tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195755462024-03-19T13:39:16.907+01:00The Gaming PhilosopherMusings on roleplaying games, interactive fiction and roguelikes. Feel free to muse along!Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.comBlogger309125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-68363603878944627242020-09-04T12:03:00.020+02:002020-09-04T12:32:31.535+02:00Keeping the narrative pressure onI played another session of Trollbabe yesterday, and I would like to take the opportunity to write a little bit about GMing this game (and similar narrativist games). This is not a worked out manifesto so much as an attempt to think through an approach that I've been taking more or less instinctively.First, some context. This game was online, with two people I had never played with before: JudithVictor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-42871851609422780872020-08-28T13:33:00.013+02:002020-08-28T14:44:36.617+02:00Thoughts on a Trollbabe sessionYesterday, I played a second session of Trollbabe with Erik and Michiel, even more delightful than the first. (Trollbabe. I dislike the title of the game, to be frank, but it's the only thing about it to dislike. Let me stress that the whole point of the game is that you're playing strong, independent women. With horns.) To give you an impression of the context, let me say that both Erik and Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-2927414469933049552020-08-27T14:56:00.004+02:002020-08-27T14:56:20.360+02:00Two new videos: introduction to IF, and "We know the devil"I've posted two new interactive fiction videos: Introduction to Interactive Fiction and "We know the devil" (2015) by Aevee Bee and Mia Schwartz.Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-45987725108581560462020-08-27T14:53:00.011+02:002020-08-27T14:53:47.710+02:00Fictional truth and secondary worldsThe (more or less verbatim, but certainly not 100% accurate) text of my video on Fictional Truth and Secondary Worlds can be found below.
1. In
this episode, I want to talk about fictional truth and secondary
worlds in traditional as well as interactive fiction. But I’ll
start by talking again about the game I discussed in the first
episode of this series, the game 9:05 by Adam Cadre.Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-70281077260546971422020-07-22T22:17:00.001+02:002020-07-22T22:29:42.929+02:00Video: fictional truth and secondary worlds
Posted a new interactive fiction video. Starting (again) from Adam Cadre's 9:05, I discuss issues about fictional truth, secondary worlds and canonicity. Major roles for Tolkien and M. John Harrison. This video should also of interest to traditional fiction folks!
Since I wrote out the entire text of this video, I'm planning to post that as an article here sometime in the future.
Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-22759602925212277392020-07-10T23:06:00.003+02:002020-07-10T23:06:41.848+02:00Video: "9:05" by Adam CadreI've been playing around with video editing software, in part because I'm probably going to need it for teaching next semester -- at least if I want to do it well. But I decided to first try my hand at an interactive fiction video, and so here I have for you an analysis of Adam Cadre's 9:05.
Clearly, I need a better camera. Less clearly for you, but clear for me, is that I need more memory and Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-17408494186047585812020-06-24T23:13:00.001+02:002020-06-24T23:19:57.076+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Dull Grey by Provodnik Games(I'm here analysing a fantastic piece of interactive fiction, and the analysis will contain spoilers. So do yourself a favour and play it first!)
The first thing one notices about Dull Grey is how it looks. Provodnik Games's previous piece, Railways of Love, was presented as a retro pixel-art game, which was nice enough; but for Dull Grey the authors have chosen to use a large-scale visual Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-70137965827784555552020-06-24T10:37:00.003+02:002020-06-24T10:37:58.088+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Pirateship, by Robin JohnsonI haven’t played anything by Robin Johnson, I think, but I know his Detectiveland
won the competition a few years ago. That’s a pretty high
recommendation. Silly pirates is not a theme I’d otherwise be too
interested in, but I can have fun with the genre. Indeed, I wasted quite
some hours this summer playing through an electronic version of the
Fighting Fantasy gamebook Bloodbones. That was Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-86930848096189634932020-06-24T10:26:00.001+02:002020-06-24T10:26:26.362+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Randomized Escape, by Yvan UhlmannRandomized Escape is a game in which you have to escape from
a randomly generated area of vacant lots, unnamed streets, discarded
junk and, worst of all, ghostly apparitions. To do so, you must find
several clues and items that are also randomly distributed, and then go
through a rusty door. This is a sound set-up. With the right design, one
could create a game that offers fresh challenges Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-20011591778483908122020-06-19T22:46:00.000+02:002020-06-19T22:46:19.966+02:00[IF Comp 2019] The Mysterious Stories of Caroline by Soham SThis has been a difficult review to write. I wanted to like this
piece, but I believe it gravely mishandles its highly sensitive content
in at least one of the possible endings.
Before I get to that, I want to say something about the interface
first, just to get it out of the way so that we can then focus on the
narrative content of the game. The Mysterious Stories of Caroline
uses quite aVictor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-71400378507286290212020-06-19T22:25:00.000+02:002020-06-19T22:25:42.154+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Each-uisge by Jac ColvinEach-uisge is a supernatural horror story set in Scotland
and based on Scottish mythology. You play a child of around ten years
old who has to confront an animal that may be just a horse, but is
probably either a dangerous kelpie or an even more dangerous each-uisge.
In spite of the prominent horror elements you can’t actually die, I
believe, and the entire piece feels like it’s aimed at Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-16600268654467925842020-05-14T19:31:00.001+02:002020-05-14T19:39:30.399+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Chuk and the Arena, by Agnieszka TrzaskaThis game is pretty clearly by the same author as Lux: we
are navigating a map in a link-based system, collecting items, combining
them in our inventory or using them on other items in the world, and
solving puzzles. Typical parser activities, transposed to a link-based
environment. But Chuk and the Arena works better than Lux,
in part because its map is less complicated, and in part becauseVictor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-79164397719429187492020-05-13T22:42:00.004+02:002020-05-13T22:42:32.243+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Out, by Viktor SobolThere’s by a now a subgenre of games that are built around a single
verb, with the most famous example probably being Chandler Groover’s Eat Me, in which all you basically ever do is... eat. Out belongs squarely to this group of games. You can finish it by
typing nothing but “out” all the time, the standard parser command for leaving the room, container or vehicle you are currently in.
Major Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-26815329977375080322020-05-10T21:07:00.002+02:002020-05-10T21:07:04.905+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Planet C, by Mark CarewPlanet C is a colony simulation game in which you have to
generate enough food and power for a colony of 2000 people while keeping
pollution in check. That last element doesn’t make too much fictional
sense – how could such a small colony generate climate change, even if
they were using the worst sources of power in the world? – but we can
easily suspend our disbelief. The story is told in Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-59956808115080880782020-05-10T19:17:00.004+02:002020-05-10T19:17:40.676+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Skies Above, by Arthur DiBianca
Arthur DiBianca has been building up a sizeable oeuvre of well-regarded puzzle parser games. I played only one them, The Temple of Shorgil (2018), but have been
given to understand that it was quite typical of Arthur DiBianca’s
games. It was a limited-parser puzzle game based
around a central puzzle mechanic that is developed in all kinds of
interesting ways. Bonus points for very solid Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-84550735501939129102020-05-10T14:08:00.004+02:002020-05-10T14:10:20.303+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Arram's Tomb, by James BeckWhen you see this game -- the title, the cover art, the introduction -- you have a pretty good idea what you're getting into. Very traditional dungeon crawling, but as a choice-based experience. To be frank, everything about Arram's Tomb
also suggests that it will deliver a rather unsatisfactory experience: it is
all so clichéd that the characters are even called by their classes. And the image Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-20205324821832867332020-05-09T21:10:00.002+02:002020-05-09T21:10:40.075+02:00[IF Comp 2019] "The Surprise", by Candy Meldromon(Note: Candy Meldromon is a psuedonym. I know who the author is, but I can't remember whether they made a public announcement of this, so I'll just leave the pseudonym in place.)
Ahw, congratulations! I’ve been there, which perhaps makes it more easy to relate to the situation. Well, not literally there, given that I’m biologically male, but as there as a biological male could possibly be.
Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-21721112205858738422020-05-09T21:03:00.003+02:002020-05-09T21:03:40.822+02:00[IF Comp 2019] Flight of the Code Monkeys, by Mark C. MarinoAs a formal experiment, I like Flight of the Code Monkeys.
The idea of using a code notebook that you read through, compile and
edit at the same time is interesting, and it works fairly well. Even
those with little knowledge of programming will be able to get through
all of it, and will perhaps be tempted to experiment with some of the
simpler pieces of code along the way.
As a piece of Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-35678535989780611452020-04-03T11:06:00.001+02:002020-04-03T11:06:20.104+02:00Mathbrush, "77 Verbs"I don't know about spring itself, but I can tell you that Spring Thing has started. Where the Interactive Fiction Competition runs in October and November, the Spring Thing runs six months later, in April. I have a special feeling for the Spring Thing, since my first two pieces of interactive fiction were published in it: The Baron in 2006 and Fate in 2007. Both actually won the competition, but Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-69529467084491131832020-03-15T15:07:00.000+01:002020-03-16T08:26:53.557+01:00Sam Kabo Ashwell, "Scents and Semiosis"There are, among interactive fiction authors, many aficionados of procedurally generated text. And indeed many of the most famous -- I mention Nick Montfort, Emily Short and Aaron Reed. Personally, however, I've never really seen the point of procedural text generation. What's the advantage? What does it give you? As far as I can see, three things:
Surprise: the algorithm for procedural text Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-37012060890245176462020-01-11T00:13:00.002+01:002020-01-11T00:13:34.345+01:00Three uses of enemy difficultyIn this post, I will be talking about the design of games that feature (a) increasing character power, (b) variation in enemy difficulty and (c) a choice about which enemy to confront when. This design is common in computer roleplaying games: as you adventure, your character become better at whatever it is you need to do to overcome the enemies (often fighting); there are weaker and stronger Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-68753377095752419952019-12-27T15:25:00.003+01:002019-12-27T15:25:42.669+01:00"Queers in Love at the End of the World" (2013) by Anna AnthropyI wanted to start by saying that I'm late to the party, playing this well-known super-short IF game six years after its release. But then I considered how long it took me to pick up the Epic of Gilgamesh and I realised that six years is nothing. Less than it takes for a human body to decompose. So, without apologies or genuflections before the Idol of Recency, here I am, writing about Anna Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-31492149965489455122019-12-12T18:06:00.002+01:002019-12-12T18:06:38.040+01:00Sexual jealousy and the fragile male ego in 1532Suppose that you pick up a book published in 1532. You're probably not expecting its values to align very much with our own. Indeed, having seen that it's a fantasy epic full of riveting tales of knights and adventures, you might expect that you can have some fun with it, but on one condition: that you're willing to overlook its undoubtedly old-fashioned morals, morals that will surely include a Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-83089137843147846642019-11-29T22:51:00.001+01:002019-11-29T22:51:07.756+01:00[IF Comp 2019] Girth Loinhammer and the Quest for the Unsee Elixir, by Damon L. WakesGirth Loinhammer and the Quest for the Unsee Elixir is a fantasy comedy about a dungeon lord who didn't realise what crowd you'll attract when you open a dungeon. Having seen things he would rather forget, Loinhammer goes on a quest for the unsee elixir (not a typo), and you, dear reader, go on the quest with him. I decided to put on some horribly cheesy fantasy metal – Rhapsody of Fire – just toVictor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19575546.post-23610262431540170792019-11-29T12:36:00.001+01:002019-11-29T22:37:20.423+01:00[IF Comp 2019] Sugarlawn, by Mike SpiveyMike Spivey made a name for himself with his 2017 game A Beauty Cold and Austere and his 2018 game Junior Arithmancer. Both of these were mathematical puzzle games, that is, puzzle games that were about mathematics; and both of them were very well received, placing 7th and 7th in their respective interactive fiction competitions. And now we can add Sugarlawn to the list, a game that did even Victor Gijsbershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770054233775973753noreply@blogger.com3