Oct
10
2008
The Canonical List of Miserable Games
I wrote a scene in Fallacy of Dawn where the player is expected to give horrible games to a clerk that is a bit of a gaming elitist. The clerk can’t BELIEVE you came to the counter with a few gems from the bargain bin, and… okay, it isn’t the best puzzle in the world.Â
My [...]
More»
Sep
23
2008
Want Some Rye?
Course ya do.Â
Aardvark, from the JC BBS, made the following and I think it speaks for itself. I’ll be submitting the paperwork for its eventual grammy nomination shortly.
(If you have absolutely no idea what this is in reference to, please go here.)
More»
Jul
08
2008
Thomas M. Disch, R.I.P.
Thomas M. Disch, author of the 1986 text adventure Amnesia (published by Electronic Arts) passed away on July 4th. He took his own life.
Every May my friend Greg returns to Colorado, and we go out and have a drink or play some Xenophobe or something, and funnily enough, this game came up in our conversation. [...]
More»
Jun
24
2008
Actors in Text Games, Part One
When I made A Crimson Spring, I was learning a new IF programming language, drawing comic book-style art after a lengthy layoff, getting music integrated, and displaying graphics. I didn’t have nearly enough time to get all that stuff presented professionally before the 2000 Competition deadline.
So when it was time to make the next game, I decided to [...]
More»
May
29
2008
The Point of No Return
I’ve reached the point of no return when it comes to writing a text game. I’m a complete mess.
I can’t remember the last time I got a good night’s sleep in some kind of string. I’m not just saying that: I’m trying. I’ve tried. Nothing comes back to me as a solid memory that I [...]
More»
May
20
2008
Gun on the Mantlepiece
Jimmy Maher was nice enough to play and review No Time to Squeal, a game I did with Mike Sousa a few years ago. Check out his thoughts here. There’s one part that I’d like to comment on - I would have had a take regardless of whether it was in a review of one of my games, [...]
More»
May
14
2008
Pinback’s Top Ten Games of All-Time: #6
#6: INFOCOM GAME (1980-)
You can get all righteous and indignant about the state of gaming, our children, and our society as a whole by going on a rant about how video games these days are morally bankrupt, paper-thin exercises in satisfying an ADD-riddled generation with brainless quick-trigger entertainment full of sound and fury signifying nothing, [...]
More»
May
05
2008
No Time to Squeal, Reviewed by Pinback
Boredom is one thing. The boredom I was experiencing at about 3 PM today is something completely different. It’s that middle-ground between being asleep and awake, where you couldn’t quite muster the energy to care what state you were actually in. It’s like being in a dream, and then wondering for a second whether you [...]
More»
Apr
21
2008
Milliways
hygraed directed me to the following blog post about an Infocom hard drive saved from years ago. This is a drive that contains some internal e-mails relating to the development of their games, as well as a ton of other stuff. Little is officially known about it - I’m not going to speculate or pass [...]
More»
Apr
15
2008
Cryptozookeeper Pre-Hype
ICJ: Does this look like a game you would want to play?
Pinback: As long as I don’t have to look at that picture anymore.
Emily Short is doing a cover-art drive, for text games. There is an amazing resource called the Interactive Fiction Database. You can upload little icons for your text games. A lot of [...]
More»