The Short Game

31: Interactive Fiction

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The Short Game attempts to discuss an entire genre-defying medium of game design: text-based interactive fiction. That’s right, we’re talking about old-school text adventures, but also newer developments like Twine games and more interactive text driven games.

We discuss the history of interactive fiction, the interactive fiction scene today, and recommend a number of games that might be good for beginners or anyone interested in a good interactive read.

Please forgive our decrease in audio quality this week; we were traveling and recording under less-than-ideal conditions.

(Lots of) Links for this episode:

  • Colossal Cave Adventure
  • Zork
  • Interview with the creators of Zork, in the form of a text adventure
  • Infocom
  • Feelies
  • Planetfall Feelies
  • Bureaucracy Feelies
  • Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Infocom Adventure
  • Twine – an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories
  • Inform – a design system for creating parser IF
  • IFComp – An annual celebration of new, text-driven digital games and stories from independent creators.
  • Lost Treasures of Infocom for iOS
  • IFDB – Interactive Fiction Database
  • Emily Short on the IFDB
  • Galatea by Emily Short
  • Frotz for iOS – A great application for playing parser-based IF on iOS
  • Child’s Play
  • Savoir-Faire
  • The Dreamhold – A free IF adventure designed for people who’ve never played IF before, by master IF designer Andrew Plotkin. Our highest recommendation for newcomers!
  • Spider and Web
  • Lost Pig
  • Choice of the Dragon
  • Counterfeit Monkey
  • Creatures Such As We – IFComp winner, “A dating sim about how humanity connects through art, even out in the vastness of space.”
  • King of Dragon Pass
  • Fallen London aka Echo Bazaar
  • Icebound
  • Xyzzy Awards
  • Spring Thing
  • People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction – How to Play Card
  • Brass Lantern – Beginners Page
  • Inform (parser-based) Interactive Fiction Interpreters
  • Hadean Lands by Andrew Plotkin
  • 80 Days
  • Blood & Laurels

    • You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

    Your hosts this week were:

    • Raygan Kelly – @raygank
    • Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
    • Laura Nash – @laurajnash
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