I've been silent for a long time now mainly because I've been working and also trying to design a website. I've still not actually decided if I want to go ahead and build a seperate website or whether I just wish to learn Wordpress a little better. I do have people in my life who are comfortable when it comes to WP so maybe I shall see what they can do for me.
Today I wish to talk about Interactive Fiction (IF, as I shall call it from now on). If you don’t know what IF is then I am going to use a quote from another Wordpress blog to explain it.
Interactive fiction tells you the beginning of a story. Then it puts you in charge and lets you decide what your character should do. You type commands for the main character to carry out, and the story replies by telling you what happens next. Think of the rooms as your setting, and the objects you find as the props.
Part of your role is to help the main character overcome obstacles to his progress: solving problems, working out what is going on in the story, discovering ways to reach new locations and tools. That aspect of interactive fiction is like a game.
And part of your role is to help him make decisions. Interactive fiction may have multiple endings, subject to your choices. That aspect is like a story — but an open-ended one
- Emily Short
When I was younger what captivated me was the sense of being a part of a world. I adore reading so the ability to jump into a book, take control of the character, and direct the actions was very appealing.
Today during some idle browsing of the net I stumbled on Galatea by Emily Short. The game is a little different from the normal IF in that you don’t explore a world but engage in a conversation with a statue that is alive (that’s a very crude description by me). I’ll post a link to it at the bottom of this post but needless to say it rekindled by interest in IF and I shall be examining more IF in the near future and, as an author, it’s also made me wonder about getting involved in IF in some way. There are many stories and ideas floating in my head that I’ve always thought would be good to involve the reader in some way.
I can’t promise anything will come of it, but who knows.
In the meantime I heartily recommend you play Galatea and also pay Emily Short’s blog a visit. I’m also going to include a few links at the bottom worth checking out.
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/short__galatea.html - Galatea Download
http://www.xyzzynews.com/ - Magazine for IF Enthusiasts
http://www.ifcomp.org/ - Interactive Fiction Competition
