My presentation proposal on Mormon interactive fiction was accepted for the Association for Mormon Letters conference, so I’m going to be reading through the works by or about Mormonism (all ~9 of them). It’s a digital conference, so I’ll be able to post the video here in May, and maybe some of my research on literary theory as applied to IF if that ends up being part of it.
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The only IF piece that involves Mormonism that I’m familiar with is the one @mathbrush wrote: Book of Mormon Adventures - Details
Out of sincere curiosity, would you be willing to share the other 8 titles (or 9 titles if that game wasn’t on your list)?
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Yes! So, I’m including pick-your-path books, and books by Mormon authors as well as those with overtly Mormon content. You might wonder at including works by Mormon authors without “religious” content, but, for example, a friend of mine has done some really impressive work comparing colonialism in the Book of Mormon with colonialism in Brandon Sanderson’s Way of Kings series.
Here’s what I have so far (I could have included more of Mathbrush’s games, but Absence of Law and Ether are the ones he told me have the strongest religious themes). In addition to these items, I would consider my own works, Skillick’s Bride and Admiration Point, to be “Mormon IF”. I don’t know very much about IF history, so if anyone knows other works I can add to the list, please let me know! I am not including tabletop modules but Laura Hickman has done a lot of pioneering work there.
BoM
Caleb’s Quest: A Book of Mormon Choose-Your-Own-Adventure by Chris Esseltine
- Many choices, including “wrong” choices
- Didactic BoM fanfiction?
Amazing Scriptures: A Book of Mormon Adventure of Comics and Mazes by Norman Shurtliff
- Technically a gamebook!
LDS Author
The Year I Dated the Internet by Stacey Lynn Carroll
- Only one choice: Choose between four men on pg. 293
Cold Pursuit by Susan Dayley
- Set in Idaho, characters go to church but don’t say which one
- Weird prose that analyzes women’s actions and man’s responses for sexual interest.
- Choices aren’t “character” choices?? You decide what the “reality” of the story is for the first choice
Hot Pursuit by Susan Dayley (more of the same?)
Section in Lisa Hadley’s fictionalized memoir
Parser/Choice IF
Mathbrush
Book of Mormon Adventures
Absence of Law
Ether
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I looked at this post, thought “Hey, you should add ‘Admiration Point’ to this list,” and then I read the beginning of the post slightly more carefully.
So instead I will suggest the TTRPG ‘Dogs in the Vineyard’, which of course isn’t IF, but it does explore Mormon themes in an interactive game environment.
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I like this idea. Unfortunately I have 0 innate talent / cultivated skill / experience in writing literary theory or criticism, so I can’t contribute as an editor, but I’d definitely read it [the journal].
No hate to parser games (in fact I’m going to see if I can improve my patience and critical thinking skills, and learn how parsers work for once — someday), but as a choices-based game player, I’d love to see content directed at or inclusive of choices-based works, if anyone’s willing to write for it. Since the ones that people have posted as example articles in this thread seem to constitute mostly of parser-focused pieces. I just thought that expanding the canon might make the presumptive journal (what else to call it?) relevant to a wider audience (so more readers! — maybe), and further, might also help strengthen bonds between parser/puzzle and choice -based sides of the community.
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Oh, no worries. I suspect it’s actually going to lean toward the choice side. When we were tossing around ideas of who we might be able to talk into writing some initial articles, at one point I went, “wait, do we have anyone to write something about parser IF?”
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And just to be clear: yes, we do. Well. Everything is in planning stage, so who knows what our first articles will end up being, but I’m pretty sure there will be both choice and parser stuff. In fact it’s one of our priorities to make that happen!
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Hey, I’d love to join in on this if possible! This sound very much up my alley.
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I’m going to contact you through PM. 