Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction
>INVENTORY started as a pandemic project. I’d known for a long time that I wanted to get my many comp reviews, and various others, off of my student website, but it wasn’t until the spring of 2020 that I found myself with the time and motivation to get this site started. My son Dante was … Continue reading “About the Infocom >RESTART Reviews”
IFDB page: The Newcomer Final placement: 49th place (of 51) in the 2001 Interactive Fiction Competition This is a joke game, right? Please say it’s a joke game. I mean, just add a few misspellings, subtract the setting, shake well, and you’ve got Comp00ter Game. I’m not kidding. Look, here’s one of the room descriptions: … Continue reading “The Newcomer by Jason Love [Comp01]”
IFDB page: The Djinni Chronicles Final placement: 14th place (of 53) in the 2000 Interactive Fiction Competition A favorite trick in Interactive Fiction, especially short works like those that appear in the comp, is to make the PC some kind of unusual or non-human creature. We’ve seen it with animals, as in Ralph and A … Continue reading “The Djinni Chronicles by J.D. Berry [Comp00]”
IFDB page: Asendent Final placement: 51st place (of 53) in the 2000 Interactive Fiction Competition It’s the little things in life that help me keep my sense of irony. Like this: right after I finish a game that pays tribute to Graham Nelson, I get this game, which is apparently a tribute to Rybread Celsius. … Continue reading “Asendent by Nate Cull and Doug Jones as Sourdoh Farenheit and Kelvin Flatbred [Comp00]”
When the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition came around, the indie IF scene in rec.*.int-fiction was well-established, and me in it. By that time, I’d written a game, written lots of reviews, and become a regular in newsgroup conversations. The groups themselves had established clear dynamics, with authorities, troublemakers, helpers, jesters, you name it. The community … Continue reading “About my 1998 IF Competition reviews”
IFDB page: Coming Home Final placement: 34th place (of 34) in the 1997 Interactive Fiction Competition Coming Home is an unremittingly awful game, one which never should have been released publicly. It’s hard to think of it even as an exercise for the author to learn Inform, so buggy and illogical are its basic design … Continue reading “Coming Home by Andrew Katz [Comp97]”