One of the games is apparently an experiment in two-player IF, which I haven’t seen in IFComp before. For convenience, I’ll copy the explanation from the game intro:
Summary
In this two-player piece of interactive fiction, you and your partner will each take on the role of one of the leaders of the two forces vying for control of the city of Alexisgrad. One of you will play as the Republic’s newly elected Dictator , a woman who suddenly finds herself powerless in a city that is crumbling around her, forced to make decisions about liberty or safety; history or future; country or people; survival or duty. The other player will take on the role of the King’s army’s General , a man ready for a fight which it does not seem the Republic is able to give him, appearing to leave him not with the question of ‘whether’ he will take Alexisgrad, but ‘how’ he will take it.
Players must follow two very simple rules in order to make sure that the game can be fully enjoyed (and not just break horribly…)
- Each time that you press on a link (the cyan coloured text), your partner must also press on a link. That way you will always be at the same part of the story relative to each other. Of course this will mean you will have to be in touch with each other, verbally, over a video call, through an instant chat messaging service, etc.
- At regular intervals you will be given codes and asked to input codes. You must tell your partner your code and then you must select your partner’s code (which they should tell you).
There may be points where your partner gives you a code but the game is not asking you to input one. If this happens, assuming that you have followed rule 1 correctly, then it is safe to ignore it. You will never need to remember a code beyond the screen on which you are given it.
You can go back or forward at any time by pressing the arrows on the left-hand side of the page.
You can save your game at any point by simply clicking the ‘save’ button on the left-hand side. It is recommended that you and your partner save your games at the same point. The save will remain safe on your browser until either you clear your browser’s cache or you create a new save.
The two sides of this interactive narrative are made to be read independently. Aside from the codes, it is recommended that you don’t share information with your partner until you have completed the narrative.
I promise you, it sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. Just take one click for each of your partner’s clicks and share codes whenever the game gives you one. Good luck!
If I’m understanding this right:
- This is an adversarial, real-time game.
- The game itself provides no mechanism to coordinate matches except for the codes that must be put in by hand.
- Therefore, players need to be in continual contact with each other to ensure that they’re moving together through the game. Moves should be one-to-one, though there are no formal turns.
- The only communication needed between opponents is text chat. Video is unnecessary, and screen sharing is definitely unnecessary, since each player has private information. A PM thread here on the forum should work.
It seems likely that many people don’t have a wide circle of real-life friends who could be plausibly asked to play an hour-long Twine game with them, so I thought a thread here would be a good way for people to find opponents.
For those interested in playing this game during the Comp, I suggest commenting here with a range of dates/times that work for you. Make sure to specify your time zone, and state if you’d prefer to take one side or the other. Alternatively, if someone has already posted a time slot that works for you, contact that person by PM. After finding a partner and making a game appointment, please edit your post to make this clear.