tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17220614185176105722024-03-14T07:33:25.414-07:00Lab of JizabozUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-87294410025877516462022-06-02T23:23:00.000-07:002022-06-02T23:23:06.400-07:00Summer of 2022<p>It's been about 2 years since I've updated this blog, but I figured it's about time for whomever actually ever looks at it.</p><p>I haven't had much to talk about here arcade-wise as I haven't had any recent problems for at least a year or so with all four of my cabinets, and have yet to mess with testing or repairing any of the random game PCBs I have collected since I got into the arcade hobby. Basically I reached a period where it was finally time to play these games rather than working on them; though I'm bet eventually something will pop up and change that. I'm still on the lookout for an affordable Funhouse or Fathom pinball machine. </p><p>There was a Funhouse that popped up at a recent auction.. but due to nearly everything money-related being inflated lately and the fact I've been working a lot less while enjoying life more I am thankful I was at a waterpark that morning rather than taking a potentially awful hit to my bank account!</p><p>In the Interactive Fiction world, I've been paying attention and playing other peoples games.. but I've strayed from producing any more IF for quite a while now. Instead, last year I decided to create my first 3D arcade-style game for mobile platforms. I don't know how much (if any!) revenue it will bring me, but it has been a wonderful learning and productive creative process. Though I've dabbled in Unreal before and may return to it.. for this game I opted for the Unity engine. </p><p>The game was formally called "Duck Slide", but another iOS creator had taken that name. I changed the name to "Duck Slide Range" (placeholder site: <a href="http://jizaboz.com/duckslide/">Duck Slide Range</a>) upon my first submission to the App Store for Test Flight after work had already been done for quite some time. Speaking of which, if you would like to be a tester for the game, just leave a comment on this blog! I am still looking for testers for both the iOS and Android versions; though I still need to actually produce the Android port. That port should come soon. </p><p>However, I do still have <a href="http://jizaboz.com/projects/if/dprk/">A Day in DPRK</a> on the back burner. While obviously meant for text parsing computers, it may also potentially see a mobile release one day; and perhaps even be completed. I have also been helping Robb Sherwin (Author of Cryprozookeeper and many other classics) get some of his works properly (re)released to Steam. </p><p>Aside from that.. I'm stoked about more surfing, kayaking, fishing, and definitely water-sliding this year!</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-16398547241694134142018-11-15T23:25:00.000-08:002018-11-16T11:24:22.339-08:00IFComp 2018 - Five Short Reviews<br />
** <b>ORIGIN OF MADAME TIME - BRIAN RUSHTON</b> **<br />
<br />
I don’t recall trying the story that this is the sequel to but I recognize this veteran authors name and it’s a parser-based game, so I wanted to give it a shot. In this game you play a female with the super power to stop time. Now that time has stopped, you have to sort through scenarios frozen in time to get the superheroes out of the theme park. “TAKE”ing everyone as if they were static objects did feel a little awkward but I’m not sure would verb would have even been better.<br />
<br />
There are ways to trap yourself and meet other bad endings, and I had to use the walkthrough to get to the proper ending. Had I not resorted to that, this line probably would have really nagged me:<br />
<br />
“You have the worrying feeling that you’re forgetting something. But it might just be nerves.“ (Argh! Now I feel really insecure about this!)<br />
<br />
This isn’t a bad game, but I feel it would have really frustrated me without a walkthrough. There’s some good humor, scenery descriptions, and the story isn’t long-winded or hard to follow.<br />
<br />
<br />
** <b>PEGASUS - MICHAEL KIELSTRA</b> **<br />
<br />
In this one you are basically playing some sort of futuristic future agent. After a brief intro screen you are sent into a training mission only carrying a rifle and wearing body armor. There is a simplified choice-based conversation system here which is always welcome to me. The story shifts from different periods in the characters past like flashbacks. It’s quick with not a lot of description, but effective.<br />
<br />
A bit more story and ending text would have been cool here but the way it is helps reflect the bleakness of the future portrayed.<br />
<br />
<br />
** <b>TERMINAL INTERFACE FOR MODELS RCM301-303 - VIGIMECH CORPORATION</b> **<br />
<br />
This is an interesting one that I did have a lot of fun with. It’s not very traditional in respect to commands, movement, etc. However, I think this is one of the strong points because you are controlling a mechanized industrial vehicle while getting pointers from a fellow in some amusing dialogue. There is no walkthrough present, but if you are patient you should be able to complete the story fine without one. <br />
<br />
Without spoiling anything for someone who has never played this one.. all is not what it seems here. This is made even more effective due to the fact that in the beginning it’s a bit hard to grasp what’s even going on to begin with.<br />
<br />
<br />
** <b>THE FORGOTTEN TAVERN - PETER M.J. GROSS </b>**<br />
<br />
As you may have gathered from my previous reviews I’m generally not a fan of “choice-based” games, but there have been some exceptions.The premise of this one in the entry preview sounded a bit interesting and mysterious. It definitely got mysterious. You have been taken in by two peculiar NPCs with unknown motives. The combat can get a bit repetitive but overall OKnot a bad game. I wish I was given a bit more background on the NPCs and the strange happenings of things on the other side of a particular door, but I suppose too much explanation would be a bad thing in this story.<br />
<br />
<br />
** <b>NIGHTMARE ADVENTURE - LAURENCE EMMS, VIBHA LAIJANI</b> **<br />
<br />
This is a text parser game but seems to have been made from scratch rather than using a popular language like TADS, Inform, Hugo, etc. This parser took some getting used to. For instance, you can not use the command “SOUTH”, rather you must use “GO SOUTH” or “GO OUT FRONT DOOR”.<br />
<br />
While I enjoyed the introduction of a new parser that was compatible with most OS terminals, I found the experience a bit frustrating.. the “USE” command is a bit ambiguous as well as other commands, but I can’t really say this is a bad game either. If anything, this game gets a point due to not being yet another choice-based game (heh-heh).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-3728377826004781522018-05-12T15:05:00.000-07:002018-05-12T15:05:03.062-07:00Slowly but Surely Last year I had tried to get the <a href="http://jizaboz.com/projects/if/dprk/">DPRK</a> interactive fiction game completed by Christmas. That didn't happen. Besides my job still chugging along at a pretty grueling pace, other things just pop up. Foundation work to my house, repairs and appliance replacing at the trailer I inherited near the coast; it's always something! This is the first year I didn't even take the time to play and rate the <a href="http://springthing.net/2018/">Spring Thing</a> interactive fiction competition games. It honestly came and went before I even realized it.<br />
<br />
On the bright side, things are a little less stressful now and I haven't taken on any new time-consuming projects. A friend of mine is working on a new MMO type game and I've assisted here and there.. but now he's hit a wall with the networking of the <a href="https://godotengine.org/">Godot</a> engine that can't be solved until there is a newer version of the engine it seems. I've made a couple of <a href="http://jizaboz.com/projects/music/index.html">electronic tunes</a> you can listen to here, but that isn't time consuming either. I only sit down to try to make music when I have an idea for a song or am in a certain mood, which is rare.<br />
<br />
Today I'm working on DPRK again and wanted to update this blog before I forgot about it again for a few months (heh-heh). Over the past year I'm probably averaging about 3-5 hours a month total of adding bits of code here and there, testing things, and adding new graphics. That isn't great but I suppose it's better than nothing. I've had to tell myself to basically not force myself to try to do things that will be too time consuming just for a gimmick or puzzle feature. The time came long ago where I just have to focus on the content itself as the game isn't meant to be very puzzle intensive anyway. Instead, it should be fairly easy cruising to get an ending, wonder if things could have ended differently, and then hopefully play the game again and try different things for different results. <br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-844833910842188742017-11-05T11:35:00.000-08:002017-11-13T08:22:30.139-08:00IfComp 2017 - 8 reviewsThe <a href="https://ifcomp.org/">Interactive Fiction Competition</a> has many entries this year.<b> </b>Here are short reviews of those I've been able to play so far.<b> </b>You still have until November 15th to play and vote on games if you are interested.<br />
<br />
<b></b>
<b>*** A CASTLE OF THREAD ***</b><br />
By Marshal Tenner Winter<br />
<br />
A lot of games that involve “ships” whether they be in the sea or outer space have always confused me a bit as far as map layout versus the area I’m picturing in my head. This was kind of the case for me in this game too, but not as bad as others. I’m not sure how difficult of a time I would have solving some of these puzzles without a walkthrough because some of them seem kind of abstract. The 2nd part of the game you are off the ship and in a city called
“Badushizd” where you’ll find a humorously-named inn. It went by pretty
fast for me in contrast with the 1st part. Pretty cool game overall. Some technical issues and a few nags here and there. The pacing of the last part and ending of the game seemed appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*** GRUE ***</b><br />
BY CHARLES MANGIN<br />
<br />
Short game. Cool concept of being able to play from the perspective of a grue from the Zork series, but there just isn’t much to it. I was not able to finish the game; I think perhaps I didn’t get a timing puzzle right or something. Glancing at the walkthrough, there’s not much to the ending either.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*** INEVITABLE ***</b><br />
By Matthew Pfeiffer<br />
<br />
I start in a crappy apartment. Apparently I’m a mad scientist. The game calls itself a 1-room escape game. There is no walkthrough and I couldn’t figure out how to escape the apartment.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*** MOON BASE ***</b><br />
By Andrew Brown<br />
<br />
A short, creepy web game. I don’t think I reached the best ending, but seeing the consequences of apparently bad choices as a result was satisfying. Web games that seem to just go around in circles to reach only 1 or at the most 2 endings always seem to fail to keep me engaged or care to replay the game again. I would give this game another play if I wasn’t in the middle of all of these entries at the moment.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*** QUEER IN PUBLIC: A BRIEF ESSAY ***</b><br />
By Naomi Norbez<br />
<br />
This is more of an “interactive essay” than “interactive fiction”. It's not a game at all. I don’t identify myself as Christian or queer, (the 2 main elements being compared in this entry) so this really didn’t hit any nerve with me one way or the other. The conclusion is basically a “The Jesus I know is a cool dude that isn’t mean to people.” theme.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*** The Richard Mines ***</b><br />
By Evan Wright<br />
<br />
A parser game in which you need to search through some old tunnels and make your escape. Short room descriptions. Short game for that matter. Fairly easy puzzles. Not a lot of story here, but not a lot to complain about either.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*** A Walk In The Park ***</b><br />
By Extra Mayonaise<br />
<br />
In this parser game you play a punk wandering around a city. It had a couple of lines that made me chuckle, and the setting was nicely put together. However, I got stuck trying to follow the tutorial at the step where I should “say uhh”. Uhh…<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>*** Will Not Let Me Go ***</b><br />
By Stephen Granade<br />
<br />
Another web game. Here you are an old man dealing with alzheimer’s. This is another one where I don’t feel like I have any real choice here but to just keep clicking links to keep the story chugging along. What makes up for it though was it actually was a good story. I think it could have been a bit shorter though and still got the same effect across.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-14368723611851211142017-07-19T22:33:00.000-07:002017-08-06T11:41:53.633-07:00These Dreams Getting time to work on the DPRK game again lately has been nice. I've had to bug Roody yet again for assistance lately, but he's always happy to help with Hugo related issues.<br />
<br />
I've been focusing on the 2nd PC of the DPRK game over the past few months.. random stabs at the story and code. Taken many steps back when starting to code and realizing I don't even have a proper flow for the event written yet, but that's part of what makes creating games like this so fun; play-testing and adding things that are not implemented yet, testing them, and repeating the process. The third PC won't take too much longer finish up, but tying all three PCs together with decisions made by each, inventory changes, etc will take a while to clean up. The "alpha" test was released some time ago, and I plan on releasing the "beta" around November of the year..<br />
<br />
Not getting my old interactive dreaming Inform7 project properly updated with all the graphics window and other fancy screen effects extension stuff basically shit me out of IntroComp this year. I was a bit disappointed but will shoot for next year. This is worth revisiting..<br />
<br />
It's really neat that my friend Irfon told me about the "modern IF scene" around 2008-2009. I'm still really thankful to be introduced a new world of "text games" I figured only existed in my own head and a very select few of others back then and before then. I've met some really cool people along the way both on the internet and off.<br />
<br />
I've also got ideas about creating some sort of dream share API or website lately..<br />
<br />
<b>Yukihiro Takahashi ("It's Gonna Work"):</b> "<i>I had a dream. You gave me a sign.. and put me on a new track.</i>"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-50241163760102336722016-12-14T17:58:00.000-08:002016-12-15T07:33:27.510-08:00DPRK Due in 2017I gave up producing for IF competitions over the past few years. While they were fun to enter, eventually work became way too time-consuming aside from wanting to spend more time playing games than writing them. However, in the meantime I've slowly been creating a new game in the Hugo engine I've mentioned a few times before titled <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/projects/if/dprk/">Days in DPRK</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ByMOQTmjLJ04Y1C6pdKd1YCn1qMq-PSo9CZBnQ3S6sNeAW6LY48BSgo5YIR2CFqHUFqvmO2P8NDYIJPFJ_hteTShIrWV9AJQKIxQJYzkT4y9LHIuw2jIRkPYtADAmkECeBlQ1ggHbDg/s1600/drop_box.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ByMOQTmjLJ04Y1C6pdKd1YCn1qMq-PSo9CZBnQ3S6sNeAW6LY48BSgo5YIR2CFqHUFqvmO2P8NDYIJPFJ_hteTShIrWV9AJQKIxQJYzkT4y9LHIuw2jIRkPYtADAmkECeBlQ1ggHbDg/s320/drop_box.png" width="320" /></a> <br />
<br />
The making of Days in DPRK was motivated by both my fascination of <a href="http://korea-dpr.com/index.html">North Korean history</a> and the country itself, as well as wanting to move away from the <a href="http://inform7.com/">Inform7</a> system and work more in <a href="http://ifwiki.org/index.php/Hugo">Hugo</a>. Hugo is not a "plain English" language like I7 is; it's more like "real programming" languages I've worked with before. After playing games like <a href="http://www.joltcountry.com/index.php/robbsherwin_videogame/cryptozookeeper">Cryptozookeeper</a> by Robb Sherwin, I was really inspired to make my own creations in Hugo. This not to say I'm ruling out ever making anything in Inform again; I enjoyed creating games in it and enjoyed messing with the Canvas extensions to create the UI for the Interactive Dreaming prototype I was working on a few years back. Who knows, perhaps that will be re-visited one day.<br />
<br />
DPRK is a bit like <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/projects/if/LunarBase1/Release/">Lunar Base 1</a> in the respect that it tries to be a life simulation of sorts with commands thrown in to do things such as get out of a chair before moving. <a href="http://notdeadhugo.blogspot.com/">RoodyLib</a> has helped to implement many things I wanted done in the game. Making things seem realistic in a room can be time-consuming, let alone in a game with many more rooms than LB1 and the concept of 3 playing characters that divide the game into thirds and connect to one another. This year, I hope and plan to finally tie it all together. Even after it is, there will be a quite a bit of "polishing" to do on things such as setting/editing mood music/ambient sound for the remainder of the non-demo scenes, and editing Creative Commons images to suit my needs for the game.<br />
<br />
Speaking of which, I look forward to people cooking here..<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5O4GUOdkcdIwD9oIuLP8qIXefjlvN1HobwpUqh2TeRHvZ3pzY7bPWBQkIXyM2PvXeM84FDtk7w3yyovCFAze6GOnjQ45N2eQxKezWPKtzOfouvV0ZHY9Z2Ctb8hpGm63W7_zwzvH1-x8/s1600/firepit.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5O4GUOdkcdIwD9oIuLP8qIXefjlvN1HobwpUqh2TeRHvZ3pzY7bPWBQkIXyM2PvXeM84FDtk7w3yyovCFAze6GOnjQ45N2eQxKezWPKtzOfouvV0ZHY9Z2Ctb8hpGm63W7_zwzvH1-x8/s320/firepit.png" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
..until next time!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-74644374575364449062016-10-26T13:45:00.000-07:002016-10-26T13:45:34.736-07:00IFCOMP 2016 ReviewsI've been playing a few games from the <a href="https://ifcomp.org/">2016 Interactive Fiction Competition</a> at random that have interesting cover art or concepts to me, and have written a few short reviews for 7 games out of the bunch. If I have time to play and review more, there will be a part 2 to this blog.. but I wanted to go ahead and get a few out.<br />
<br />
<br />
*** SPOILERS BELOW! **<br />
<br />
***********************<br />
******************<br />
***********<br />
*********<br />
******<br />
*****<br />
****<br />
***<br />
**<br />
*<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
*** <b>Color the Truth by mathbrush</b> ***<br />
<br />
This is a mystery game that looks like it will have a lot of conversation in it. After reading the ABOUT text, it looks like the gameplay system will be more complex than the old Infocom mystery games.<br />
<br />
Actually, at the very start the game throws out a handful of conversation topics and the system of choosing topics and "linking" them feels pretty smooth. Changing characters when an NPC gives a statement feels a little weird. I started to think perhaps just a wall-of-text would suffice for these events, but that would eliminate the possibility of throwing in a couple of puzzles here and there during the flashback.<br />
<br />
Repeating actions in the flashbacks can seem a bit annoying, but is nessasary for revealing new bits of the investigation. Pretty cool game.<br />
<br />
<br />
*** <b>Snake's Game by Nahian Nasir</b> ***<br />
<br />
First "web" game of the bunch I tried. I'm partial to parser games, but I do really like a CYOA once in a while if the story is good. The story is definitely weird, but actually wasn't as weird or creepy as I was expecting. The choices seemed pretty linear. This one really isn't bad, but I didn't enjoy it all that much.<br />
<br />
<br />
*** <b>Ariadne in Aeaea by Victor Qjuel</b> **<br />
<br />
This is a parser-driven game written in Inform7. It's a pretty amusing story, but none of the humor made me laugh out loud. I was hoping the topless ceremonial lady in the cover art was somehow depicted in the game, and she was! Old auntie. Nice.<br />
<br />
The environment of the game itself seems well-rounded. NPCs react different when you walk by in in different attire than you did previously and other features. I did end up glancing at the walkthrough probably a bit too more than I should have early on, so I can't really speak to the difficulty of the puzzles.. but for the most part they seemed fairly easy and not too obscure with exception to probably would have had a bit of back-tracking to do had I not skimmed the walkthrough early on. There perhaps could have been less rooms and more time spent on more parser understandings.. such as "herder" when referring to a "goatherder".<br />
<br />
<br />
*** <b>Riot by Taylor Johnson</b> ***<br />
<br />
Another CYOA game. This one got me interested in the beginning, but then I end up with the same complaints I have with many of these types of games. My choices seem either too linear, and at times I'm asked to make choices that I wonder if any sane being would do, like correcting a random strangers broken nose. I straightened a friends dislocated finger in RealLife when I was about 12 after making an impulse decision, but I was young and he was no stranger. I don't think it ever healed correctly either..<br />
<br />
I felt like this story was ok, but not great. I did get into it more than Snake's Game.<br />
<br />
<br />
*** <b>Toilet World - by Chet Rocketfrak</b> ***<br />
<br />
This sounds promising. Though on closer examination, it's just a "joke" game. Whatever, let's give it a shot. I'm told I'm in this glorious world of toilets, surrounded by toilets. Cool. I think I got this.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">> X TOILET</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You can’t see any such thing.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Oh hell nah. So, in short what we seem to have here is a "joke" game that's basically a few room descriptions filled with typos, no implementation of objects, nothing to really do. Or maybe I'm missing some grand game behind the scenes that I couldn't figure out how to throw the right parser commands at to unlock. Probably not however, considering there is no walkthrough included.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
** <b>Ventilator - by Peregrine Wade</b> **</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ha! Now this one has some humor to it, at least in the death messages. There's no walkthrough included either with this parser game, so I didn't expect it to be too long. The few puzzles are pretty abstract, but it didn't take me long to figure them out. The ending was kind of a head-scratcher, but I found this more fun than the web-based games so far.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
*** <b>Cactus Blue Motel - by Astrid Dalmady</b> ***<br />
<br />
A web game with some cool-looking text upon starting up. You play a girl on a road-trip with two of your friends traveling across the desert until you come to a stop at a desolate hotel. The game has nice visuals, but oh man these choices. The actual path to the finish line seems like it's fairly linear, but I'm forced to re-ask various NPCs questions over and over again until new options pop up. The author perhaps should have made previously asked questions that you've already read responses for disappear. The story seemed kind of interesting but the gameplay system made it very difficult to enjoy.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-78373548673243634402016-02-12T09:51:00.000-08:002016-02-12T09:54:15.945-08:002016Two years have gone by since my last interactive fiction full game release, <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/projects/if/Blackness/Release/">Blackness</a>. <i>Blackness </i>was written in 3 hours for <a href="http://ifwiki.org/index.php/Ectocomp">Ectocomp,</a> so it's rather short and there isn't a lot of attention paid to detail. There may be a chance of entering that competition or another short competition this year with another small game written in Inform7. While the Hugo IF authoring language has now became my favorite platform for authoring IF, I do miss some of the conveniences and quirks of I7 and never have gotten around to using the OSX version of it much.<br />
<br />
However, I did manage to get a demo of <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/projects/if/dprk/">DPRK</a> released. It didn't get a lot of play-tests, but the few random ones I did hear reports back from on sounded very positive aside from a movement bug. Around Christmas of last year, I returned to the project to begin working on the final version of the game. With a lot of help from Roody (author of <a href="http://notdeadhugo.blogspot.com/">RoodyLib</a>) I've started a "simulation lab" of sorts to start developing and testing encounter and combat systems. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think the project is still promising and have a positive outlook to get the rest of the content and system coding done by the end of the year.<br />
<br />
In other Hugo related-project news, <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438139803">Cyberganked</a> is also coming up! Robb Sherwin has created a character using a picture of myself and I will be writing up some dialogue drafts soon for him to digest into the game, as well as doing some testing as needed. I'm really looking forward to the release of this game and to playing it. Anyone who enjoyed Wizardry and text games I think will as well. Roody has also been hard at work on RoodyLib for this past year.. which Cyberganked and DPRK both utilize. He's also been working on things such as handicap-friendly interfacing and other Hugo magic lately.<br />
<br />
In 2015, I did manage to keep a group of 6 going for a table-top RPG going since December of 2014. As a listener of Burzum, I heard of a game that Varg Vikernes created called <a href="http://myfarog.org/">MYFAROG</a>. I missed out out the first printing in Halloween of 2014, but managed to score a 2nd printing copy of the 1st addition shortly after that. We began as me playing the role of "MythMaster" (Dungeon Master) which was a fun practice returning to creating stories, characters, local areas, etc on the fly while keeping campaign solidarity. Most of the players eventually bought books, and one player took over the role of MythMaster long enough for another player to spend a few months in another country and for me to actually play as a PC.. an experience I haven't had in a very, very long time. I blogged about our game <a href="http://jizaboz.blogspot.com/2015/05/myfarog-week-1.html">here</a> if you are interested in how it began.<br />
<br />
I also hope to get a refurbished monitor from <a href="http://thearcadebuffett.com/">Arcade Buffett</a> soon in the mail to finally get my Neo-Geo MVS-2 arcade machine running again. I bought this cabinet (my first!) in January of 2015 at an auction for 425$ before fees and it worked fine aside from monitor issues. The main culprit of the issues was a crappy Kortek chassis. After a lot of de-soldering and soldering to replace all of the capacitors and the flyback transformer, I learned the hard way replacement flybacks are just not available for the crappy Kortek. So, I ordered a complete monitor as I plan on keeping this machine for years anyway and want something solid (and non-Kortek). I may buy a seperate chassis and yoke to rebuild another monitor with the leftover Zenith 25 inch tube.<br />
<br />
The only major non-work or non-DPRK distraction I can see coming up? The new Doom game in May. If it's all it promises to be, expect to see more in the <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/projects/id">Id Software</a> section of my website! I've still got a "Photon Doom" project I have on a backburner that may end up ported from Doom3 to that. I won't know until I play it. If it's not fitting to Photon, Doom3 BFG will be the target for a new Photon Doom mod. If anyone reading this is already planing a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon:_The_Ultimate_Game_on_Planet_Earth">Photon</a> mod for any game engine, please contact me. I'd be interested in sharing ideas and assets.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-8486596448444005032015-11-12T11:58:00.002-08:002015-11-12T11:58:23.903-08:00Handful of IFcomp 2015 Entry Reviews<br />
<br />
This year's Interactive Fiction Competition has a very large number of entries. I knew I wouldn't be able to play them all online, so I picked a few at random that had interesting descriptions. I ended up playing through and reviewing <i>Crossroads</i>, <i>Life on Mars</i>, <i>Laid off from the Synesthesia Factory</i>, <i>Much Love, BJP</i>, <i>The Sueno</i>, and <i>Taghairm</i>. I played a few others that I just could not finish either because I couldn't get into them or I glanced at the walkthough after a few turns and decided I didn't want to play though the game. Of course, I'll only be voting for the ones I've finished and reviewed here. There might be spoilers here, so if you are afraid of seeing any now is the time to look elsewhere! <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Reviews being after the stars...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* * * * *<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
CROSSROADS<br /><br />Interesting description, so trying this first. This Twine game was sort of interesting, but wasn’t interesting enough to play though again. I was expecting the text to be more graphic than it was due to the content warning. One typo I found that may be deprecated: “sand” where an “and” should be.<br /><br /><br />LIFE ON MARS<br /><br />Scrolling thru the entries further so I don’t end up playing titles in the lower portion of the alphabet. Huh. A speed setting. And another content warning.. which is seems like a bit of a spoiler. There’s also a recommended playlist. While I like old Satyricon and some Aphex Twin songs, the two don’t seem to go together well if there should be a consistent mood to the game.<br /><br />Spatterlight crashed when trying to use the email function, so I build Frotz from the latest source and ran the game in that. The email thing works now though, and I can see the text speed effect now which is pretty neat. Now, on to the actual game.<br /><br />There aren’t a lot of rooms to explore, but given the setting there shouldn’t be. Using the “email” function seems to be the main thing driving the game until I get prompted that taking a nap might be a good idea. After the nap, more email and a robot needs my assistance. There wasn’t much more after that. Wasn’t too crazy about the ending. The game was mostly on-rails showing off a lot of text effects; the latter of which does make this a pretty cool little adventure.<br /><br /><br /><br />LAID OFF FROM THE SYNESTHESIA FACTORY<br /><br />And here we have another game with both a content warning and a recommended playlist. It promises to generate a readable, static story once I reach the end and also claims to be both short and completely puzzle-less. X GREEN. X BRAIN (surprised that one gave a response). CALL BRIAN (Huh. A response, but nothing that seems to be relevent). EXIT. Ah, that makes more sense.. DRIVE TO LAKE. Eh. PAINT LAKE. Ha! Myrtle Beach reference! God, how I’ve come to loathe that place since the arcade went to shit and they tore down the rides. Also, South of the Border! My family never did fall for that trap either though I also remember counting the signs as a kid. <br /><br />Now I think I have a good idea of what this synpiece is.. but having it on while driving certainly feels wrong. I guess that depends on if I can still make out things or if the road is going to look chunky and crooked as it tastes. (That’s a synthestisia joke.) I end up at a lake with Brian where a “compromise” is met. I guess I got the OK ending. This was a neat little game and I’ll probably give it another play after the comp. I liked how it started completely abstract and hard to follow yet then started to make sense. I would gripe about things not being more explained, but I have the same gripe about the previous title I reviewed and this one at least warrants another play to perhaps tell more of the same story from different angles.<br /><br /><br />MUCH LOVE, BJP<br /><br />Another Twine entry. This one is just basically what feels like newspaper articles linked by verb hyperlinks. Not many of them, either. Not many choices here. While the story of the reporter in this one is inspiring and all, it’s rather political and if anything, this title warranted more of a “content warning” than the other 2.. though overall I think content warnings are stupid.<br /><br /><br />THE SUENO<br /><br />A game about a sleep study and lucid dreaming. This should be interesting. I’m not sure if I’ll ever finish the lucid dreaming game I made a prototype for. <br /><br />We start out with good descriptions and all, but feels like I’m waiting in the sleep lab forever. Hm. I “look” in the Sleep Lab again after waiting many turns. I haven’t been prompted to do anything. Dr. Lynch is just “here, clipboard in hand”. I scroll back to look at all of the talking topics and ask about those. Still waiting. Oh. Consulting the walk thru says I really should ask about medication. OK, here we go. Going to try to not look at the walkthrough again now.<br /><br />I can’t read or take the Frederick’s of Hollywood lingerie catalog?! No such thing?! Bah. Anyway, a few fairly simple puzzles progress the game along various snippets of moving through a house, some woods, and a town; separated by cutscenes of the doctor conducting the study interrupting your sleep with questions. <br /><br />The inventory and puzzles in this game felt a bit clunky, but overall not a bad game and worth a play. I ended up returning to the walkthrough again a couple of times despite the suggestion that I should try not looking at it at all.<br /><br /><br />TAGHAIRM<br /><br />Another Twine game, but very different from any other I have encountered. Cool sounds add a neat atmosphere. Around the time I started to think “Well crap. Just like every other Twine game. Not many choices or forcing me to make choices I don’t want to make to finish the story.”, something neat happened when I clicked the forced answer a few times. It actually explained what in the world was the purpose of this, and in a cool way. I was surprised to enjoy this one. Cat lovers will probably hate it.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-65343481532717888342015-07-25T16:49:00.000-07:002015-07-25T16:49:44.652-07:00A Day In DPRK demo releasedAfter stabbing at this project off and on for three years, I'm finally releasing a demo to the public now that the foundation is in place. While this demo is not the final version, it demonstrates the system and sets the story into motion. I welcome people to try it out and if you have time send some feedback on the game either by email or commenting here. I'll try to update this demo if bad bugs are found and will note the version in the file name.<br />
<br />
Again, please note that this is only about a third of the final game. I'm just eager to release a chunk of it to go ahead and start getting some feedback.<br />
<br />
Here is what I would like to know from the test:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>What about the system of the game (parser, graphics, sound, etc) did you like or dislike? </li>
<li>What could you not do and wanted to be able to do? (What was missing?)</li>
<li>Did you find any bugs or anything otherwise broken?</li>
<li>And most importantly, are you interested in a final version of this?</li>
</ol>
<a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/projects/if/dprk/">Click here to download the demo and the program needed to play it from my website.</a><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-56366645924573002412015-01-15T17:03:00.002-08:002015-01-15T17:03:54.151-08:00Three Days in DPRK & Red Star Linux 3.0Since May of last year, I've said that a demo of my newest interactive fiction for the <a href="http://notdeadhugo.blogspot.com/">Hugo</a> engine would be released soon to a few play-testers. That finally started to come to be a reality around Christmas instead. At this point, I just need to wrap up things involving the first player character meeting the second player character, and working out any consequences of that meeting before displaying another room or two and ending the demo. This should be done in within the next 2 weeks, and if not Valentine's Day should be the absolute deadline.<br />
<br />
Why is it taking so long? I've been quite busy with work, I finally played and beat <i>LA Noire</i>, <i>Wasteland 2</i> came out, I got <a href="http://myfarog.org/">MYFAROG</a> around Christmas, and I kept getting distracted with things like this:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmSnOQT25pFs9eCppbOeTmIUCdvjS-wrHSWbvy5x3aq8w9TO-o83XpVqmarAivlAaWXLt22TKUyN3sqI0sBIb4zGDoHNRJtI51xIekezRVKxLImy7958zYV0_h5d_HCrr2s4eEs1Jk21E/s1600/rc6Nq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmSnOQT25pFs9eCppbOeTmIUCdvjS-wrHSWbvy5x3aq8w9TO-o83XpVqmarAivlAaWXLt22TKUyN3sqI0sBIb4zGDoHNRJtI51xIekezRVKxLImy7958zYV0_h5d_HCrr2s4eEs1Jk21E/s1600/rc6Nq.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DPRK running in HUGOR on Red Star Linux 3.0</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-22336526954035755982014-12-26T13:55:00.002-08:002014-12-26T13:57:47.775-08:00Django CYOAThis is a new project I worked on recently to learn Django and get more Python practice. It creates <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure">CYOA</a> style games using a combination of Django admin and HTML/CSS, and Python 2.7. Below are some screenshots, and <a href="https://github.com/mwphipps/django-cyoa">here</a> you will find the git repository. See the README file there for more about how the system works and how to use it yourself if you are interested.<br />
<br />
<br />
A short example game I created is included. Perhaps in the future I'll get time to expand on it or make a new, larger one.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgCwwbKvVefV52o0va5TckMTbfa3zmxWddrMYCs-nSeyFTpLiHkTbQfnfXZnDiCK-Bcva5yI-U8cWo_0ZqHyV94JHu7-z0uR8DJVkBeYLd9lQqqkm6FZYbzhiI-VtYtMZlF_I2aqzGA8/s1600/gameview.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgCwwbKvVefV52o0va5TckMTbfa3zmxWddrMYCs-nSeyFTpLiHkTbQfnfXZnDiCK-Bcva5yI-U8cWo_0ZqHyV94JHu7-z0uR8DJVkBeYLd9lQqqkm6FZYbzhiI-VtYtMZlF_I2aqzGA8/s1600/gameview.png" height="257" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Game View</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYwJwgBmoKNa-Ta_ByKY8ye2ISXS2KXBgoSro_JYqbCazydxj4NyIVkTJrLyk2Fexm33D_z-zd9PF6BuP3DeW2qq1YVd-wSuy3sbByxB17R4t9mnM0ioK9ZKaCh13so5OMzpH7akfPky0/s1600/overview.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYwJwgBmoKNa-Ta_ByKY8ye2ISXS2KXBgoSro_JYqbCazydxj4NyIVkTJrLyk2Fexm33D_z-zd9PF6BuP3DeW2qq1YVd-wSuy3sbByxB17R4t9mnM0ioK9ZKaCh13so5OMzpH7akfPky0/s1600/overview.png" height="256" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Story Admin Overview</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUhoYS6bcEkz1h5gvLgiwRp6DQ76jot8MNCw06su4HWvCDX1DB9fhR_1W2fe7-DGEMRhCRJxe4adUcroo6encicKVff1nNBI-ieyQnIqKXD-bCKE5UDZCujxK2qZd2DAj-TiERQ505PhM/s1600/detail2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUhoYS6bcEkz1h5gvLgiwRp6DQ76jot8MNCw06su4HWvCDX1DB9fhR_1W2fe7-DGEMRhCRJxe4adUcroo6encicKVff1nNBI-ieyQnIqKXD-bCKE5UDZCujxK2qZd2DAj-TiERQ505PhM/s1600/detail2.png" height="257" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Story Admin detail</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaMJL00N9ITSQaf4p-xJnH39f-MEwuFNDcnvGtSNpFpX5KzeqPRliJaNG4CDJHjqedVqB8nRLM25WLRpfwdLPSpyhzQ27Zlk-HQxkedFct78fvAI4K6Ur7x9syiVyv8l7ZHe3DE1UbQE/s1600/detail1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaMJL00N9ITSQaf4p-xJnH39f-MEwuFNDcnvGtSNpFpX5KzeqPRliJaNG4CDJHjqedVqB8nRLM25WLRpfwdLPSpyhzQ27Zlk-HQxkedFct78fvAI4K6Ur7x9syiVyv8l7ZHe3DE1UbQE/s1600/detail1.png" height="254" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(more) Story Admin detail</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-49635865530541367182014-10-29T08:53:00.006-07:002014-10-30T06:28:34.741-07:00IF Comp 2014 Reviews: A - FThere are a lot of entries this year, and I'm trying to at least try to play them all. Here are some short reviews of what I've played so far. While I'm not doing any scoring here, (I've been making private notes for that to use when voting time arrives) there are some spoilers here. If you don't want to risk spoiling any of these games you haven't played yet yourself, then don't scroll down.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
S<br />
<br />
P<br />
<br />
O<br />
<br />
I<br />
<br />
L<br />
<br />
E<br />
<br />
R<br />
<br />
S<br />
<br />
- <b><i>ALETHICORP</i></b> -<br />
<br />
First game on the list. I'll just click "play in browser" and away we go. No, wait. There's another link waiting for me there, to apply for a job. Interesting. Wonder what the pay rate will be? The 2nd job sounds like one perhaps I can do. Oh great, a personality test. I failed one of these miserably when I applied to Pizza Hut as a teenager.<br />
<br />
"If you were a bear, what type of bear would you be?" I would most definitely be a Were-Bear. Unfortunately, that isn't on the list. Okay, Smokey Bear it is. Team player? 9, of course (total lie). A few more questions and.. accepted! Wow, that was easy.<br />
<br />
As the game moves along, I find myself going through many texts in the form of emails, reports, and conversation logs while flagging some things as suspicious. The constant train picture and comparison in some of the emails is pretty humorous. I seem to be doing not such a great job, but not horrible either. One person who calls themselves "Alpha" is asking me to not do my job and delete as much as possible. I am ignoring them. <br />
<br />
Eventually, when asked to make "recommendations", I recommend Alpha at threat level 9. Doing so results in my termination from the company, as it was obvious to everyone but me that I was letting all the bad people slide. Oh well. "Those 'Smokey Bear ' types are never reliable."<br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>AND YET IT MOVES</i></b> -<br />
<br />
x me<br />
How very vain of you.<br />
<br />
Okay, not a big deal. This is a game about Galileo and all, so I'm letting it slide.<br />
<br />
"inventory" says I've got a travel case that contains what looks like useless scenery, but that I've also got a bag with a list in it. Hey, I'm going to start grabbing some stuff off that list! I remember seeing some fruit outside!<br />
<br />
I go to take an apple, but can't due to my morals. However, I see a bit of metal, which is of course a key. I try to take the potato, and it tells me about the bit of metal again. A bit later, I discover a hint on an object referring to this key. I hope anyone reading this did not have trouble finding this key.<br />
<br />
There are little slightly annoying bugs around but nothing game-stopping yet. Things like the latch on the globe can not be seen after the description of the globe telling you that it is affixed with a latch, which is locked. Soon, we are upon lack of capitolization in within various sentence beginnings. Pretty neat how it throws the items from the list into the bag once I buy them, though. Argh, multiple objects that seem to do nothing and do not have plural understandings; with exception to taking things.<br />
<br />
Visiting the trinket shop, I notice there's no shopkeeper, so I'm going to loot the place. I start with the "marbles", and get 57 lines of:<br />
<br />
marble: If you want that marble, pay for it.<br />
<br />
Seems obvious the next course of action at this point is trying to find the new location of the bank so I can cash in the note so I can pay for the bookbinder's services. Found it.<br />
<br />
"Now you just need some supplies, and you can be leaving for Holland. There is a market nearby, and you have a list of things to buy in your bag."<br />
<br />
Cool. But I wonder what would happen if..<br />
<br />
>give bag to bookbinder<br />
(the bag to the bookbinder)<br />
You give the bag to the bookbinder.<br />
<br />
>take bag<br />
Which do you mean, the bag or sack of coins?<br />
<br />
>the bag<br />
Which do you mean, the bag or sack of coins?<br />
<br />
Very impressive and extensive hints system. Though the game seems a bit too simple for all of these. It also fails to tell me why I can't complete the 4th(out of 5 according to the hints) scene when I have paid to get the book bound and have walked into Alighieri street holding 2 apples, 3 pumpkins, a water vessel, and a veal slice. I did this with the items in and out the bag. Waited. Gave up.<br />
<br />
Had good points and was fun at moments, but the bugs killed the experience for me. <br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>ARQON</i></b> -<br />
<br />
This game comes with a warning for anyone who may be offended by IF RPG. I will press SPACE to continue.<br />
<br />
It doesn’t take long before a combat encounter begins in this game. I keep meaning to check out Kerkerkruip, so I can’t really compare that to this. <br />
<br />
Starting out, I go check out a temple which houses a priest. I pray and receive bless and curse (strangely, the same 2 scrolls I already have with me). Praying again gives the same result. Over and over. You can’t actually talk to the priest though because “You can’t see any such thing.” You can ask the owner of the trading post about “the trading post”, but “ask trader about trading post” gives no reply. There is a free scroll referred to at the trading post, but I can’t seem to buy or take it.<br />
<br />
The popular typo theme in this one seems to be missing ending sentences. While the game doesn’t describe my defeated enemies pooling into thin air, there’s no trace of the body after the combat to search for loot or whatever. After a while, I just became disinterested in this one and moved on to the next.<br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>BEGSCAPE</i></b> -<br />
<br />
Beg. Beg. Beg. Choice. <br />
<br />
That’s where the choices end with this one. Your only possible action is “beg” over and over and then you asked if you should stay in the current town or move to another (unless you are kicked out.) Then you die. Then you restart. This being advertised as a randomized game, I gave it another try. I replayed it roughly 5 times.<br />
<br />
The lack of options here makes for a disappointing experience. Descriptions of opportunities float by, yet there is no “ask dude @ bakery for a job”, etc option to click. Why can’t I stop begging after getting enough money for shelter for the day? There are very few options other than dying and seeing a slightly more detailed death message in this game. There’s no background to anything. WHY can’t I do anything but beg? I could start to imagine this for myself, but I feel the story should give me a lot more explain this lack of options. At least I can complete it.<br />
<br />
<br />
- <i>BUILDING THE RIGHT STUFF</i> -<br />
<br />
This game has an interesting layout, though it does look a little rough. I like the green coloring of the screen, but waiting on it to refresh can be kind of annoying. Checking bioscans between turns gives some cool results, it's just too bad that the game wouldn't let me go back to the menu and essentially froze on my 4th or 5th bioscan.<br />
<br />
On my first play through, I accidentally exited the game by hitting escape. On the 3rd turn, the game ended due to "space sickness" despite talking to GENE as frequently as I thought to, though scared to do it too much in fear of triggering the freeze bug again. Bug fixes and some randomization of the messages would make this game more worthy of play. <br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>CAROLINE</i></b> -<br />
<br />
The game starts with a dinner date, and my date wants to play footsies. We leave after getting crappy wine from a creepy waiter, and away we go to her house. She agrees to cook spaghetti, but won’t give me her secret recipe. I think her disgusting secret is carrots in her spaghetti sauce. I like both, but the two don’t go together.<br />
<br />
Again, I don’t feel like I have enough choices here. The “correct” ones seem obvious to keep from pissing off Caroline. Our next date is quite strange. “Do I forgive myself?” for what? I’ve been on my best behavior with Caroline. Whatever, I’ll say yes. I have to yes a few times once in the church to properly role-play. Doing this did make for an amusing (and pretty ridiculous) ending. No show-stopping bugs to be found, but the lack of choices going on here prevents me from rating much higher. <br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>CREATURES SUCH AS WE</i></b> -<br />
<br />
This game starts off as a typical CYOA style game, then (at least for me) quickly ended in a bad ending. Then, I was poked at in a “R U MAD, BRO?” sort of fashion. A few more replays later, I don't really find much fun to be had here.<br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>EIDOLON</i></b> -<br />
<br />
When this story begins, I mistakenly think there are flying saucers outside. Instead, there's some really strange and creepy things going on here dealing with insomnia, alternate realities, and dreams. We have a few choices here, but nothing story-forking. However, we do have some cool puzzles in this Twine game! While there were parts of the story I did not enjoy, there was a lot that I did. <br />
<br />
The game presented itself well aside from one typo that stood out to me which I will mention later, never bugged out, had a cool and solid story, and was genuinely fun to play. <br />
<br />
The only hitch was in the end: ”and now I just want everything to over"<br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>ENIGMA</i></b> -<br />
<br />
Got off to a rough start despite not getting many parser errors, and looked at the walkthrough. Lack of paragraphs makes this one a bit harder to read. Way too much typing to think and examine instead of just “doing” things to make this much fun for me.<br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>EXCELSIOR</i></b> -<br />
<br />
One of the bricks in the tower wall is black. That’s odd, you didn’t notice it before.<br />
<br />
> x brick<br />
It looks just like the other bricks, except black.<br />
<br />
> take it<br />
That’s not a command I recognize. Type “help” for command info.<br />
<br />
> push brick<br />
That’s not a command I recognize. Type “help” for command info.<br />
<br />
“help” reveals a “use” command which is usually completely alien to me aside from graphic adventures with text parsers. The game advertises a streamlined parser, but it just feels more limited and frustrating to me. Not being able to use more than one line at a time is annoying once I glance at the walkthrough.<br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>FIFTEEN MINUTES</i></b> -<br />
<br />
After some examining and waiting, it's obvious that there's some time-travel puzzling going on here. I used to get helplessly stuck in <i>Day of the Tentacle</i>, so I don't have high hopes for this one. After bumbling about a bit, I consult the hints, then the walkthrough. This just doesn't seem like it's a game for me. Moving on again.<br />
<br />
<br />
- <b><i>FOLLOWING ME</i></b> -<br />
<br />
The lack of indenting and paragraph spacing in this one gets on my nerves, but the story <br />
feels like something bad must happen, and that keeps me interested in moving forward. As it progresses though, things get pretty cheesy and profanities seem tackily overused. A few more typos pop up like lack of periods and a random % mark. I'm not sure how much impact my choices are making, but 2 plays didn't reveal much. <br />
<br />
I would have made those bad guys pay a lot more, for sure. <br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-33023152624562413222014-09-19T16:21:00.000-07:002014-09-19T16:42:44.693-07:00Moving OnYesterday, I came home to a surprise. I went to update something related to my Ultima Online shard, and realized that my site now resolves to a Roadrunner.com help page. The site has resided there for about ten years now, as I never really needed a lot of space to host it. In about 3 hours I had uploaded all my data from a backup and redone all the URLS to the site, but you may still find a quirk here or there before I catch it. The old address was home.roadrunner.com/~fragmeister and the new address is <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/">retrolab.servebeer.com</a>.<br />
<br />
The new site is hosted by Amazon.com and so long as I keep refreshing the free domain name (or finally pay for it), it should stay there for some time to come. Also, all games and source code in my "Files" section should be working correctly now, because they are also hosted on the new server. The old site had a lot of files that were linked to Fileplanet, which is "no longer being updated and is in the process of being archived". Always a good idea to make frequent backups.<br />
<br />
With that out of the way, I have a couple of game-related things to mention. The DPRK demo (Interactive fiction written in Hugo) is just around the corner. I just need a couple more hours to tie up some loose ends. The demo will feature the first PC's section of the game as well as an introduction to the second PC. I'm mainly looking for feedback on 2 things from the testers of the demo; how interested you are in certain aspects of the story (what should be focused on more) and what do you like or not like about the interface (The text parser commands, the layout of the windows, etc). It should only take a few minutes to play, but there are reasons for replay here and there due to story forks dependent on things like held objects and NPC interactions.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ifcomp.org/">IFComp</a> is also starting soon! I'm currently beta testing one game for it and hope to play a lot of the entries, and will try to review one or two once the time comes. I didn't really have anything near enough to completion to feel comfortable entering myself this year.<br />
<br />
Retro Shard is back in order again lately new interest from a couple of people. My girlfriend has been doing a lot of play-testing on it, and I've gotten around to creating a new dungeon and finally creating a desert area. Next up will be creating a region within the desert area to allow for people to collect sand for glass-blowing. The new dungeon still needs some more spawners (monsters and treasure) to be fully complete, but that shouldn't take too long. Check out the <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/lab/rs/index.htm">Retro Shard</a> section if you are interested in playing 2D Ultima Online on my server. It's free and fairly straightforward to set up.<br />
<br />
There's been a new version and a few revisions of <a href="http://inform7.com/">Inform7</a> released since I last worked with it. I'm interested in the OSX version, but figure the best thing to do is continue on DPRK until all of the extensions my last unfinished Inform project was dependent on are working in this new version. That last unfinished project was the "Interactive Dreaming" game. I recently took some pictures that I think will fit into the game nicely, and still have the beginnings of a cool sound track a friend of created a track for. The game itself was progressing okay as far as content, but the conversation system (the one I used in Lunar Base 1) was mothballed. If anyone has any recommendations for clean yet dynamic conversation systems that I may have missed in the past two years, I'd like to hear them.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-47263195507233649882014-04-01T12:19:00.000-07:002014-04-01T12:19:05.556-07:00IF UpdatesToday I moved everything from my "if" folder on my personal webserver running in my living room over to my Amazon Web Services instance. My main homepage @ <a href="http://home.roadrunner.com/~fragmeister/">http://home.roadrunner.com/~fragmeister/</a> has not changed, and all IF-related links there are now routed to the new host. Any old links to any of my old interactive fiction titles with retroshard.no-ip.org in the URL are now broken.<br />
<br />During this process, I added some new material as well. You can now view the source code to <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/if/LunarBase1/Release/">Lunar Base 1</a> on the website. <a href="http://retrolab.servebeer.com/if/Blackness/Release/">Blackness</a> has also been added along with its source code and a "making of" section that shows my notebook scribblings as I planned out what I would code within the 3-hour time limit of EctoComp 2013.<br />
<br />
No <a href="http://springthing.net/">Spring Thing</a> entry for me this year. Currently focusing on getting a beta test / teaser of sorts for the North Korean game originally announced here over a year ago. It is being written in Hugo and is using the current version of <a href="http://notdeadhugo.blogspot.com/2014/01/roodylib-v-37.html">Roodylib</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-3694785147622591962013-10-19T12:59:00.000-07:002013-10-19T12:59:44.466-07:00EctoComp 2013Sometimes, it can be fun to be spontaneous. Earlier this month, I saw an <a href="http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9401" target="_blank">announcement for another Ectocomp at IntFiction.org</a> and came up with an idea for an entry. EctoComp has interested me since I began making my first work of interactive fiction, but the time constraint of 3 hours was completely unrealistic to me as I was just starting to learn how to use <a href="http://inform7.com/" target="_blank">Inform7</a> and creating <a href="http://retroshard.no-ip.org/web/IF/HallowEve/Release/" target="_blank">Hallow Eve</a>. <br />
<br />
19 days later, I sat down with a piece of notebook paper filled with notes and map scribbles I had jotted down from random ideas since then, and wrote the game using <a href="http://inform7.com/" target="_blank">Inform7</a> in just slightly over two and a half hours. This barely allowed time for a very helpful play-tester to spend about 30 minutes or less on it to give me any feedback on bugs or grammar and only 15-20 minutes left for any bug-fixing and improvements. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbTMNACdTRWjEn64JXPPzyZzeXWsnSj5U4xdCEJmZ0kAiFd6d-M1_Ul91cRG6qjYsMzGs1rdnHq630Bm1z9NW57TV2ACNCWpDxAV_681qEFtJyavM_2at7MVK-RzqKfgmcozPVZTcFOc/s1600/Cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbTMNACdTRWjEn64JXPPzyZzeXWsnSj5U4xdCEJmZ0kAiFd6d-M1_Ul91cRG6qjYsMzGs1rdnHq630Bm1z9NW57TV2ACNCWpDxAV_681qEFtJyavM_2at7MVK-RzqKfgmcozPVZTcFOc/s320/Cover.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I don't want to go into the details of the game yet other than sharing the cover for it above and the fact that the game is short given the time constraint of its creation. Also, I hope people enjoy playing it as much I enjoyed making it. After the competition is over, I will have a website link for it here to play and download the source code. Speaking of source code, I realized that I have not yet released the source for <a href="http://retroshard.no-ip.org/web/IF/LunarBase1/Release/" target="_blank">Lunar Base 1</a> yet. I will try to get to that soon as well.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-80756120623343017032013-09-14T07:04:00.001-07:002013-09-14T07:04:39.390-07:00End of Summer Update The dust has been collecting here since Janurary. Time for an update!<br />
<br />
Free time has been very short since the last update. Things with my current job never did slow down. If anything, they became more intense and time-demanding. The work is both exciting and interesting for me, so I can't complain. Some of the things I've either learned from scratch or improved along the way prompted me to start my own web browser game engine, which is a <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry:_Proving_Grounds_of_the_Mad_Overlord" target="_blank">Wizardry</a></i>-like CRPG type thing. I'm not sure how much will actually get done with this, but it's a fun side project to tinker with. But of course, nothing half as Robb Sherwin's upcoming game, <i><a href="https://twitter.com/Cyberganked" target="_blank">Cyberganked</a></i>. <br />
<br />
Within the bits of free time I've had, I found myself reverting back to simpler things. Actually playing some games rather than writing them, and most of these being older games. I acquired a Commodore 64 setup over the past few months, including a <a href="http://www.go4retro.com/products/zoomfloppy/" target="_blank">Zoom Floppy</a>. More than a few hours have gone into playing games like <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasteland_%28video_game%29" target="_blank">Wasteland</a></i> and other RPGs on this setup. This has been a bit of inspiration for creating my own "retro" graphics for use in my games.<br /><br />One such game is one I worked on some more this morning called "Surf's Down". It's original intention was for it to be a non-traditional IF written in Hugo for an upcoming Hugo Comp. That competition has yet to come, but I continue working on it here and there because it's been a good learning exercise for me as I write the more complex DPRK game. Hopefully the short source code of <i>Surf's Down</i> will also serve as good example code for others learning Hugo as well.<br /><br /><i>Surf's Down</i> is basically a Hugo conversion of an old Atari 2600 game prototype which was never released, called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAfrAxTV1ZM" target="_blank">Surf's Up</a>. I fired up the game on an emulator and was actually a bit impressed with some of the design aspects of the game, especially the beginning phase of paddling out into the ocean. I've been a surfer for quite a while myself, and despite the very out-dated graphics, I felt the game managed to somehow capture the feeling of going out into the waves. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay phase of the <i>Surf's Up</i> left much to be desired. The gameplay in my game is decision-based, yet all decisions are made using cardinal compass points.<br />
<br />Progress on <i>Three Days in DPRK</i> has been much slower than I had hoped for. At one point, I was considering trying to enter it into <a href="http://ifcomp.org/" target="_blank">IFcomp</a> 2013. In retrospect, I'm glad I did not. While the game is roughly three-fourths complete, it would have been way too much of a rush to try to finish something I'd be confident in entering. Instead, I look forward to playing the games of others. Perhaps I'll have something ready for <a href="http://www.springthing.net/" target="_blank">Spring Thing</a> 2014. Though, I think <i>Interactive Dreaming</i> would be a bit more well suited for that one.<br /><br />The actual code of <i>Interactive Dreaming</i> hasn't been touched since my last update here, but the story and materials for the game continue to slowly build. The conversation system also needs to be redone now that I've removed a prototype system I used in <i><a href="http://retroshard.no-ip.org/web/IF/LunarBase1/Release/" target="_blank">Lunar Base 1</a></i>. Trying some recent ones others are using has some ideas about what I'd like to use or create myself, but I'm still researching this. A new release of Inform may affect this as well. While I'm eager to try the new version once released, I'm not sure how smooth it will be to compile <i>Interactive Dreaming</i> along with all of its required libraries. <br /><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-32083568574520726082013-01-17T14:49:00.000-08:002013-01-17T14:49:49.485-08:002013 IF PlansThis year I will be working more on <a href="http://jizaboz.blogspot.com/search/label/dreams" target="_blank">Interactive Dreaming</a> along side another project I've recently started, called <i>Days in DPRK</i>.<br />
<br />
The general prototype framework of <a href="http://jizaboz.blogspot.com/search/label/dreams" target="_blank">Interactive Dreaming</a> feels okay, but one of the first things I will be doing is completely changing the conversation system. I originally used one that ended up in <a href="http://jizaboz.blogspot.com/search/label/Lunar%20Base%201" target="_blank">Lunar Base 1</a>, but that doesn't feel flexible enough to be quite what is needed for dream conversation. I think I will just test out a few systems or try creating a hybrid of one specific for the anxiety/lucidity statistics. For now, the best thing to focus on is fleshing out most of the rooms and developing a few puzzles that will also utilize those stats.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXCgcuYTSs1LTLldOehHw6cLzdbIvb1Oz4xQ2gaBZBKLohB2K0Vxf9_tYlejZp00el8TamIzSgwHVWkaEzMO0t22ZQMuxWPj8uZGc9y3EE2HRy3SHHPD5KTn6CGPrQKPiXS8y27xybY8/s1600/ID_Swamp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXCgcuYTSs1LTLldOehHw6cLzdbIvb1Oz4xQ2gaBZBKLohB2K0Vxf9_tYlejZp00el8TamIzSgwHVWkaEzMO0t22ZQMuxWPj8uZGc9y3EE2HRy3SHHPD5KTn6CGPrQKPiXS8y27xybY8/s320/ID_Swamp.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Interactive Dreaming)</span></div>
<br />
<i>Days in DPRK</i> will be my first game written in the <a href="http://www.generalcoffee.com/hugo/gethugo.html" target="_blank">Hugo</a> language. Because there's sure to be a bit of a learning curve, I don't want to get too over-ambitious with my plans for it, but I do think it will be an amusing adventure (though it may be a bit short). The concept is that you are spending 1 day in the life of a tourist in North Korea, the 2nd day you are a resident of Pyongyang, and the last day you are in another different situation. I don't really want to elaborate on the plot much further than that for now.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIvTP_fQ4PZmoQucn_fogl5nBjQmNI_G5zXmN-jaf2kEpubMSce5dJh4_SejkCcqQGESf2sv6rhALDAXgS50-Vdbzj9Q4L7VkIZ8IAwcqp2xTDYiKv3kQyAc2YuM-hSQHz5nQ1T17peA/s1600/DPRK_Lobby.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIvTP_fQ4PZmoQucn_fogl5nBjQmNI_G5zXmN-jaf2kEpubMSce5dJh4_SejkCcqQGESf2sv6rhALDAXgS50-Vdbzj9Q4L7VkIZ8IAwcqp2xTDYiKv3kQyAc2YuM-hSQHz5nQ1T17peA/s320/DPRK_Lobby.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Days in DPRK)</span></div>
<br />
Other than that, I don't know that I'll be doing much else. Paid work lately has been rather hectic, but I am learning stronger programming skills as a result of that which will help in all future game programming projects.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-45079700685461651722012-12-17T16:43:00.000-08:002012-12-17T16:44:30.195-08:00Lunar Base 1 - Version 1.1Today I went ahead and made a second release of Lunar Base 1 to my website. Here is the changelog, which I have tried to make as vague as possible for anyone who hasn't tried the game:<br />
<br />
<br />
- Fixed description of exits (or lack thereof) in one area. A pet peeve of mine has always been not showing how to get back out of a location.<br />
<br />
- Locked down 2 items that I thought already were in the comp release. I'm sure this time!<br />
<br />
- Added another conditional ending.<br />
<br />
- Made a couple of wording/grammar changes.<br />
<br />
- Added to the "about" text to reflect the new version.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>You can download release 2 of Lunar Base 1 or play it in your web browser <a href="http://retroshard.no-ip.org/web/IF/LunarBase1/Release/" target="_blank">here</a></i>.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-73444426679046258982012-09-29T15:45:00.000-07:002012-09-29T15:45:55.548-07:00Lunar Base 1 Submitted to IfComp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA9c65Fs-RROGA7CBqYIqo_oWWXD3iQjuahIucNdD-MU_peKDpI2_I41JPC1UgxHpAf4xbFjA7KRB2ALct2fQLVkuENin2GdlzfWGhS1DECPHtqD3jh_BRplVpOux50uI82gP42lLoWTs/s1600/Lunar.Base.1.Cover.Art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA9c65Fs-RROGA7CBqYIqo_oWWXD3iQjuahIucNdD-MU_peKDpI2_I41JPC1UgxHpAf4xbFjA7KRB2ALct2fQLVkuENin2GdlzfWGhS1DECPHtqD3jh_BRplVpOux50uI82gP42lLoWTs/s320/Lunar.Base.1.Cover.Art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I submitted my entry into the <a href="http://ifcomp.org/" target="_blank">2012 Interactive Fiction Competition</a> today about 6 hours before the deadline. Even in the last few stages of polishing, I found a bug or two to eliminate. I was not able to send out the file for one last round of testing, but after running through the story a few times myself today I'm fairly confident that it won't be a sloppy release. An aesthetic request here and there from my testers may have never been implemented due to time or technical restraints. Of course, there will surely be some sort of surprises when the story is in the hands of the judges.<br />
<br />
Earlier this week I wasn't sure if I would be able to use an original sketch I had worked on for my cover art at all. My intent was to photocopy it, paint and ink it, then scan it for an electronic version. The results were very poor using this method. I ended up actually taking a picture of the page in my sketchbook with a digital camera using no flash underneath a lamp in my computer room. This gave it the yellowish tint you see, which I think captures the ghostly feel of the surface of the moon pretty well. I then added black into the darker areas to make everything pop out a bit more, and finally touched up a rough edge or two.<br />
<br />
This is now the last time I can mention anything publicly about Lunar Base 1 until the end of the competition per rules of the organizer. There will probably be a retrospect of the competition added after the results are in. Good luck to all authors of IfComp 2012, and good adventures to all of the judges.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-33360053740124250992012-03-03T10:00:00.001-08:002012-03-03T10:11:59.851-08:00Lunar Base 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtye7P1CoydGJkPpeMoPvg7L4KEyKmckSmYVE-bVanu_EJyBWq-uDzUmyp9KzsBhL33XAV02zwa4sqiEOK5-hEZWIJ4lQYl3La1U0EUW7LddvRoilB-Ax19IfXcZYmfBI1a9u21AQOeDE/s1600/northmoon_gal_big-Credit-Galileo-Project-JPL-NASA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtye7P1CoydGJkPpeMoPvg7L4KEyKmckSmYVE-bVanu_EJyBWq-uDzUmyp9KzsBhL33XAV02zwa4sqiEOK5-hEZWIJ4lQYl3La1U0EUW7LddvRoilB-Ax19IfXcZYmfBI1a9u21AQOeDE/s320/northmoon_gal_big-Credit-Galileo-Project-JPL-NASA.jpg" width="277" /></a></div><br />
<br />
After some consideration and plot changes since the initial concept, I am now discarding the "working title" of the new sci-fi interactive fiction game and settling on naming it after one of the main locations within it. I felt that using the word "stranded" within the title has not only has been done before with other games, but also it encroached on the plot itself a bit much. Why assume that the player will even be stranded at all?<br />
<br />
Originally I stated that I probably wouldn't enter the game into any sort of competition. I later had second thoughts after really getting into the development of the game and it becoming more than a short experiment. The game itself though is still quite short compared to the time investment needed for playing <a href="http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Hallow_Eve">Hallow Eve</a> to completion, too short for <a href="http://www.springthing.net/2012/">Spring Thing 2012</a>, which I missed the deadline of putting in intent to enter anyway. Perhaps it will be entered into the next <a href="http://ifcomp.org/">IFcomp</a> if it is well received by the beta-testers. <i>Lunar Base 1 </i>should be sent out to beta testers within the next couple of weeks! If you are interesting in being a beta tester, please leave a comment or contact me through my website.<br />
<br />
I would also like to thank everyone that gave me input on my last blog discussing the colors of the moon. It helped me feel a lot more comfortable with the words I put down in my descriptions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-47351361312240733352012-02-01T16:30:00.000-08:002012-02-01T16:33:22.275-08:00What Color is the Moon?Making a new sci-fi game on the moon was something at first I thought would be fairly simple. I would only need a few rooms to simulate landing on the moon and walking into a base there. I would only need one or two NPCs. Of course, I was wrong. Timing and inventory issues are still a time-sucking hurdle to get over for my second IF. Trying to make the game very detailed, yet not annoying while reflecting those details is also a new practice for me.<br />
<br />
As long as I can remember, the moon and outer space in general has always fascinated me. Growing up, I was intrigued by books on space and had the experience of going to Space Camp in Alabama when I was 11. At that point I started asking questions and wondering about things that I couldn't understand then. Some persist to this day, and it's always a relief to resolve them in my mind. However, I still have a question that persists as I write this game:<br />
<br />
<i>What color is lunar soil?</i><br />
<br />
This isn't a question you can merely type into Google and get a definitive answer. In the 1960s before the manned Apollo missions, there were encyclopedias saying that the moon's soil was high in silica and other materials which would give it a slight orange appearance. Apollo camera footage makes it appear grey. I've seen many, many NASA slides of lunar rocks and soil. Usually the soil is consistently grey, yet I've seen different colors in some rock samples. I've posted a couple to show the general contrast.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEAykW2_VEzV7wms_YzkAbvcW9B_V5DVPhoUZmEUuccgTE0hhOqDilE3vXCpzRuFSIDWFCkBPCIbPeOIMpeQ8yTAa1OhGi62yo66WbgdYdCZ1VVfLR6K9Izcwzee-2AF3d9T-bmlUC12A/s1600/Apollo14_rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEAykW2_VEzV7wms_YzkAbvcW9B_V5DVPhoUZmEUuccgTE0hhOqDilE3vXCpzRuFSIDWFCkBPCIbPeOIMpeQ8yTAa1OhGi62yo66WbgdYdCZ1VVfLR6K9Izcwzee-2AF3d9T-bmlUC12A/s1600/Apollo14_rock.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Apollo 14 rock</span></div><br />
Also, how would the light photon physics of sunlight affect the appearance of the soil? I'm thinking that if the soil itself has a lot of reflective materials in it that it would sort of glow slightly like snow at night during a full moon. Even if it were grey this could happen, much like concrete dust.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcoiHb4a7zYt_28bxZfQEe9Q84GH7104Z8X92Lh0_Zcgtg5H8tipBtJvLeIdPpw6mRPBtdJm6m5SuXemv-gGi6xQbqs32KPVNDu_gmK_tOAm4SpjCaj5-0RAxJPt7gkj1QF0E1BDrkY-o/s1600/Apollo17_rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcoiHb4a7zYt_28bxZfQEe9Q84GH7104Z8X92Lh0_Zcgtg5H8tipBtJvLeIdPpw6mRPBtdJm6m5SuXemv-gGi6xQbqs32KPVNDu_gmK_tOAm4SpjCaj5-0RAxJPt7gkj1QF0E1BDrkY-o/s320/Apollo17_rock.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Apollo 17 rock</span></div><br />
With the stars issue, I'm fairly certain that the light of the sun would drown out visuals of any other stars, though Earth and Venus should be visible. What really bothers me is the color, even though it will only be visible to the players in their heads after reading my description.<br />
<br />
Hopefully I can decide on all of this soon. The story and puzzles of the game are completely planned. At least those are already laid out and for certain.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-8847445093084388732011-12-30T07:58:00.000-08:002011-12-30T08:13:40.488-08:00End of Year UpdateIt's been a while since I've taken some time to post here, so I figured that I would get one more up before the end of the year. This blog is 2 months shy of being a full year old now and I hope to keep with it for some time to come.<br />
<br />
2011 has been a fairly interesting year. I completed my first interactive fiction and entered it into <a href="http://www.springthing.net/">Spring Thing</a>, completed a much more polished version of that and released it to my <a href="http://home.roadrunner.com/%7Efragmeister/">website</a>, and also began 2 new projects. I've become a lot more comfortable with <a href="http://inform7.com/">Inform7</a> which I started learned a bit over a year ago. I do hope to learn more about other IF programming languages in the future though.. <a href="http://www.tads.org/if.htm">TADS</a>, <a href="http://www.adrift.co/">Adrift</a>, <a href="http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Hugo">Hugo</a>, and <a href="http://www.textadventures.co.uk/quest/">Quest</a>. So far I've only tinkered around a bit in Quest. Playing games written in the other three, I've noticed interesting different aspects to each.<br />
<br />
I haven't quite decided on the final title of my recent science-fiction IF, but I can say that it's coming together quickly now. The story itself, the table of events so to speak, and the puzzle are all pretty much complete. I just need to spend a few more hours coding it all in I7 and playing around with it before releasing a test version. The source code of this project is much neater and easier to work with than the extremely long (albeit and also sloppy) source code that became <a href="http://retroshard.no-ip.org/web/IF/HallowEve/Release/">Hallow Eve</a>. This is due to having less than 5 total rooms, few characters, and less free range random problem-solving. It's also a short game in general. <br />
<br />
The "interactive dreaming" game should be taken off the backburner around late February. The length of delay for the release of it will be dependent on how soon I can get out and take a few more photographs I need for the game. If it's well received, it may become part of a series. As of now I'm unsure how long it will be. It looks like I could get a lot of use out of the puzzle and travel framework if that's what I wanted to do, however it's still completely untested by anyone but me.<br />
<br />
If anyone would like to test the science-fiction game beta that should be done in three to four weeks, leave me a comment or something and I'll shoot you a copy. See you next year!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-59424235105854209682011-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:002011-11-11T08:36:20.780-08:00IF Comp 2011Here are a few short reviews for the IFcomp games I've played this far. Some mild spoilers may be present.<br />
<i> </i><b><i><br />
</i></b><br />
<b><i> </i></b><br />
<b><i> </i></b><br />
<b><i> BLIND</i></b><br />
<br />
This game was an interesting premise to me. In it you actually play a blind person. While I myself am not blind, I did have an eye injury some years back that left me temporarily blinded for a few days. During those few days I learned to do quite a few things differently to compensate. I wondered if that painful experience would come in handy playing this. Also, I do hope to read a review by someone who has played this game who has been blind all or most of their life. I would be interested in that perspective of their experience playing it.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I'm allowed to 'look' at some objects though, which tells me that looking wasn't completely eliminated (but probably is useless). Then I find that using 'f' does not always print all of the room contents, so I turn on verbose mode. Also, 'look' and 'f' produces different texts, which is kind of confusing. I think the author should have done a bit more to remove any references to sight. Right off the bat my movement and progress is very constricted. I needed a couple of hints at the beginning of the game to get out of the first room.<br />
<br />
Bah, I think I'm stuck again. A hint tells me to set up a trap basically, though I don't have any real strategic reason for doing this yet in my mind unless I'm going to camp out in this room. As far as puzzles go, I'm more of a "let's just play around until I have to deal with something" kind of player. Doing another feel around the room once the trap is set returns a strange bit of text. I don't think something should <i>seem</i> to be somewhere if I actually put it there myself.<br />
<br />
This game has a lot of items (and benches in one room). There are also has inventory limits. I came across quite a few scenery things noted in the room summaries that should have produced some sort of text. However, I was able to look past these flaws because I found the setting to be interesting. In the garage, if you type "open door" there is no "garage" option, while "open garage door" returns that the door is locked.<br />
<br />
This game apparently has many endings. I think I probably saw the weakest one. Hmm. Now I am interested in playing this game again with no hints, though I don't think I'll get around to that until there's a new version.<br />
<br />
4/10<br />
<br />
<b>CALM</b><br />
<br />
"A game of postapocalyptic relaxation" it's called. Sounds like Fallout. The first screen has a difficulty setting. I chose normal. I started out in a run-down supermarket, checking things out while scavenging a few items. My first mission is to find someone, anyone to talk to. After figuring out how to break out of my refuge, I set out into the world. Exits all seem to be clearly marked thus far.<br />
<br />
My exploration stroll didn't last long. Soon a pack of dogs was stalking me. I tried to hit the dogs with a pole I found laying around, but somehow the pole "bounces of the pack of dogs" so I had to restore and find a different solution. After restoring, I do my best to avoid the dogs because I'm still unsure how to deal with them. Of course, eventually they find me. I eat something to reduce my stress level a bit.. but the growling dogs increase my stress to the limit. Game over again. This game could probably benefit from either a numerical amount of your current stress level to be added to the status bar, or some sort of graphical meter. The "mood" label isn't informative enough to me. Please include more understanding for your nouns as well.<br />
<br />
Then I find a way to deal with the dogs, but only temporarily. I get stressed out again and lose. I'm a little annoyed now. For now I'm putting this aside, and will save a rating for if and when I complete it.<br />
<br />
N/A <br />
<br />
<b>PLAYING GAMES</b><br />
<br />
After a short introduction, the game starts quickly. The first few puzzles were easy yet fun to solve. Then, I get to a series of of puzzles. The short one isn't too bad. Then I get to the medium one. The error sound drives me nuts as I move the O around a few times, and I give up on this one too.<br />
<br />
N/A <br />
<br />
<b>SANTALAND</b><br />
<br />
Honestly, I was hoping this game took place in Santa Land theme park. Some of my family has been there a few times, though I have never been. I've only seen the pictures. At any rate, I did like the general premise and plot of the game. The environment was pretty well fleshed out. The only thing was that I just couldn't really get into the puzzles, so I resorted to the walkthrough. Perhaps I'll return to this game when the Christmas theme of the puzzles interests me more one holiday season.<br />
<br />
6/10 <br />
<br />
<b>LAST DAY OF SUMMER</b><br />
<br />
Argh, give me some exits listings here. Don't just make me try random moves to see if I will advance. The story seems ok so far, even if it moves along a bit too quickly. I run into an NPC with a suspicious name, "greengrocer". I guess the author doesn't know the printed name trick yet. I attempt to talk to him, and I'm told that "I don't need to converse in this story." That's kind of a let-down. Just when I don't know what to do, a "wait" followed by a "look" advances the story. It's hard to get too peeved about that sort of pacing issue when previous versions of my own first game suffered from extremely bad pacing. Short game and I didn't care for the puzzles.<br />
<br />
3/10 <br />
<br />
<b>COLD IRON</b><br />
<br />
I'm moving along looking for something, when I find something else. Everything important in the game with some importance can be read about in a book of fairy tales that you carry along with you. Not a lot of "guess the verb" stuff happening here. This game was very short and there really isn't a lot to it. I easily completed it in about 20 minutes without a walk-through. That being said, there's not a lot wrong with it either.<br />
<br />
5/10<br />
<br />
<b>SHIP OF WHIMSY</b><br />
<br />
Writing style seems a little odd. I'm forced to use the names of the parts of the ship to move around instead of compass directions. After playing about ten minutes I think I have a pretty good idea of what my first task will be. Nothing I try seems to get anything done, so I turn to the walk-through only to find that it isn't a walk-through at all. It's the full text of his source. Immediately quit playing.<br />
<br />
N/A<br />
<br />
<b>THE BINARY</b><br />
<br />
This web-based game was easy to get into despite it's weird and random environment. I'm not sure how I feel about the interaction system, as it feels like I'm just clicking on random hyperlinks without putting a lot of thought into things to keep the story moving along. However, I find quick that there is just a little more to it. If I just randomly click things, the story ends up looping around and repeating. I end up looking at the hints after a while and a couple of the required actions to make the game progress have me scratching my head as to why the player would even think to do something. <br />
<br />
Couldn't finish this either. Even following the hints. I think a major drawback to this game is the very strict time constraint.<br />
<br />
N/AUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722061418517610572.post-64096075004069720412011-10-28T12:42:00.000-07:002011-10-28T17:37:48.882-07:00Hallow Eve 2.0 Released<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7KlobxABjdaT_rSMTTq7Ctju-J2b1QO8AU9mPnMlfddGNcaS9ySPjk0V29uDWEMDU960O9pCHJY3pkoCk5YqsEexMw-2x-WiFneul8p9RPD2yNchAN1rfNi6VL5UKusDxHIlgleHnrk/s1600/Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7KlobxABjdaT_rSMTTq7Ctju-J2b1QO8AU9mPnMlfddGNcaS9ySPjk0V29uDWEMDU960O9pCHJY3pkoCk5YqsEexMw-2x-WiFneul8p9RPD2yNchAN1rfNi6VL5UKusDxHIlgleHnrk/s400/Cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's finally done! Just in time for a bit of Halloween fun, the final version (2.0) of Hallow Eve has been released. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You can play the game and see all the extras on my website <a href="http://retroshard.no-ip.org/web/IF/HallowEve/Release/">here</a>. Note that this page will have a couple of minor edits added this evening.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Also, I'm told the <a href="http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Hallow_Eve">IF Wiki</a> entry for the game should be updated fairly soon.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Enjoy and have a Happy Halloween!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0