Well, National Games Design Month has ended and I have comprehensively failed to meet my targets. A tickle of the mouse wheel will tell you that two posts ago I boldly declared my intention to make a game about highwaymen using Inform 7 and to post about it 'every few days'. What was I thinking? This is the first post I've made about it and the purpose of this post is largely to apologise for not having made any other posts. So I don't think even this post counts.
I did try, in a very generous sense of the word, to make the game but it just didn't happen. Turns out that using Inform 7 isn't like dictating your intentions to an obliging robot butler, as I'd naively thought it would be. It's a lot more complicated than that. Also, however, a lot more satisfying. I've been enjoying the experience and I
will get round to finishing the game in good time, just not quite yet. In the meantime, here's my 'design document' for anyone so inclined to scoff or giggle at. Now I think of it, I guess you could actually 'play' this by moving a counter between the different locations, possibly while dressed as a highwayman and preferably while very drunk on malmsey. Even so, it might not be a whole lot of fun...
Additionally, I promised to link to a few game/story hybrids which had impressed me of late. Now that I can do:
Howling Dogs This had me by the throat from start to finish. It's just really good writing and a beautiful use of the format.
Samsara Elegantly written with an unusual setting and satisfying game mechanics.
6 Degrees of Sabotage and The Republia Times More on the game side side than the writing but I love everything on this site. The ideas are beautifully simple and very effective.
Recommendations for any similar sites/games will be gratefully pounced upon!
A G-man
A go-go dancer
A Martian
A crime scene
A femme fatale
