Reliable playtesters are required to playtest my recently completed adventure “Fortress of Fear”, a fantasy adventure set in a medieval fortress that is based on a real castle.
The adventure is a BIG one, it has over 275 locations, more than 30 characters and masses of gameplay. It is designed to be a challenging game and it will test your powers of reasoning and ingenuity to the full. Be warned that it is not an adventure that can be completed in a few evening sessions and anyone who volunteers to playtest FoF must be prepared for more than a few weeks work! Are you up for the challenge?
Please note that this adventure is very much “old school” and thus it may not be to everyone’s taste, especially if you are used to playing IF games written by today’s generation of authors.
If you would like to playtest the adventure - or you would like some more information about it - please send me a PM.
I’m 40; I’m not sure if that makes me an “older member,” but I did play a fair chunk of Axe of Kolt a year or two ago, and liked the parts I played. It didn’t hold me to the finish, but it impressed me as a good, solid design worth revisiting some day when time permits.
The knowledge that you’re still making new stuff is happy-making.
Yes, what I loved about it is how it started without a clear goal; you had to go around the village, doing a chore or two, and the goal became apparent. That was refreshing - most games of the time had you start the game with a very clear goal, which made it feel very game-ish. Axe of Kolt was, in that way, surprisingly modern.
Didn’t hold me to the end either, but it’s a name worth mentioning from games of that period.
Thanks for your kind comments. It amazes me that my adventure is still being played 20 years after it was first released. It is interesting that both you and S. John Ross say that the game “didn’t hold you till the end”. What was it about the adventure that made you not try to complete it? Was it too long? Did you just get stuck and you gave up?
My new adventure “Fortress of Fear” is big, I just don’t seem to be able to write a “small” adventure. “Axe of Kolt” will be converted from the original 4-part game into one adventure, but the gameplay will be more-or-less the same.
Modern like a modern game - modern like Agatha’s Folly is, in some respects, surprisingly new-school.
Alaric: I’d managed to completely miss the fact that you were the author of the original game. I seem to remember losing interest in an area with a blizzard - some of the game might have been more modern, but some of its puzzle design (as I recall) was not, and I think I hit upon either a guess-the-verb, an unkind timer or a cruel puzzle.
I know this is awfully vague, and I apologise for that - I’d have to boot up the game again, but there are so many games out there on my waiting list… is it enough for you to know that it’s one of the titles I hold as a “must revisit sometime, with some time to spare and a clear head”?
Aha, the Dwark! Well, you didn’t get very far into part one. That blizzard sequence was timed to make it more realistic. You were in a snow-bound ravine with this dragon-like creature about to kill you so my reasoning was that you would only have a limited amount of time to make your input before it got you. I never had any complaints that the timer was “unkind”, I gave enough time for even the slowest of typers to make the neccessary input… which was:
JUMP INTO SNOWDRIFT (twice) then RUN EAST
I do hope you dig the game out, there is plenty of help available, even a full solution somewhere. There again you could wait for my new ADRIFT version, I have already started programming it and in fact am quite close to having to figure out how to handle the blizzard sequence without any timing facility!
I seem to remember losing interest in an area with a blizzard - some of the game might have been more modern, but some of its puzzle design (as I recall) was not, and I think I hit upon either a guess-the-verb, an unkind timer or a cruel puzzle.