OK, this being the last day of 2025, the appropriate time for disclosing & discussing one’s IF-related plans, projects and proposition !
I’ll start from mine:
I will slow down the isekai works a bit, giving much more love for the poor and unjustly neglected other WIPs, mainly the candidate entries for the Spring Thing, which for me IS the main IF competition.
Then, noting my rather weak rewieving of the '25 IFComp entries, I’ll try to find time to do some “practical exercises” in form, of, well, reviews, both here and on the IFdb prior of the '26 IFComp. (provided that Italian politics & Navy don’t join forces against my IFComp reviewing for the 2nd year in a row…)
Perhaps there will be some CYOA work unplayable to anglosaxons (that is, in Italian…)
a quick look into the poor neglected WIPs:
one in TADS2 is named High school drifter, and guess what series homages ? 
Anyway, this is the current opening:
Somewhere in Japan. Your alma mater is to be demolished, and one of your former professor sent you on an errand, not only for finding old mementos, but also, for discreetly locating its darkest secret.
"You see, Yukio-kun, I never found those in twenty year of discrete hunting, but somewhere here are still hidden weaponry from the Pacific War, among them handgranates, knee mortars and their ammo. You are an architect now, isn't ? perhaps you have more luck than me.
I have contacted your senpai, Hiragi, who is an JNSDF Officier, so we can discreetly dispose of those once and for all. But, first, we need to find those; this is a serious danger for the demolition crew, and I'm sure that you want to be at peace of mind about this serious danger."
After this oral request, he handles you a list of the mementos he desire to be recovered.
Some day later, in early morning, you start your quest, out of respect and devotion for your Sensei, and for averting a major, deadly, work accident.
***** HIGH SCHOOL DRIFTER *****
A TADS Text Adventure
By PGdE, 2018-2025
Under GPL License, at least for now.
Inside your car
You're inside your car, you can exit outside to the parking lot.
>
The other major WIP in TADS2 is a Final Exam, and the current opening shows too obviously the inspiration from a certain Kerovnian guild
You're an aspiring member of the infamous Guild of Industrial Archaelogists, whose legendary expeditions and daring recoveries pervade global folklore, and today you are tested if you're worth of joining the ranks of the renowned Guild, thru a field exercise, hunting for sundry but unspecified industrial relics around a former fishing station on a rather stereotypical deserted island, equipped with with the barest set of tools of trade and some guidance notes.
Now, between you and your admission to the Guild stands only
THE FINAL EXAM
once a 2019 candidate IFComp entry, named THE PRACTICAL EXAM back then,
then a 2024 candidate IFComp entry, with the current name,
now a 2025 Spring Thing entry.
A TADS Text Adventure, (as of January 3, 2025)
Copyleft (L) 2019-25 PGdE
Developed with TADS2, the Text Adventure Development System. (Thanks, Michael J. Roberts !)
Worn-out jetty
This worn-out, rickety and old jetty lead inland northward to a narrow road between a pair of dilapidated and worn-out buildings, beyond which you spy a larger building near the base of the steep cliff of the low hill dominating this island, whose thankfully gives a modicum of shelter from the cold northern winds whose has rendered the sailing here very miserable.
On TADS3, aside Isekai, there’s a major work, in adv3,The Putsch of 1908, very neglected, as the date notes:
After a brief description of the harrowing yesterday and how you reached count ABC's villa, you fell asleep in the guestroom, awaking next morning, the second day of
THE PUTSCH OF 1908
An interactive alternate history.
Copyleft (L) 2020-21 PGdE.
Bed room
The bed on which you slept is in one corner; a window-door leads north to a balcony, and south is a landing. East is the study, and west is a bathroom
[A strange teleport gate with a carving of an Imp lead in somewhere..]
You see a glass jar here.
moving on Inform 6, there are Chronomancy I, the first of three IF homaging the “Big Three” of the nineties and Aughties, (I is written in Inform 6/stdlib, II in TADS3 and III in Hugo)
Apologies for the rather long introductory wall of text (I’m seriously evaluating moving it into an external .pdf feelie…) with guaranteed bad english (the last revision of said opening predates Creative Cooking, 'nuff said…:
Chronomancy. The most powerful magick and the ultimate history research tool.
In few words, it's the most powerful Art, handled only by the most attuned to
the Subtle, allowing them not only time travel, but also timetravelling into the
minds and souls of past people. Even the most powerful ones.
This alone explain both its power and the ultimate nature in Historiography.
Powers now gone for good has attempted to both suppress and exploit Chronomancy,
but utterly failed because Chronomancers can timetravel also in the bodies and
minds of leaders, and in the "night across centuries" their power bases was
destroyed and now the world enjoy real freedom, no dictators, no hypocrite
politicians, no greedy riches-grabbers, no spiritual, racial, gender, ethnical
and ethic repression.
In other word, True Freedom. This imply that Franklin's principle of Eternal
vigilance must be strictly observed.
Because of their high attunement to the Subtle, the Chronomancers are by innate
nature benign people, perhaps to a fault, and with an unique curiosity, even on
very trifling matters, the proverbial people capable of watching for an entire
week the trails of ants, with utmost care to not harm even a single ant. Because
their power is one of time travel, they often dedicate their time to historical
research and doing Benjamin Franklin's eternal vigilance (the true price of
Freedom)
[Press Any key]
In the due vigilance and historical research, a fact emerges, that the "hidden
story" was more vast than expected, and the forces driving and steering History
prior of the Era of Magick was often those "behind the throne" and their tools
of persuasion and trade includes pratically everything: greed, pride, lust,
envy, to name some of the "classical" and most known.
the British isles seems to be a particulary fertile terrain for those forces,
and currently the historical research is focused on the Neoliberist-Thatcher
era, more than a millennia ago.
In your historical research, you noticed a young and rampant PR lass of the
eighties of XXth Century, buzzing around the Tory party, and already well-
connected by 2nd half of that decade.
Obviously, a so well-connected girl in her 20s is clearly active in the "hidden
history", so you decided that a field research in her body and mind is in order.
Especially in a day when she is alone in her country bungalow not far from
London, because looking at her private life (and notes, documents &c..) should
raise the shroud.
so, after discovering a day she was free in her house you prepare for casting
the Chronoshift into her body and mind... oh, what about her?
[Press Any Key]
Her name, Danae Mingyu Fraser. Her age, 23.
Her Grandfather and father are breton; her Grandmother and mother are from Hong
Kong; that unusual mixture of British and Chinese blood conspired to dote her
with a rather abundant "sexual capital" concentrated in her petite (just 5') and
lithe body.
her eyes are slant, shaped like a doe's eyes thanks to her quarter of british
blood, and her complexion is of a lighter shade of yellow, and her East asian
curves are small but very well shaped.
Her general appareance of Asian cuteness is at the core of her really high
"sexual capital" and she know well how to exploit it, not only for success in
her PR work, but also for advancing her social standing and power leverage.
On top of this, she is also blessed with an uncanny ability for doing quickly
and perfectly even the most complex scheduling and organizational work in no
time, even on the spot, a perk whose raise her appreciation in the decision-
making circles.
[Press Any Key]
CHRONOMANCY
an interactive Chronomancy research of UK history of mid-1980s.
Release 0 / Serial number 241203 / Inform v6.42 Library v6.12.7
Front yard of Danae's bungalow
On the front yard of Danae's bungalow, which is north of here. you notice that
is a sunny summer day. Also, a small but well-cared garden is west from here.
>
of course, also homages certain satirical British quilled IFs of the 1980s (no “scientific” references to the disgraced DoY, people can safely play it )
then there’s The quest for a dekameral adventure (very provisional title: actually has more than 10 locations…):
After reading various 1980s and 1990s newspaper, you figure where ended the Lost
Motherboard: In the possession of the Dekam, a small company, now closed.
because...
[describe the shady triple-layer of Dekam, and why was closed.]
and their more or less dilapidated workshop is still standing and, albeit
abandoned, seems that was never targeted by vandals, hobos and vagrants, and
this imply that luckily the motherboard you sought must still be there..
The quest for a dekameral adventure
experiment by PGdE,2020-24
Release 1 / Serial number 240123 / Inform v6.41 Library v6.12.6
Dekam Lobby
You are now inside the dusty lobby. A large reception desk is few feet in front
of the north wall, and a door is behind it, and against the south wall is sofa
with a low table in front of it, and on the wall some posters describes the
services offered by the Dekam; east another door leads to another room and a
staircase lead up to the first floor.
you can't deny that the appareance of a legit small hardware repair &
development company was well kept.
and that’s for the poor neglected IF in Inform 6. Lastly, on hugo, I have a recently-started work, which is actually inspired by a dream I have, named Hunt for the lost car:
You arrived at the rural restaurant, parked your car, pocket the keys, and exit
your car for enjoying a good weekend...
HUNT FOR THE LOST CAR (provisional title)
An Interactive vehicle hunt
by PGdE, MMXXV
Hugo v3.1 / Library 31031
Bend in the road
The bend in the road from the rural road to the restaurant. The titular lost
car "was here" first.
then there’s the barebones of another looong-term project with the provisional title Doctoring US:
Intro text goes here.
DOCTORING US (provisional title)
From hundreds of thousands of years and light-year, a trio came on Earth...
[with a mission from the God (of Creation)]
Copyright ? 2024 by by PGdE, 2024-5
Hugo v3.1 / Library 31031 / Roodylib 4.2.3
Release 0.01 / Serial Number 112624
Start Location
>
(yes, I 'fess up: Isekai II is already in the “probing ideas” preliminary phase… and remember that the proof-of concept of Isekai was implemented in Hugo, which I occasionally use as quick & dirty test bed)
on much more short term, on Hugo I have as neglected WIP, I have “[omissis]'s stroll” (there’s placeholder names taken from anime & JRPG, my apologies for the omissis):
93th year of the Emperor [omissis], month of Blossom, sixth day.
Midday, the Imperial Princess [omissis], begin, as usual, her customary stroll alone
in the garden of the Imperial country villa.
The state of the Empire is of uneasiness, the long reign of the wise and kind
Emperor is nearing its natural end, outliving all her sons and daughters, and
the young [omissis], being the eldest granddaughter, know perfectly that the first
year of the Empress [omissis] is nigh.
she knew that she's nearby ready, and in her recent strollings she try to
collect her wits and resolve for the incoming weight of steering and leading
the oldest and most prosper Empire under the Twin Sun and Three Moons of [omissis] as the 73rd Empress of Vanarg.
She knew that the final answers to her doubts lies in her soul, and she's
determined to find these final answers with the help of the quiet shades During
the fateful
[OMISSIS]'S STROLL
An interactive Imperial coming of age
Hugo v3.1 / Library 31031
Garden's entrance
The garden's entrance. South of here, a gate leads out, and a path leads
north.
>
and, lastly, there is A space for yourself, a sort of “dark science fiction”, a lone survivor of a planetary-wide asimovian disaster:
You remember little of your youth in your home; the love of your parents and
siblings was what kept you sane when these off-world people abducted you and
enslaved you in their ugly world; after a long time of fatigue, abuse and few
and bad food, you was sold to a research laboratory, for "experiment and
disposal"
Well, what matters is that miserable life is at its end, no matter what will be
the final suffering, in the end there will be no more abuse and pain..
You was carried to that laboratory, lead down to the basement, then put inside
a cryo tank, and the last thing you remember is that you hoped that whatever
experiment they have in mind is conducted on your frozen body... no pain at
least.
But you awake.. not on a table surrounded by cruel scientists, but on a dusty
floor. Something huge has happened and now you should find
A Space for yourself
An Interactive reclaiming
Hugo v3.1 / Library 31031
Cryo room
Raising from the floor, you look around in amazement: you remember this room
as a cold, foreboding and aseptic one, but now is dilapidated and really dusty,
some of the devices even sparking. Evidently something happened when you was
freezed, but what ?
[MORE...]
And these nasty masters, what about them ? A first answer lies in the floor in
the form of the mummified body of one of these. You can't avoid smiling at the
sight of the dead and mummified body lying helpless on the floor.
a broken and ajar door lead east.
I think that there’s enough lonesome neglected WIP in need of love & care…
Happy new year and
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio
