Bytesize Adventures

I first heard about Composition No. 1 through another book, Twisty Little Passages, which examines the history and impact of Interactive Fiction (Including the humble text adventure).

Owing to it’s rarity I never expected to actually own a copy, but here it is – beautifully re-imagined, for a new audience, by Visual Editions.

The first thing that hits you upon opening the box, containing the 150 pages that comprise this piece of work, is bemusement. Composition No. 1 flies in the face of our conventional understanding of how to consume a piece of literature. The most obvious way that this manifests itself is through its unbound pages.

The idea is that you shuffle the pages to create your own story – a quick factorial calculation (150!) reveals 3.8089226376305687e+260 unique combinations (that’s a lot) or, as its more elegantly framed in the introduction, 150 different beginnings with 149 possible endings. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: iDevBlogADay, Tangents | Tags: book, Design, iDevBlogADay, inspiration, interactive fiction, text adventure
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We’ve all started work on games only to abandon them part the way through. There can be many reasons for this but for me it’s usually because they just aren’t fun to play or were too ambitious. My iPhone game graveyard is the place where all of my abandoned games are laid to rest (or put on indefinite hold). One day I may mutter some incantations to resurrect some of them, or even pieces of them, but generally speaking they are dead and buried. I’m about to lay another game to rest so I thought now would be a good time to share my iPhone game graveyard with you, along with the various reasons for its undead residents. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Design, Development Diary, Tangents | Tags: cancelled games, colour mix, explorer, iDevBlogADay, interactive fiction, personalities, puppet, spinit, text adventure
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I think its important with any project (be it a game or otherwise) to know when to quit. I’m not one to give up easily and I certainly wouldn’t give up on something if it was just a case of lack of knowledge. keep reading…

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary | Tags: cancelled, interactive fiction, new game, suspended, text adventure
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I have now developed my game prototype to a point where I know that the ideas I have on paper are possible in practice. The next step for me is the story. Due to the nature of the game i’m developing, I feel that I need to thoroughly research the history of the genre. Crucially, I need to ensure that my control scheme will retain the enjoyment that comes from the basic mechanics of this type of game,  whilst also adding a new level of accessibility. I’m also looking for inspiration in order to create a story that is unique in addition to making the odd, gentle nod to the genre’s illustrious history.

The basis for my research is a rather excellent book titled “Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction” by Nick Montfort (That should give a rather huge clue as to the nature of my game). This is a fantastic book discussing the early origins of interactive fiction and then taking a deep look at the computer text adventures in which interactive fiction manifested itself. The chapter on riddles is particularly interesting and it certainly provides some inspiration for the elements that my game could contain.

In addition to this I’m also enjoying some key pieces of interactive fiction, the most notable of which is “Violet” by Jeremy Freese (A winner of the 2008 Interactive Fiction Competition). If you think that interactive fiction is limited to games where “you are in a dungeon” and have to “pickup sword”, you really should try this. It’s amazing how far interactive fiction has progressed.

I have a few ideas for my story but so far i have not pinned anything down. This will be where my focus lies in the coming weeks.

By Chris | Posted in: Development Diary | Tags: ideas, interactive fiction, research, story, text adventure
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