall? No fear – he's taking a break, but he will be back.

The next six or seven Alamo novels are set to – at least in my mind – kick things up a gear. In a few days, Final Testament will be out, and that sets up a lot of the story I've been talking about. I was briefly tempted to simply move to monthly Alamo releases for a while, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. (Though comments on this are invited…) As it is, I have vague ideas for three to five Starfighter books – with the concept that these are intended both as introductions to the setting as well as expansions of the main plot. Serving both masters is going to be...interesting...but I'm determined to give it a try.

Longer term? Well, I still want that elusive second genre, and as ever, I've broken it down to two possibilities. Fantasy or historical. Common sense suggests the latter – as well as some fundamental problems I have with writing fantasy up in my head, but that's something I could probably get over in time. If you are planning to start out as a writer/publisher, I'd recommend taking a look at a book called 'Writing to Market'. (At some point soon, I really need to do a 'recommended writing books post', I think.) I don't agree with all of it by any means, but the writer makes an excellent point about choosing where to write.

Now, I'll stress here that the best piece of advice I ever read – from what was otherwise a terrible book – was that you should look at the novels on your shelves when working out what genre to work in, but it isn't quite as simple as that. Few people only like one sort of book; my shelves have science-fiction, fantasy and historical on them, biased somewhat toward the former, I must admit. Write to Market makes the point that you should look at the current, well, market in the genres you are looking at, before making your final decision on where to focus your attention.

Bluntly, fantasy is glutted. I'm certainly not saying that you shouldn't write in that genre, not at all, but I am saying that you might find it harder to get traction. This is one of those unpleasant times when I'm forced to stick my 'businessman' hat on. I'd say most – maybe all – writers don't have the problem of working out a story to write, rather the reverse – that there are too many stories in their heads, and it is difficult to focus on one. I've certainly got that problem. There are some books I want to write that I know I just can't justify, not at the moment, and those keep getting postponed. On the other hand, looking at what else is out there prompts me to think about pushing other ideas to the fore, thinking that their time has come.

Fantasy, therefore, slides to the back. I've got a couple of fantasy series in my head – one more sword and sorcery, one full-blown Game of Thrones-epic – but the time is just not right at the moment. Historical fiction, however, is more open, and that's a good place to look at. The trick is to work out where things are moving, and establish yourself in that genre as it matures. (Want another tip for the year after next? Westerns. My side prediction is that 2018 will be the Year of the Western, and yes, I'm planning something along those lines. I've got this Confederate veteran longing to explore New Mexico and Sonora in 1865-68, following along General Shelby's force...with occasional sidetrips to Honduras, perhaps...)

The Old West aside, Egypt is calling. In a big way. I've mentioned that I've been going through a lot of lectures lately, and I recently completed a lecture series on Ancient Egypt that, well, sold it to me very comprehensively. Not just to write, but let's just say I've dropped a lot of coin on additions to my library in the recent past, and I can't see that changing any time soon. So the research begins. (As usual, I have more than one idea. I'd like to look at the Thirteenth Dynasty, the start of the Second Intermediate Period – that's the one with the cannibalism, by the way – as well as the Nubian Pharaohs from the south, much later on. And there's always the Amarna period, as well…) I figure it'll take some time to get myself ready for that, so it's definitely a '2017' project, but something I'm pretty sure will happen.

So – there you go. A little look behind the veil. I'm as curious as you to know what's hidden behind there...




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May 29, 2016 at 05:09AM

PyramidIF: XYZZY Awards transcript, (AKA The Brendan Patrick Hennessy Memorial Ceremony) Abridged

PyramidIF: XYZZY Awards transcript, (AKA The Brendan Patrick Hennessy Memorial Ceremony) Abridged

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I have captured the actual award bits of the ceremony, bolding categories and winners with some surrounding "crowd noise" for atmosphere, and calling out quotes from award-winners.  I apologize if I missed any particularly enjoyable exchanges or bon mot from the Peanut Gallery. The complete transcript is available here.


maga says, "First up: Best Use of Multimedia, the award that reminds us that 'multimedia' is totally still a word that the cool kids are using."
maga says, "And the winner is..."
Jacqueline leans forward.
dastridly drumrolls
zaphod holds breath
Peregrine chokes.
willbuntu rolls drums.
dfabulich eats a drum-sized cinnamon roll
Peregrine chews off his fingernails.
[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon asks, "cinnamon roll?"
maga exclaims, "Secret Agent Cinder!"
maga says, "Next up, we have Best Technological Development, which this year has an uncontested winner."
maga exclaims, "For wrangling Undum into a more user-friendly state: Raconteur!"
Emily says, "yay!"
robinjohnson cheers
zaphod applauds!
[peanut-gallery] bphennessy says (to katherine), "we got us a mud newbie over here"
Teaspoon cheers.



Sequitur says, "For some value of "user-friendly", "state", "wrangling", and "Undum", yes."



gavininglis applauds.
jmac says, "Nice."
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "yay Sequitur! yay Coffeescript!"
prevtenet applauds
Felix applauds!
[peanut-gallery] Peregrine says, "makes mental note to check out Raconteur."
Jacqueline claps.
DavidW applauds!
Owlor whoo
Peregrine claps
bphennessy exclaims, "BRUUUNOOOO! Whoo!"
willbuntu applauses very loudly!!
Peregrine offers a round of firecrackers.
PaulS claps loudly!
CMG exclaims, "Hurrah Raconteur!"
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "bru-no"
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "bru-no"
zaphod politely takes a firecracker.
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "bru-no"
robinjohnson takes a firecracker, lights it and puffs
Owlor:accepts firecrackers.
katherine applauds


Sequitur says, "Thank you so much for this; this might be the last year this category is awarded in its present form, to which I say: SUCK IT, I GOT MINE WHILE THEY WERE BEING HANDED OUT. 




Sequitur says, "In all seriousness, recognition in all forms means a lot, and this community has been a lovely home to me for over a year and oh no is this the band playing me out I hear"





maga says, "Next up: the elegantly named Best Use of Innovation."

maga fumbles with the envelope
maga says, "And the winner is..."
Doug claps until sunk by pirate fusillades
olethros says, "aaaieeeee"
maga exclaims, "Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory!"
Emily says, "yay!"
Sequitur claps excitedly!
Draconis cheers!
josh_g says, "YAY!"
Sequitur exclaims, "Whoo!"
zaphod cheers!
gavininglis applauds.
Teaspoon cheers
bphennessy exclaims, "YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!"
robinjohnson cheers
willbuntu exlaims hoorah!! even LOUDer!!!
olethros says, "w000t"
zaphod says, "Nice!"
zarf arrives from the west.
vimes clarps!


katherine says, "Uh."


CMG exclaims, "Hurrah Synesthesia Factory!"
furkle claps
jmac autogenerates generative applause into his home directory!
[peanut-gallery] josh_g says, "the sound of someone frantically trying to invent a speech they didn't prepare"
DavidW says, "nice!"
dastridly loud colorful clapping!
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "quick, put on the synpiece!"
Jacqueline applauds wildly for Katherine.
Ghogg arrives from the west.



katherine says, "I am very proud to accept this award for Innovation in the time honored IF tradition of 'doing things with z-code that z-code wasn't ever meant to do.'"



Jacqueline smiles and applauds.
[peanut-gallery] zarf says, "awkward tablet mudding"
[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon says, "Aw."
jmac cheers for horrible, horrible Z-machine abuses!



katherine says, "I look forward to inspiring a future generation of people to horribly navigate around the parser's intended function in ways that may not have been intended. Who knows? We might even get a new Resets the System Clock!"



maga says, "OK, the next award is for Implementation, or 'doing difficult things while making a fool of oneself relatively little.'"
maga says, "And the winner is..."
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "the most anticlimactic of games"
[peanut-gallery] Jacqueline says (to furkle), "heh"
[peanut-gallery] josh_g says, "ha ha"
Guest4 goes home.
[peanut-gallery] Draconis asks, "Swordfight factories?"
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "OSHA enforcement must be difficult..."
[peanut-gallery] Jacqueline says, "They manufacture reasons to have duels."
maga exclaims, "Midnight!? Swordfight!"
katherine applauds!
josh_g applauds
Draconis cheers!
robinjohnson applauds!
Jacqueline stands to applaud.
gavininglis claps.
Emily says, "yay!"
zaphod claps!
furkle applauds
[peanut-gallery] dastridly exclaims, "WHOOO!"
[peanut-gallery] zarf says, "sword off at the hm"
bphennessy says, "WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
zarf says, "yay!"
[peanut-gallery] robinjohnson exclaims (at CMG), "congratulations!"
maga says, "I believe we have a Groover in the house"
Sequitur claps loudly
olethros waves a metallic stick in the air
Teaspoon hurrahs.



CMG kisses implementation award.



Doug >KISS XYZZY
Doug loses!
jmac exclaims, "Marble!"
jmac says, "Er, yarble"
maga says (to CMG), "Keep your mind on the game."
jmac autocorrects!
Khalisar claps



CMG says, "Kissing is the most important verb. That's today's lesson."
CMG exclaims, "Uh, I don't have a speech or anything. Just, kissing. It matters. Thank you!"



maga says, "Next up: the coveted Best Individual awards, the first of which is Best Individual PC."
Jacqueline claps.
[peanut-gallery] bphennessy says, "these awards determine who is the best individual"
maga says, "And the winner is..."
furkle snuffles
furkle licks nose
Guest6 hees :)
robinjohnson says (to furkle), "stop that"
zarf walks off through the wall; pale violet light flares briefly around him.
[peanut-gallery] Peregrine exclaims, "Plotkin has lost the plot. Oh dear!"
maga exclaims, "Bridget, from Birdland!"
katherine applauds!!
[peanut-gallery] furkle exclaims, "ahhhhhhhhhhh!"
Draconis cheers!
robinjohnson exclaims, "..applauds!"
Teaspoon goes yay.
gavininglis applauds.
bphennessy exclaims, "!"
Khalisar applauds.
zaphod says, "Hooray!"
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "Brid of Birds!"
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "take that you stupid birds"
Emily says, "yay Bridget!!"
CMG exclaims, "Hurrah Birdland!"



bphennessy exclaims, "aaaah I won one yay!"



Sequitur applauds profusely
[peanut-gallery] DavidW says, "interesting. I'll have to play that one."
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur exclaims, "whoo Brendan!"
dastridly truimphantly caws!
jojo applauds!
[peanut-gallery] Peregrine asks, "Why are all the winners games I've never played?"
Peregrine calps.
Magical chirps
jmac exclaims, "Bridget is the best human at birdfighting!"



bphennessy exclaims, "okay this is the one I secret wanted the most because Bridget is just an exaggerated version of teen me. therefore this award represents the personal validation I am constantly seeking. Thank you everyone!!!"



[peanut-gallery] robinjohnson makes a note not to let Peregrine play his games & ruin his xyzzy chances
katherine says, "Demonstrate the function of an award speech."
maga exclaims, "OK, everyone, give it up for Brenget one more time!"
maga says, "And now, the constantly-othered counterpart to Individual PC: Best Individual NPC."
Emily says, "yay"
[peanut-gallery] CMG says, "Brendan + Bridget = Brenget"
jmac claps daemonically
CMG applauds.
Teaspoon says whoot.
Sequitur cheers
bphennessy whoop
maga says, "Even putting an NPC in your game is a terrible idea that will haunt your sleepless nights, so to everyone who did that this year: you beautiful, beautiful fools."
maga says, "And the winner is..."
[peanut-gallery] bphennessy says (to CMG), "word"
DavidW clutches his scarf.
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "still a little sad that Killjoy from Oppositely Opal didn't get a nomination"
Draconis cheers!
[peanut-gallery] josh_g says (to CMG), "that is tough to beat"
Draconis cheers!
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "gah autocompletion"
maga exclaims, "Bell Park, from Birdland!"
katherine applauds!
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "See, Killjoy might have gotten in for Best NPC Name..."
Sequitur exclaims, "WHOO!"
Draconis cheers!
josh_g says, "yay!"
gavininglis applauds.
maga says, "POWER COUPLE"
Emily claps
[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon says, "cheers."



bphennessy says, "WHAT"



Magical claps
%%% # MARK: 2016-05-28-14:13:45CDT
zaphod says, "Hooray!!!"
jmac exclaims, "Holy Hannah!"
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur says, "This truly is the Year of Brendan"
[peanut-gallery] Peregrine says, "Killjoy could have also won 'Best Hint System'."
CMG exclaims, "Hurrah Birdland!"
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "Best Hint System Name"
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "the year of #teens"
Jacqueline exclaims, "Huzzah for Birdland!"



bphennessy says, "aaaah thanks oh god."
bphennessy says, "Okay this award clearly illustrates the tremendous power of #shipping and #teens."





bphennessy says, "I hope going forward everyone makes a whole bunch of cute games with kissing and romance."



[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "kissing really IS the most important thing!"
maga exclaims, "And now, Best Individual Puzzle!"
maga gets both thumbs and a big toe caught in the envelope
maga says, "And the winner is:"
Peregrine dies of suspense and is resurrected by Draconis
zaphod squints at maga.
jmac furtively peeks at the walkthrough
Draconis cheers!
katherine arrives from the west.
maga exclaims, "Understanding the RPS cannon, from Brain Guzzlers from Beyond!"
maga asks, "Do we have a Steph Cherrywell in the house?"
maga says, "No? Well, we'll make sure the trophy gets to her somehow."

maga says, "Moving right along, we come to Best NPCs."
katherine claps and is immediately torn apart on gossip message boards.
bphennessy me claps and claps and claps and
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "oh my god did you *see* her clapping"
maga says, "And the winner is..."
[peanut-gallery] dfabulich says (to DavidW), "I strongly agree"
Guest6 oh dears.
[peanut-gallery] rocketnia /me s as well
robinjohnson shivers in antici...
robinjohnson...pation
Peregrine trembles like jelly.
[peanut-gallery] Peregrine says, "In text, the suspense is even more unbearable."
maga exclaims, "Birdland!"



bphennessy says, "_WHAT_"



Sequitur cheers loudly!
rocketnia whistles
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "AAAAAAAAH"
Peregrine is stupefied. Birdland? Again? It must be really worth playing.
CMG says, ""Hurrah Birdland!""
Jacqueline exclaims, "Huzzah again!"
katherine applauds!!
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "I am ashamed for not having played Birdland now..."
jmac cheers!
[peanut-gallery] Peregrine says, "me too"
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur says, "This is the third win and fourth nomination for Brendan Hennessy. Birdland this year is also nominated for best writing, story, and game."



bphennessy sweats and crouches down very small



maga says, "Can someone help Brendan back to his seat? Thanks."
[peanut-gallery] DavidW says, "There's still Best Puzzles, Best Writing, Best Story, and Best Game, I think."
katherine says, "small like a..."
katherine says, "A BIRD!!"
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "BRILLIANT"
katherine says, "AN INFILTRATOR"
bphennessy says, "nO"
maga says, "Let's get on to Best Puzzles so that Brendan can be adorably flustered in peace."
maga says, "The nominees for Best Puzzles this year are:"
maga says, "And the winner is..."
[peanut-gallery] DavidW says (to Felix), "oh dear."
[peanut-gallery] DavidW says, "puzzle puzzle puzzle puzzle"
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "PUZZLE PUZZLE"
maga exclaims, "Sub Rosa!"
maga says, "We did have Joey Jones in here until just a few minutes ago..."
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "jojo go east!!"
Peregrine leaves the auditorium to the west.



jojo arrives from the west.



Peregrine arrives from the west.
zaphod says, "Yay!"
[peanut-gallery] Peregrine exclaims, "he's there!"



jojo asks, "Hello?"



rocketnia applauds
Emily says, "the hero of the hour"
jmac laughs
katherine applauds!
Peregrine points at JoJo. 'He's the winner!'
DavidW says (to jojo), "Looking for secrets or the washroom, I suppose."
[peanut-gallery] Khalisar says, "was too distracted to clap (I do that a lot), but Sub Rosa is a *great* game"
maga says (to jojo), "Get up on the stage, you."
olethros says, "yay"
Peregrine kicks Jojo onto the stage.



jojo stumbles forward.



maga exclaims, "Let's try this again: And the winner for Best Puzzles is... Sub Rosa!"
Magical exclaims, "Speech!"



jojo exclaims, "Wow!"
jojo says, "I'm moved."
jojo says, "I am able to speexh tight now but I tust in all of your imaginayions"
maga exclaims, "Sub Rosa, everybody!"

maga claps



maga says, "Aww, man, Best Setting. IF is so good at this, you guys."
maga says, "Aaaand the winner is..."
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "Is.........."
maga opens the envelope. Stillness. The soft lapping of waves. A rumble in the stomach.
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur says, "GOD"
maga exclaims, "Sunless Sea!"
Emily looks around to see whether anyone who is properly an employee of Failbetter is here, but suspects not
jojo woos.
robinjohnson applauds!
gavininglis exclaims, "Go Emily!"
maga says (to Emily), "if any feckless freelancers wanted to accept it on their behalf, I'm sure they wouldn't mind"



Emily says, "I did not remotely anticipate this situation and therefore did nothing to prepare for it, but I think I'm the only person here who worked on Sunless, so"



Sequitur says, "I mean Visage is the best island anyway, so might as well be you"
furkle says, "speach"
zaphod says, "Speech!"
[peanut-gallery] bphennessy says, "whoooooop"
Teaspoon cheers
Draconis says, "Speech!"
furkle says, "spaach"



Emily says, "however: thank all of you for acknowledging Sunless Sea, which is a rich and strange place even for those of us who worked on it"





Emily says, "and I think I am not breaking any deep confidences to say that more Sunless Sea setting is coming in the form of DLC and that I have been working on it just this week"



[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon says, "sweet"
rocketnia oooohs.



Emily says, "and at the same time I should use this opportunity to say how great it is that a company like Failbetter exists, doing commercial interactive fiction and making money and employing people to make it"



[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "the sun never sets on Sunless Sea setting!"
Guest6 oohs.
Owlor goes home.
bphennessy says, "hear hear"



Emily says, "they've been hugely supportive to this community, helped me host meetups in London, and given out loads of advice and guidance to new authors"



Felix says, "I'll drink to that."
robinjohnson applauds
gavininglis applauds.



Emily says, "so here's to Failbetter, and to its departing but certainly unforgettable founder Alexis Kennedy, without whom none of that would exist"



maga says, "OK. Best Story."
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "cool story bro"
Doug chinhands
maga says, "Jon Ingold, who won last year, said that he didn't think that 80 Days really *had* a story."
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "like really bro the best"
[peanut-gallery] rocketnia says, "I was going to say that! Heh."
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur says, "I remember that humblebrag"
[peanut-gallery] bphennessy says, "a likely story"
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "lol you scrubs i didn't even do that and i still beat all of you"
maga says, "This is nonsense, because every game has a story, even if it's just 'the spaceship blew up a lot of other spaceships' or 'some numbers were arranged on a grid.'"
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "what a bunch of story wimps"
maga says, "(Although I should hope that you lot can do a little better than that.)"
maga opens the envelope, raises an eyebrow
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "Eyebrow Story!"
[peanut-gallery] robinjohnson says, "cranes neck trying to see envelope"
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur says, "this is cruel and unusual"
maga says, "I'm sorry, Brendan, we're not done with you yet."
[peanut-gallery] rocketnia says, "Growing up eyebrow"
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "cool story, brow"
maga exclaims, "Birdland!"



bphennessy exclaims, "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"



katherine applauds!
zaphod says, "Hooray!"
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "I think we broke him"
CMG says, ""Hurrah Birdland!""
zaphod says, "Speech!"
gavininglis applauds!
[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon exclaims, "speech!"
Jacqueline says, "w00t w00t"



bphennessy says, "i'm actually dead now. i am all the way deceased."



rocketnia cheers!
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur says, "We still have two more to go..."
Jacqueline revives bphennessy.
katherine says, "what's a good story without some death"
robinjohnson says (to bphennessy), "too bad you only wrote three speeches"
[peanut-gallery] robinjohnson says, "Best Writing and Best Game, isn't it"

bphennessy says, "Okay I didn't start writing Birdland with the intention of writing a cute gay #teen story but I'm very glad that I ended up there. So uh thanks specifically to the long list of queer twine authors that preceded me and made me feel comfortable about making this thing"



bphennessy says, "I don't even know which ones because there are I guess a billion? which is so wonderful. But Porpentine and Anna Anthropy stand out specifically as early influences and people that were very kind and helpful to me as a new author."



[peanut-gallery] Fang says, "it's just a really warm, fun game"



bphennessy says, "So thanks. and now I'm completely dead. okay bye."



maga says, "Best Writing! This is the one which always makes me envious."
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "i like words and shit"
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "tbh all the games in this category were a bit disappointing"
[peanut-gallery] Felix rolls up the requisite newspaper.
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "especially that all-caps one"
[peanut-gallery] Fang says, "there shoule be an award for Best Reading"
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "Best Arithmetic"
maga says, "Writing is really the thing that makes IF such a big deal for me, personally, and it's one of the fields where we routinely equal or outdo the best that the wider games world has to offer."
[peanut-gallery] Doug says, "Best Writhing"
maga says, "Not that I'm putting y'all on a pedestal or anything."
[peanut-gallery] Jacqueline says, "Belatedly, furkle, you can't be serious. There was some great writing in these nominees."
katherine APPLAUDS
bphennessy makes the sound of the colour orange
rocketnia CLAPS
Sequitur CLAPS
Fang CLAPS.
bphennessy EXTREMELY CLAPS
[peanut-gallery] Jacqueline says, "Oh, oh. I get it. Nevermind."
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur says, "I believe that was a self-deprecating joke- yes"
robinjohnson SPY-CLAPS
zaphod hoots and hollers!
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "hee yeah no i'm totally joking"
[peanut-gallery] furkle says, "the writing this year is fantastic and i don't mean my own"
Emily says, "hooray!"
[peanut-gallery] rocketnia says, "Best Joking"
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "Best Self Deprecation"
maga says, "And the winner is..."
Emily leans forward
Jacqueline gets her chalk ready.
[peanut-gallery] robinjohnson says, "readies a stiff drink for Brendan, just in case"
maga exclaims, "Birdland!"
robinjohnson prods the corpse
zaphod says, "Well done!"



bphennessy hdkasdg



CMG says, ""Birdland sweep!""
maga claps



bphennessy says, "Augh this one is embarrassing because everyone else was so good."



Doug waves a big broom



bphennessy says, "OKAY SO I HAVE SEEN A BUNCH OF PEOPLE IN THIS CHAT SAY THEY HAVEN'T PLAYED SEVERAL OF THE NOMINEES THIS YEAR"



[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon says, "extra-peanut-buttery-speechiness"
[peanut-gallery] maga says, "ok, what's the procedure for resetting a Canadian after validation overload"
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "best at writing BUT NOT SPEECH WRITING AMIRITE"
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur asks (of maga), "Sorry?"



bphennessy says, "IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED SPY INTRIGUE, MIDNIGHT SWORDFIGHT, OR SYNFAC, GO AND PLAY THEM IMMEDIATELY"



[peanut-gallery] katherine says (to maga), "I think you make jokes about moose"
Jacqueline applauds for all the awesome writing.



bphennessy says, "they are literally like three of my favourite IF games ever written for three very different reasons and I love them and also you and I'm still dead okay thanks"



maga says, "OK, enough of that. Let's do Best Game."
maga says, "And the winner..."
maga exclaims, "Is Birdland!"
maga says, "Come on up, dead man."
robinjohnson exclaims, "double hattrick!"



bphennessy falls down



olethros ovulates!
prevtenet applauds with winged vigor
CMG says, ""A total sweep!""
Doug says, "I've heard of that game"
Guest3 applauds
dastridly chants BIRD BIRD BIRD BIRD
gavininglis applauds.
PaulS claps until he collapses.
[peanut-gallery] jmac says, "hits 'Tweet'."
[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon says, "Wow"
[peanut-gallery] jmac says, "Boop."
katherine says (to CMG), "more like a total swoop amirite"
zaphod says, "SPEEEEEECH!"
Magical tweets
[peanut-gallery] Draconis says, "Sweep!"



bphennessy says, "okay. okay wow."



Draconis applauds!
[peanut-gallery] Sequitur exclaims, "Whoo!"
[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon says, "Boggling."
[peanut-gallery] Teaspoon says, "Well done"
[peanut-gallery] olethros says, "a first!"
Fang throws a bag of feathers into the air.
Jacqueline updates the BEST GAME entry on the chalkboard.
jojo applauds incomprehensibly.



bphennessy says, "okay so I've been looking on some aspects of the IF scene from afar since I was in like high school basically. But in the two-ish years I've actually been involved I've met a ton of wonderful people and been made to feel incredibly welcomed."



[peanut-gallery] Doug says, ""
[peanut-gallery] Jacqueline says, "Aw."
Khalisar look chalkboard
[peanut-gallery] Khalisar says, "oops"
Guest6 smiles, "That's great, bphennessy." :)
Felix ^^
[peanut-gallery] Fang says, "now to announce the award for Best Birds, Best Land, Best Story Set In A Camp Involving Birds"



bphennessy says, "so thank you to everyone, because you are all wonderful people. specific thanks to jmac for running IFComp, maga for running this thing, Bruno for running euphoria, and all the lovely people I chat with on the regular."





bphennessy says, "I am actually super happy right now and I think maybe my heart is going to blow up."



[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "now you have to write one new game for every award"
Jacqueline raises her glass.
[peanut-gallery] katherine says, "it's the rules"
CMG applauds.
maga raises his glass, and takes a very deep pull

bphennessy says, "oh ALSO 2015 was an amazing year for interactive fiction in general and like even the huge list of amazing nominees didn't capture all the insanely good stuff that came out last year so yay for the continued health of text games as a thing. Okay now let's all go afterparty and have hugs."

maga exclaims, "Once again, afterparty at http://ift.tt/1qU8sC3 . And that's a wrap, folks! Thank you all, and goodnight!"

TL;DR:

Birdland won everything...PC, NPC, NPCs, Story, Writing, Game...

...except Multimedia (Secret Agent Cinder), Development (Raconteur), Innovation (Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory), Implementation (Midnight, Swordfight), Puzzle (Brain Guzzlers from Beyond), Puzzles (Sub Rosa), Setting (Sunless Sea).

So if you play Birdland, you have experienced 6/13ths (or 46.1538461538%) of the best Interactive Fiction had to offer in 2015.

M. Hennessy would also suggest you play his favorites Spy Intrigue, Midnight, Swordfight, and Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory as well to round it out.





Gamebook blogs

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via Planet Interactive Fiction http://planet-if.com/

May 29, 2016 at 05:05AM