New Zork MMO

Cole Stryker — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Dublin's Jolt Online is taking on the legendary text-based aventure game, this time in MMO form:

LegendsofZork.com will provide online gamers with a persistent online adventure, playable from any Internet browser. Players take up the role of a recently laid-off salesman and part-time loot-gatherer, as he explores the Great Underground Empire. Designed to provide gamers with a casual MMO game they can play on their laptop, desktop or Apple iPhone (in school, work or on the bus), there’s nothing to download, just go to www.legendsofzork.com.

The press release doesn't really give a whole lot of information as to whether it will be another text adventure or a visual reimagining of the game's universe. Go to LegendsofZork.com to be notified when the game goes live. In the meantime, go play the original Zork for free in your browser, because if you haven't played at least one graphics-free text adventure, you just can't consider yourself a serious gamer.

(via Kotaku)

Interactive Fiction Explosion!

Cole Stryker — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Every so often I stumble on some gaming niche that I never knew existed. Today I am thrilled to share my latest discovery, Robb Sherwin's upcoming text-based adventure game, Cryptozookeeper. I figured someone had to still be making these things, but I had no idea there was a thriving interactive fiction subculture out there.

The excellent interview at Renga in Blue covers quite a few bases, from the value and limitations of puzzles in interactive fiction, appropriate pricing models for indie games, the delicate dance of pop culture references within IF and avoiding cliches.

I also want to get away from something that David Welbourn said in the Get Lamp interview. He said something to the effect of, “If you see a bone in a text game, you know you’ll eventually have to give it to a dog." I am trying to avoid that sort of thing.

The interview piqued my interest, so I searched on for similar games. Here's what I found down the rabbit hole:

The annual Interactive Fiction Competition has been going on for fourteen years now. They deal with games that take less than two hours to complete.
The Spring Thing competition allows contestants to submit works of any length.
The Interactive Fiction Database is, unsurprisingly, a great place to find loads of free interactive fiction.
MobyGames has an excellent overview of the evolution of the genre.
For a detailed timeline of major IF milestones, check out Brass Lantern.

Holy crap, this is going to keep me busy for a long time. Check out Robb's Cryptozookeeper as well as his previous games at Jolt Country, his personal site.

(via GameSetWatch)

61 Frames Per Second : zork

New Zork MMO

Interactive Fiction Explosion!