Hi all,
I’m Jim. I got into IF through the Fighting Fantasy door and have been attempting to make simple RPGs with Twine.
Most recently though I’ve been working on a recollection of my uni days in London during the 90s (mostly as a sort of therapy I think.)
I like retro gaming (2004 backwards) and compulsively buying D&D hardbacks that I don’t read.
Ta! Mine was Midnight Rogue. Played it through endlessly. My copy is in tatters!
Hi, I’m Stefan, I’ve been dedicated to game development since the late 80s, among other things as a game designer, programmer and mainly project manager. However, most of what I’ve helped develop over the course of my career is probably only known in German-speaking countries.
My love for interactive fiction came about quite spontaneously when I played “Pirate Adventure” by Scott Adams for the first time. Subsequently, I played a lot of IF (since English is not my native language, I had a lot of trouble with it at that time), but I am also at home in other genres. As a game developer, I worked on several point & click adventures - besides role-playing games and RTS - and developed a penchant for silly dialogues.
Some time ago - after a long break - I rediscovered my love for coding and IF, and as a result I’ve been working hard on my hobby project “Phoney Island”. It’s still not finished. But the German version should be soon.
What appeals to me most about IF is that I can really let off steam there in terms of storytelling and humor. I like creating crazy characters and coming up with weird puzzles. At the same time, the player experience is also very important to me, so I file off corners pretty extensively - and will probably never be satisfied with the result anyway.
Happy to be here!
Stefan
Hello I’m Josh.
My professional background is in tech, and my particular line of work is one I’m quite passionate about (one that I’d happy to go into more detail if needed). It is one that has brought me lots of joy and fulfilling work along my career.
I got into tech because computing in general has always fascinated me and been an interest of mine. Gaming, by extension, has been a pretty big part of that experience. I’m 40 years old, so the formative gaming experiences of my pre-adolescence were the point-and-click adventure games of the late 1980s and early 1990s, most notably, The Secret of Monkey Island. And then a few years later, Myst at the dawn of its popularity. Those games really spoke to me, and they were huge influences into the gamer I became.
Narrative-driven games, games with interesting stories to tell, or games with unique and interesting experiences have always resonated with me. Interactive fiction was never too far away from me, but it was only very recently (as in the last month or so) that it has fully captured my attention. Having now come around to IF, I have found it a natural fit for my tastes as a gamer. Quelle surprise.
I have my own ideas for stories that I would like to create as IF, and so I also have aspirations for authoring as well. I intend to post about them in the appropriate places here once I feel like they have a bit more substance and heft to them. For now, I think I’ll take the slower, more plodding path for that process.
I posted a review before I posted this intro, which in retrospect is… ultimately fine, but I did want to stop and say hello. I’ve lurked for a while here, and seeing this community in action is a wonderful thing to behold. Thank you for having me here.
Ooh! Where’s your review? I missed it somehow.
I reviewed Of Their Shadows Deep here
One interesting note about this review is the fact that this is basically the first game review I’ve written. Ever. When it comes to writing reviews, or commenting on forms of media, I’ve just always been rather stingy with my words. So, while this is only one review, it feels like this was an important step for me to take to help break me out of a shell of sorts. Edit: So I have IF to thank for this as well.
Cool. Great game.
I’ve been lurking and occasionally posting here for almost a year now and not introduced myself. How rude!
My name’s Peter. I reside in Gwynedd, a mountainous outcrop on the soggy Western edge of Britain. My moneyed work has nothing to do with writing or coding which is perhaps fortunate.
I’m a Xennial so I spent much of my early childhood reading/playing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Kudos to anyone who recognises who my avatar is 
Later on when my parents bought a PC I got into Lucasarts graphic adventures, Fate of Atlantis and Day of the Tentacle probably being my favourite games of that period. The text adventures of the 80s were a bit before my time and the culture of the early 90s was still very future orientated so I didn’t really get much exposure to them by the time I had access to a computer.
Fast forward a couple of decades and a friend introduced me to Twine following long conversations about FF nostalgia. I made some early attempts at a CYOA type story for which Twine seems ideal. This was also my first exposure to seriously trying to learn javascript and CSS. I collaborated with a friend on an abortive attempt to make an online demagogue simulator which exposed the limits of my ability to code and to write a procedural game at the time.
A few years later and I again felt the urge to create something in the vitual space. I had an idea for a game floating around for a while and the standard hyperlink mediated branching narrative Twine approch wasn’t going to fit what I wanted to do. On the other hand I wanted to include media such as music and visual art also, so learning one of the parser game engines wasn’t going to fit either. I decided a browser based game engine that combines the parser text adventure form with a point and click interface similar to that of the SCUMM graphic adventures was what I needed.
So I looked around for a bit but couldn’t find anything currently existing that fits what I wanted and so I decided to DIY something starting from the only tool I had much knowledge and experience with - Twine using Sugarcube 2. This task has again taken over much of my spare time and creative headspace in recent months but I am finaly getting to the stage where I have the engine presenting how I want and doing what I want it to do. This was the first working version of that engine, a sort of proof of concept:
Anyhow, time and attention always seems the limiting factors in life but inshallah I can contribute something meaningful towards events like the IFComp, this time round as a reviewer but hopefully next time round with a game of my own.
“Gwynedd” must be a perfect place for writing adventure games.
Welcome. I intend to your linked game. (I have a game that will be ready for beta testing today. And then off to EctoComp. 
PS. VIBAE - very nice graphics and presentation! The menu works well. Definitely worth a play!
Hi, I became interested in IF when I found a thing called “AI Dungeon” (AID) a couple years or so ago. After playing with it for a bit, I was curious what else in this genre was out there. Last year, I got my hands on an Atari 800XL, and a naked copy of Suspended, an Infocom text adventure(naked, as in, all I have of the game is the 5 1/4 floppy disk. No box, no manual, no possibly useful inserts). However, I think starting with AID, and then trying to play a game like Suspended, was a mistake. AID will take whole sentences and just build them into the story, no matter what you type. There’s no “I don’t understand what you said” or “You can’t do that”.
I was blindly under the impression that I could play Suspended the same way as I was playing AID. BOY was I sorely mistaken. I got a lot of statements back from it, telling me that it didn’t understand what I was trying to do or tell it. So I went to look for the Suspended documents(which I found), and with it found the image of the box. On the front it said “EXPERT LEVEL”. Defined on the back as the hardest difficulty “For diehards seeking the ultimate challenge in interactive fiction.” I’m now under the impression that if I want to play these older IF games, Suspended is NOT the place to start.
So I’m on a journey to find that “place to start”, and I found myself here during my search. I decided to join, in hopes the community here could help me in finding something easier to learn the legacy IF games with.
I’m sure you’re going to get a lot of different replies. If you’re interested in Infocom games, my personal favorite is Planetfall, and it’s not too hard. A little hunting on the web will find you a copy, which you can run in any of a number of interpreters (a list is at List of glulx/.gblorb interpreters).
And of course there are thousands of games at ifdb.org!
I am indeed interested in the Infocom games, or games like them. I was recently suggested that I try Zork, and was directed to “The Zork Anthology”, to start me off. (I found it here, for anyone curious.)
It actually includes Planetfall, so I will take a look at it. I think though, that I would like to start at the bottom of the difficulty list that I saw previously on the back of the box of Suspended.
So I guess I’m going to look for titles with the Junior difficulty for now(even though I am an adult, I’m a slow learner), and then slowly go up.
The nice thing about starting with Suspended is that most things will seem very accessible by comparison.
I recommend Wishbringer first. It’s a mid-career Infocom game that is gentler and more accessible than some of its first hits. It’s a fantasy game by Brian Moriarty, who has very solid writing chops. You’ll need an interpreter:
They’ll all play Wishbringer fine.
You’ll also need the story file (download). The interpreter opens it as if the file were a document.
Finally, you’ll need documentation. This is a PDF roll-up of all packaging and extras. To look at individual objects instead, you can go here. Images are best opened in a new tab.
After Wishbringer, I think Enchanter and Planetfall are good choices. You’ll be ready to tackle anything at that point.
Feel free to ask me anything or PM me, I’ve spent a lot of time with Infocom games in the past year.
PDF link goes to the manual for “The Witness”, not Wishbringer. But I was able to step back and find the correct one.
Hello all! I’m Willy Elektrix, and I’m delighted to be here. I’m a game developer, writer, and artist, and I really love aliens. I made the games Alien Squatter, Void Pyramid, and Superstorm Melon Date.
Some of my favorite interactive fiction games include Suzerain, 80 Days, Arcade Spirits, and probably some others I’m forgetting right now.
Most excitingly, I’m also the spokesperson for ChoiceBeat: The Visual Novel and Interactive Fiction Zine, which is published quarterly. You can check out the most recent issue here.
ChoiceBeat is always looking for tips and contributors, so drop me whatever hot info you’ve got and I’ll relay it to ChoiceBot, our benevolent robotic editor.
Looking forward to hanging around these forums and making a charming, pleasant nuisance of myself. =)
Fantastic! I’m working on an alien game called “UFOs”. You get abducted and no one believes you!
Anyway, best of luck with ChoiceBeat. Looks awesome.
I enjoy ChoiceBeat. Definitely worth checking out.
A beautiful place. I have fond memories of visiting Portmeirion a few years ago and having to have my three-quarters submerged car towed out of the carpark by tractor, after a month’s worth of rain fell in a couple of days. Then took my shoes and socks off, rolled up my trouser legs and drove home!
(Welcome!)
Sounds right up my alley!
What are you developing it in and how far along are you? Where can I learn more about it?
will DM you details.