No need to be afraid. 1) It is NOT my forum, but somebody else did it (so: gratz o him!). 2) I’m not leaving you.
Impressive how this may sound, I never read Francesco’s history of italian IF up to now. Thanks for pointing me in that direction.
Some of the names in that recap are legends to me. As much as those at Infocom.
I don’t think I have much to add on italian IF apart from personal feels and things that are interesting to a whole lotta no-one. IF was a part of my young years more that all of the rest put together (yes, I did play Ghosts’n Goblins, but c’mon. IF was INTELLIGENT. You playing INTELLIGENT games proved you were INTELLIGENT too).
I’m sorta ashamed for having never published a game in italian, not even trying. There are 2 main reasons for this, and I think this deserves being told.
Reason One. I used to make adventure games (yes, no IF: adventure games) in CBM BASIC back in the 80s. The were like:
10 ? "WHAT DO YOU DO NOW", GET A$
20 IF A$="FUCK STIFFY" THEN GOTO 90
90 PRINT "YOU FUCK STIFFY"
They weren’t much forgiving, but what the hell. It was '84, I had no notion of coding (as I have none today: if not for I7 I still would be a full-time player), and what the hell, again.
Writing games in italian makes me feel like I’m still doing the “PRINT A$” thing. It’s not the language. It is a sort of trauma, you know. What the hell.
Also: games in English sound better. I pretend I am a pro hired at Magnetic Scrolls or Adventure International. You may say my english suck, but I don’t know. I can’t feel the difference. So, who cares? And: what the HELL?!
Reason Two. What happened with Andromeda Etc is… well, incredible. For you all it’s common. But to me. God. 800 players. Maybe more. A dozen REVIEWS of my game. Great God.
Really. No offense to Italians (me included, ofc), but it’s like making a movie for the people in Cyprus only when you have the chance at Universal Studios distributing it. And producing it. And casting Tom-Smiling-Cruise.
Yesterday–I’m not joking–I actually twitted Adam-F***ing-Cadre.
Try and understand.