Unquiet Desperation

Spaceship!, the Interactive Fiction project launched by the Guardian’s Gamesblog community, has launched over at the Interactive Fiction Database.  This was a group project, supported by a wiki and put together over a long stretch of time. Congrats to the whole team! I cannot wait to play it.

The plot: your spaceship has broken down four days out of your next port, and you only have two days of oxygen left. You must fix the ship…or die.

From the intro to the game:

The alarm sounds and you’re moving before you even notice the shrill whine. You’ve gone through hundreds of these decompression drills and the movements required are pretty much routine: move the arms, put the torso on, seal yourself in and done! Now, just wait for the all-clear signal that sends you back to bed and the dream about… something, there was a parade, wasn’t there?

A few seconds pass. Something’s wrong – the all-clear should have sounded by now. The alarm, muffled by the spacesuit, is quieter but still there… and is there some hissing also? What’s going on?

The sounds suddenly stop. You notice your heavy breathing, the only audible thing on the ship. The alarm lights are still flashing, though. The realisation snaps you fully awake: no drill. The ship has decompressed: all atmosphere has escaped. If not for your quick reaction to the alarm, you would be dead. A quick check of your spacesuit: all systems nominal, oxygen full: enough for 48 hours. Pity you’re four days away from Nineteen. A quick glance out the porthole reveals the engines have stopped. You’re stuck, alone, adrift in the middle of space in a leaky ship, 4 days away from help, with 2 days of air.

This must be a Thursday

Download the game from IFDB or the game’s web site. If you like it, be sure to comment and rate it on it’s IFDB home page.

photo credit: daniel.julia

Often called a dead genre, interactive fiction continues to flourish long after reaching the end of its commercial lifespan. In the decades since whiz-bang graphics drew away the attention of the masses, hundreds of games have continued to evolve the genre — to the point where it can be a little intimidating to approach cold. If you’ve never experienced interactive fiction, or haven’t returned to it since its commercial decline, maybe we can offer a little direction. Here are five of our favorite titles from the last decade to ease you into things.

from Top 5 Introductory Interactive Fiction Games from 1UP.com

I’ve been a fan of Interactive Fiction since playing Zork on my Commodore 64. It was the main reason I got into playing on MUSHes, which lead to meeting some incredible folks, many of which I’m still friends with to this day. I’m been having a great time since rediscovering the genre.

Additionally, I’m participating in a project to write a collaborative IF game. Started by the folks at the Guardian UK’s Gamesblog, we’re desigining the game Spaceship! on a wiki. Come in and see how the sausage is being made.

If you enjoy reading, you need to be playing interactive fiction.

If you enjoy writing, you should sit down, play, then try your hand at writing one. It’s a fabulous exercise in dealing with point of view, puzzles, and planning.

Here are some great links to get you started:

• The Interactive Fiction Database – find all sorts of free games here
• Planet-IF – A river view of many of the top blogs/sites on Interactive Fiction.
• The IF Reviews at PlayThisThing.com
• Inform – one of the languages available for creating your own games.
• IF-wiki – A wiki for learning, playing, and improving interactive fiction

And some of my favorite games. You’ll need an interpretor to play these:

• Anchorhead – Anchorhead takes place in a New England town by the same name that bears a resemblance to Innsmouth, Arkham, and other fictional towns created by H.P. Lovecraft.
• Lost Pig
  – Grunk stuck. Grunk must find lost pig. Grunk none too bright. Very funny game.
• Infocom: The Zork Archive – download the original Zork games for free
• Babel – You wake up with amnesia in an abandoned research station in the Arctic. As you explore, psychometric visions give you glimpses of the lives of four scientists and the tragedy that befell them. Before you can escape, you’ll have to learn your own history.

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