Writer's Block: Cramming Yourself into a Sentence

[packbat]

Try to describe yourself in one sentence. View other answers

Just your typical black atheist homeschooled liberal Republican, is me!

(Woohoo! Watch me reposting from a comment!)

Comments

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Sure - would you like in on my Interactive Fiction filter at the same time? (Not that I'm doing much on that front...)

[toya121.livejournal.com]

I dont know much about Interactive Fiction... what is it?

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Text adventures, like the old Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as "Advent") and Zork. If you've ever read one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books or the like, it's similar in conceit - it's a story told in text, like a novel or short-story, but instead of merely reading, you choose actions to take within the story. Unlike the books, though, IF lets you type in the commands - things like "open door", "throw axe at dwarf", "put battery in flashlight" - for whatever action you want to take, which gives you a lot more flexibility.

Nick Montfort - a well-known IF writer - has a list of recommended games for newcomers here (http://nickm.com/if/rec.html); and in most well-made games, there will be at least a little assistance to be had if you type "help" into the prompt. Also, Montfort links a beginner's guide to IF (http://www.microheaven.com/IFGuide/index.html), but Emily Short's guide, linked here (http://emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play/) (and Emily Short is another well-known figure in the community) may be better, depending.

I've long wanted to have already written an interactive fiction - unfortunately, I don't seem to particularly want to write it... :D (I have checked a book out from the library to begin my research, though!)

[toya121.livejournal.com]

I'll check it out and let you know what I think:)

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Oh, another link: you can play the Colossal Cave Adventure online (http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/adventure/index.html). More info on that one can be found on this site (http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/).

[toya121.livejournal.com]

Before I venture... are the stories offered in a lot of subjects?

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I ... believe so. It's still an indie field - or perhaps it's back to being an indie field, there used to be some adventures selling for significant sums in the floppy-disk era - but I've seen puzzles, mysteries, fantasy stories of several stripes, hypermodern deconstructed experiments ... there's a fairly broad array of things that have been done, and can be done. I haven't been looking, though.