>save March 21, 2014 4:35 PM Subscribe
Just in time for the weekend, the Third MetaFilter Interactive Fiction Contest has drawn to a close! We have three great entries, so venture inside and see what MetaFilter hath wrought!
From Think_Long we have: VELOCI-RAPTURE: THE BOOK OF JURASSIS which is "about a dinosaur trying to destroy Heaven."
From corb we have In Shadow (direct link to .zblorb) written in Inform, which is a) hardcore and b) will require the installation of a Z-Machine interpreter.
And, the entry I'll admit I am most excited to share: from papafrita's son herobrien11 we have: The Dragon Slayer
papafrita also wrote this wonderful submission statement:
Now, go on and play! There is fun to be had and prizes to be awarded, so feel free to send me your votes via comment, MeMail, email, carrier pigeon or mysteriously deposited in a small mailbox in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
Have a blast!
From Think_Long we have: VELOCI-RAPTURE: THE BOOK OF JURASSIS which is "about a dinosaur trying to destroy Heaven."
From corb we have In Shadow (direct link to .zblorb) written in Inform, which is a) hardcore and b) will require the installation of a Z-Machine interpreter.
And, the entry I'll admit I am most excited to share: from papafrita's son herobrien11 we have: The Dragon Slayer
papafrita also wrote this wonderful submission statement:
Luis, I mean herobrien11, is friggin amazing. When we came to Canada 4 years ago he did not speak a word of English. OK, he knew maybe ten words: a few numbers, a couple of colours. Fast forward 4 yrs later, and the kid writes. He writes funny stories all the time. Like genuinely funny stuff, he has this amazing and whimsical sense of humour, and a big frigging heart. He has a youtube channel where he posts Minecraft stuff; he has taken to the English language and made it his own.If I somehow missed your entry, please post it in the thread with big bold letters. If you didn't finish but want to show us what you got anyway, feel free to do that as well.
Sorry if this is the kind of thing that only an adoptive dad can feel like super-proud of, but really he makes me so proud. So yeah, I hope his short statement (that's kinda my bad, I only learned about this contest a few days ago) can entertain someone for a little while.
Thanks for this contest guys. Mefi is a great place.
Now, go on and play! There is fun to be had and prizes to be awarded, so feel free to send me your votes via comment, MeMail, email, carrier pigeon or mysteriously deposited in a small mailbox in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
Have a blast!
Herobrien11's story is great! (How old is he, if I may ask?) I got 10000000000000000000 gold! That is an excellent start to my Saturday.
posted by lollusc at 5:34 PM on March 21, 2014
posted by lollusc at 5:34 PM on March 21, 2014
(That's not a vote, by the way: I haven't played the others yet.)
posted by lollusc at 5:35 PM on March 21, 2014
posted by lollusc at 5:35 PM on March 21, 2014
big bold letters
Hey, you forgot PBO's entry. It ain't much, but it's complete!
posted by prize bull octorok at 7:08 PM on March 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
Hey, you forgot PBO's entry. It ain't much, but it's complete!
posted by prize bull octorok at 7:08 PM on March 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
Any interactive fiction that includes "Finish Him" as an option is doing something right.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:48 PM on March 21, 2014
posted by Rock Steady at 8:48 PM on March 21, 2014
I just googled, and found Parchment, for playing z-machine games in your browser. You can play corb's "In Shadow" here.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:26 PM on March 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Pronoiac at 10:26 PM on March 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
I encountered some kind of syntax error when successfully completing the labyrinth in VELOCI-RAPTURE.
posted by juv3nal at 1:26 AM on March 22, 2014
posted by juv3nal at 1:26 AM on March 22, 2014
I got an error in Veloci-Rapture, in the labyrinth, when I killed a Stupid Man, then got a Treasure Chest right after. After opening the chest, I got an error saying it could find a place called $lastvisited.
posted by JHarris at 5:03 AM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 5:03 AM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
They were all great in their own way, but the eerieness of prize bull octorok's entry really grabbed me in a good way, so that gets my vote for Best In Show. Really and truly, bravo to everyone who entered.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:44 AM on March 22, 2014
posted by Rock Steady at 6:44 AM on March 22, 2014
Can I ask a slightly off-topic question? This just seems like the place people would know.
What's the state of the art in IF-like techniques for non-fiction exposition, instead of fiction? Like suppose I have an essay on a difficult topic and I want people to be able to find their own way into it. So I give them IF-like choices about what to read next, and / or maybe even IF-like challenges for understanding of concepts. . . .
This sounds like the kind of thing people probably thought a lot about 20 years ago (like IF?). But I wonder if there are any really good examples of the form, people working in it, etc. Am I making sense?
ignignokt_ built a pretty cool example of the kind of thing I'm asking about: link.
posted by grobstein at 7:18 AM on March 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
What's the state of the art in IF-like techniques for non-fiction exposition, instead of fiction? Like suppose I have an essay on a difficult topic and I want people to be able to find their own way into it. So I give them IF-like choices about what to read next, and / or maybe even IF-like challenges for understanding of concepts. . . .
This sounds like the kind of thing people probably thought a lot about 20 years ago (like IF?). But I wonder if there are any really good examples of the form, people working in it, etc. Am I making sense?
ignignokt_ built a pretty cool example of the kind of thing I'm asking about: link.
posted by grobstein at 7:18 AM on March 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
The labyrinth error got me too, but I am very impressed with the combat and inventory system in Veloci-Rapture, which goes well beyond anything I learned in the absolute beginners' Twine tutorial I was working off of.
I'm really enjoying In Shadow, but my skills at sussing out valid text adventure command words are a little rusty. Can anyone tell me how to put on pants? I want to go outside.
I died/failed several times in The Dragon Slayer and appreciated the challenge. PROTIP: careful resource management is key to defeating the final boss.
posted by prize bull octorok at 8:24 AM on March 22, 2014
I'm really enjoying In Shadow, but my skills at sussing out valid text adventure command words are a little rusty. Can anyone tell me how to put on pants? I want to go outside.
I died/failed several times in The Dragon Slayer and appreciated the challenge. PROTIP: careful resource management is key to defeating the final boss.
posted by prize bull octorok at 8:24 AM on March 22, 2014
grobstein, take a look at Tangle and other Bret Victor projects. There's also Wolfram CDF.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:35 AM on March 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by mbrubeck at 9:35 AM on March 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
So I thought I had fixed the treasure chest error before. Now I am pretty sure I have. I don't reaaaaaallllly know what I'm doing though, so if its busted, Ima go ahead and say you're playing it wrong so there.
posted by Think_Long at 9:55 AM on March 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Think_Long at 9:55 AM on March 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
Also - thanks griphus for putting this together.
posted by Think_Long at 9:58 AM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Think_Long at 9:58 AM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
prize bull octorok, the command you are looking for is >wear pants
posted by LogicalDash at 10:06 AM on March 22, 2014
posted by LogicalDash at 10:06 AM on March 22, 2014
Well, I would have felt better if that was less obvious.
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:39 AM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:39 AM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
I found the pants, but I can't seem to get them or wear them.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:52 AM on March 22, 2014
posted by Pronoiac at 11:52 AM on March 22, 2014
MetaFilter: I would have felt better if that was less obvious.
Well, someone had to do it.
posted by arcticseal at 1:08 PM on March 22, 2014
Well, someone had to do it.
posted by arcticseal at 1:08 PM on March 22, 2014
No no,
Metafilter: the command you are looking for is >wear pants
posted by Blasdelb at 1:59 PM on March 22, 2014 [4 favorites]
Metafilter: the command you are looking for is >wear pants
posted by Blasdelb at 1:59 PM on March 22, 2014 [4 favorites]
Much respect to all entrants for having the fortitude to finish!
posted by ignignokt at 3:26 PM on March 22, 2014
posted by ignignokt at 3:26 PM on March 22, 2014
Damn, bf and I are loving Veloci-Rapture, but yeah we got stuck at the treasure chest as well, with the following error: "Sorry to interrupt, but this story's code has got itself in a mess (TypeError: hist.passage.id is undefined). You may be able to continue playing, but parts of the story may not work properly." Hope that helps. We're going to start over, because being a dinosaur is fun.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:20 PM on March 22, 2014
posted by iamkimiam at 4:20 PM on March 22, 2014
Coming in here to note: I got kind of hammered towards deadline, so bugs in fact may abound. Playtesters involved my husband, who may or may not have been heavily distracted by Bioshock Infinite at the same time. Checking the pants bug now, and my apologies! I hope everyone enjoys it.
For those who are new to text adventures (and are not struggling with pants), try things like "x BLAH" to examine the BLAH more closely. Things that are in the room description may in fact have a more in-depth description that might help you know what to do with them.
I am also available through memail for hints, advice, and ranting.
Excited to play everything! Though sadly, my arm is off due to a bad dragon-related choice, so it may take a while.
posted by corb at 4:46 PM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
For those who are new to text adventures (and are not struggling with pants), try things like "x BLAH" to examine the BLAH more closely. Things that are in the room description may in fact have a more in-depth description that might help you know what to do with them.
I am also available through memail for hints, advice, and ranting.
Excited to play everything! Though sadly, my arm is off due to a bad dragon-related choice, so it may take a while.
posted by corb at 4:46 PM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
What's the state of the art in IF-like techniques for non-fiction exposition, instead of fiction? Like suppose I have an essay on a difficult topic and I want people to be able to find their own way into it. So I give them IF-like choices about what to read next, and / or maybe even IF-like challenges for understanding of concepts. . . .
I came across this recently. It's not strictly non-fiction, I guess, in that it's using a fictional example to illustrate a point.
posted by juv3nal at 11:57 PM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
I came across this recently. It's not strictly non-fiction, I guess, in that it's using a fictional example to illustrate a point.
posted by juv3nal at 11:57 PM on March 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
These are all great! I really enjoyed playing VELOCI-RAPTURE until I got an error message after finishing the labyrinth and I couldn't get beyond that. Dragon Slayer surprised me a couple of times, very generous and whimsical. I couldn't get deep into In Shadow because I'm not fond of the > interface... A shame because the writing was persuasive. The Storage Cellar was most satisfying. Very well done. Thanks everyone.
posted by dmh at 1:18 PM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by dmh at 1:18 PM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 4:42 PM on March 21, 2014