Intermittence

A very helpful young man just called me, asked if my refrigerator was running, and urged me with very convincing seriousness to go catch it. “Go,” he exclaimed, “go and get it!”

I can’t emphasize how earnestly he seemed to be taking my plight.

Young person, whoever you are, wherever you may be, I appreciate your concern. My refrigerator, though operating, certainly isn’t running at this time. I have, you see, broken both its legs. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, I’m throwing in the towel with regards to this whole IF thing.

After weeks and weeks of trying to come up with a compelling story to relate in an interactive way, I’ve decided that I’m going about this in entirely the wrong way. I need to be inspired first and then develop the story into a piece of IF. So… It’s time to shift gears.

They say that a writer must first and foremost be a reader. Following this advice, I’m going to work my way through some of the IF classics and see if I can find my muse.

Stay tuned. Read the rest of this entry »

I can write passably well, I think. It’s usually not a complicated thing for me. My current project, however, is…well, it’s different, fundamentally, from writing a story. Producing a piece of Interactive Fiction requires a different mindset, because I can’t dictate the flow of the interactive story as simply as I am able with a standard tale. (Well, I could, but it wouldn’t be terribly interactive.)

However, I’ve recently made some headway. I have a solid concept and an outline. Additionally (and this is the exciting part), I have a setting in place which the player may wander around and explore. This is the cool part about writing Interactive Fiction: Now that I have a series of locations, linked together in various ways, I can start the game and explore. If a scene needs some embellishment, I can quickly add it to the game and try it again. I can add puzzles and object with which the player may interact. I can change anything I want, and immediately see the results.

So, anyway, I’m making progress. Thanks for your patience and continued interest.

(If you’d like to see a bit of what IF’s all about, check out Adam Cadre’s game 9:05.)