Moquette - beta testers needed

“Moquette” is my first work of interactive fiction, which I’ll be entering into the IFComp this year.

The game is written using my own Quest platform, but will only be playable online through a web browser. It’s an interactive story set on the London Underground, and is hyperlink-based with no parser and no puzzles - so should be accessible to just about anybody.

I hope to have the first test version available around mid August. Would be really great to get your feedback! If you’re interested in testing, please email me at alex@textadventures.co.uk.

I’ll certainly take a look. Did inspiration just happen to strike, or have you simply been too busy to write up until now? Also, will you be customising the Quest interface for the game at all?

Thanks, I will PM you when the game is ready for testing (or if you let me know your email address I’ll send you an email).

It’s a combination of inspiration and it being about time I finally wrote a game - I’ve been working on Quest for 15 years now, and I’ve been doing talks about what I see as the future of interactive fiction and text adventures, so it’s just kind of embarrassing that I haven’t written anything until now. With my own work finally out there, hopefully I’ll be able to point to it as evidence of the kind of ideas I’d like to see explored. It feels like a culmination of a lot of ideas that have been bubbling inside me for a long time, and they’ve finally developed to the point where I can actually turn them into something.

I’m using a very minimal interface. There are no Quest panes and no command bar. Just text and hyperlinks. If time allows, a few surprises too.

That’s what I was hoping for! It’ll be interesting to see what you come up with, particularly considering the performance of Quest games in previous competitions. I’m not suggesting Quest itself is at fault - from what I’ve seen pretty much anything can be achieved when you delve under the hood of your system - but the easy-to-use nature of the basic interface naturally does lead to a lot of poor games being released.

I’ve thought for a long while that Quest really needs a showcase story, and this might be it! I’d be happy to help test it too.

Thanks Dannii, I’ll PM you a link too. Still a few weeks off and I’ve got a lot of writing and rewriting to do first!

Yes, I agree Quest has needed a showcase story for a long time. I don’t really want to pile too many expectations onto this though, as it is after all only my first work!

Count me in too!

If you want to see a decent Quest game, you should check out “Gathered in Darkness” by Dr Froth which was entered in the IFComp a good few years back. It’s not perfect, and way too big for the 2 hour requirement for the comp, but it’s still worth playing.

By the same author, “Cabin Fever” is also worth mentioning. Has some flaws but is by far the most enjoyable Quest game I’ve played so far.

“Where’s Annabel” isn’t bad either, but much more unassuming. If “Where’s Annabel” were the typical example of a low-quality Quest game, the barest minimum, then existing Quest games would be of much greater quality.

Just be careful you don’t break any IFComp rules by generating too much pre-publicity, Alex. You don’t know what these people are like! I think I’ve said too much already. What’s that sound? I can hear them coming for me right now! They’re gonna drub me over the head! The location of the hidden treasure is… AAAAAARGH!

  • Wade