Hangar 22, my first text adventure, is essentially done! Thanks to everybody who has helped me test thus far. The final release will probably be Friday. If you’d like to play it now (and help me by testing things out), here are two ways to play it. 01. Play the game online. For some reason, the people hosting Parchment (the online IF engine) are disallowing Internet Explorer. If you run IE, this link won’t work for you. If you run Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or IE9, then this should work. (UPDATED: Link currently does not work with versions of Internet Explorer… (read more)

Over the weekend at one of those “City-wide Garage Sales”, I found the following book: The Book of Adventure Games, by Kim Schuette, was released in 1985. The cover pretty much has it all: caves, a fire-breathing dragon, an overflowing treasure chest, and (of course) a lamp. Everybody’s got a lamp. The Book of Adventure Games contains entries for approximately 80 adventure games. Each entry contains a description of the game, a picture, maps, and a complete walk-thru list of commands. The walk-thru “spoilers” have been relocated to the back of the book away from the maps, but I can’t… (read more)

Last week I gave myself two weeks to complete Hanger 22, my first “official” text adventure. Things are moving along, and I expect to meet my self-imposed deadline. The game’s story takes place over two days. Other than minor wordsmithing, “Day One” is essentially complete. All the objects and game mechanics within Day One are in place, but each time I re-read through the text I make minor tweaks to streamline the text and tighten the jokes. For “Day Two”, the second half of the game, all the rooms have been created and, more importantly, all the game logic has… (read more)

Besides being the name of a documentary, “get lamp” is a notable phrase from a popular classic text adventure, “Zork”. Anyone who grew up playing those classic text adventures on personal computers will recognize it. This morning for Christmas, I got a box from Dad. Inside the box was a treasure chest. The treasure chest was wrapped twice with a chain, and the chain was fastened with a combination lock that uses letters instead of numbers. Also inside the box was this: A map. The map to the original text adventure, Colossal Cave, to be exact. On the right hand… (read more)

Yesterday, Chris from Adventure Cow announced a “write-your-own choose-your-own adventure competition”, which begins 11/15 (next Monday) and runs through 12/15. You remember those old Choose Your Own Adventure books, right? Well, this is your chance to write your own! Writing your own adventure on Adventure Cow is simple — you provide the text and the story links, and the website manages the rest. The contest has two entry levels: a “Starter League” for stories that reach 50 pages, and an “Adventure League” for stories 150 pages in length or more. If this weren’t taking place smack dab in the middle… (read more)