IF in Yuletide 2018

[raininshadows]

This is copy-pasted from the excellent posts the last few years (2017, 2016, 2015). Any new errors are mine. 

Spreadsheet available here!

Are you interested in text adventures, CYOA, twine games or other sorts of interactive fiction? Do you want to let your writer know you'd be happy to receive something along those lines? Are you looking for someone to write IF for? This post is for you.

What is IF?
Interactive Fiction (IF) covers everything from text adventures through to visual novels, by way of all sorts of experimental works. It can be mostly a game, or mostly a story; it can be a way to immerse the reader, or to play around with the concepts of storyteller and audience; it can be an exploration of chance, or of fate; it can be a straightforward story, or something else entirely. From Healy's post:

[IF] is a term used for games which are made up primarily of text, like Adventure, Zork, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and other text adventures, or more experimental hypertext works like My Father's Long, Long Legs, or even visual novels. Interactive fiction these days is generally divided into two groups based on how you interact with the game: parser-based IF, and choice-based IF.

Parser-based IF, more commonly known as text adventures, are controlled by typed in commands, like "GET KEY", "OPEN DOOR", "GO NORTH", "LOOK UNDER BED", and stuff like that. Not every command you type in will work, though, so they're hard to get used to if you haven't tried them before. To make things easier, here's a card of most of the common commands. Some good parser-based IF to try first would be Ryan Veeder's So, You've Never Played a Text Adventure Before, Huh?, Admiral Jota's Lost Pig, Andrew Plotkin's The Dreamhold, and Adam Cadre's Photopia.

Choice-based IF is simpler; you just pick from a number of options. This can be done through hyperlinks and other clicky selections, though more rarely you may have to type a number from a list. Good examples of choice-based IF include Anna Anthropy's Star Court, Alan DeNiro's Solarium, the various games hosted by Choice of Games, and most every given visual novel.

Writing IF for Yuletide
IF is considered opt-in for Yuletide - please don't write it for people who don't want it. If you aren't sure whether it would be welcome or not, ask a mod to check with the intended recipient.

You are still required to follow the normal rules, such as focusing on requested characters (unless the recipient has said you needn't include them all).

If you're writing a treat, unless you're sure your recipient would be happy with it as a main gift, either post it to Madness or wait till they have another full-length gift posted.

It can be hard to figure out what word count an IF story really is - what you've written is full of code that doesn't count, and what your recipient sees may vary in length depending on their choices. If you're posting to the main collection, try to overshoot the minimum requirement a bit, just to be on the safe side. Say a minimum of somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 words. Or probably about 10 to 15 minutes play through.

If your post to the main AO3 collection is under 1,000 words (e.g. you're just linking to an online playable version elsewhere), please drop the mods a note so they know it isn't someone posting something under the minimum, and provide them with an estimated word-count.

Your recipient does need to be able to access what you've created! Please link to a suitable IF interpreter if required, or if possible make a web-playable version.

Requesting IF for Yuletide
If you would be happy to receive IF this year, please leave a comment below, following this template:

AO3 username: 
Letter link: 
Fandoms you would like IF for: 
Anything else: (optional - the sort of things you love about IF, specific IF prompts and preferences etc)

Some IF Tools
This is from Healy's and quillori's lists from previous years. A * means they can make web-based games.

Parser-based
Inform*: One of the biggest development tools for making parser-based IF. Has an English-like code. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Quest*: Another big IF development tool. Has a click-and-point editor with the option to check out the code. For Windows and web.
TADS*: A long running engine for writing interactive fiction, though generally not as easy to use as Inform. The latest version can make web-based games, although they need to be hosted on a non-https address or on the IFDB.

Choice-based
Twine*: Very popular tool for making choice-based IF. Has a visual editor, with some code-y bits for variables and the like. Can be extended with some Javascript passages. Available for Mac and Windows, and Twine 2 is web-based. See this comment for more notes.
ChoiceScript*: Used by the fine folks over at Choice of Games. Uses simplified Javascript to make games. It's very stat heavy. Requires a text editor. See this comment for notes.
Ren'py: Engine for making visual novels. Uses a simple scripting language. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and can make games for all those platforms.
Inklewriter*: A completely web-based engine for making CYOA-style games.

Comments

Questions, comments, concerns

[raininshadows]

Reply here.

[raininshadows]

AO3 username: raininshadows
Letter link: https://rainbirdsong.tumblr.com/post/178908029605/dear-yuletide-writer
Fandoms you would like IF for: All of them!
Canterwood Crest
Deadlands
Exalted
Lockwood & Co.
Thunderbirds Are Go! (2015)
Anything else: I feel like, them being RPGs and all, Deadlands and Exalted would be best suited for IF because it's kind of their natural habitat; Lockwood and Thunderbirds would do really well with interactive missionfic; Canterwood Crest, perhaps a day-in-the-life sort of thing.

[yhlee]

AO3 username: yhlee (etothey)
Letter link:

Fandoms you would like IF for:
Any of them!

- Steve Jackson's Sorcery! - Steve Jackson (any)
- Fence (Comics) (any)
- Shadowscapes Tarot (Death, Knight of Swords)
- Planescape: Torment (The Lady of Pain, The Nameless One)
- The Perilous Gard (any)
- The Dragon Prince (Cartoon) (Amaya)

Sorcery! is a gamebook and PS:T is a CRPG, so they might be best suited for IF; Fence might lend itself to either simulated dating or simulated bouting; Shadowscapes Tarot could make for some really cool divination-based storytelling; the Perilous Gard might lend itself to some interesting canon-divergence AUs; and the Dragon Prince might be great for a mission or quest.

I'm familiar with pretty much all the styles of IF out there. :)

[raininshadows]

You didn't leave a link for your letter, but you left the space for it in there - do you not have one, or did you forget to put it in? Thanks!

[yhlee]

Whoops, my bad! I forgot to paste it in:

https://yhlee.dreamwidth.org/2639095.html

Thanks for the catch!

[jaclynhyde]

AO3 username: jaclynhyde
Letter link: https://jaclynhyde.dreamwidth.org/2439.html
Fandoms you would like IF for:
* Final Fantasy V (Gilgamesh being meta and/or chasing Bartz through all routes of a dating sim)
* Nier Gestalt (adventures in the Forest of Myth)
* Anything else (Fate/Grand Order, Quadrail Series, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)

Anything else: I enjoy choice- and parser- based IF--just please have a walkthrough if it's tricky! I really like the little details that don't affect anything, like changing the descriptive text in choice games or examining everything in parser games. I secretly crave dating sims for every canon.

[radioqueen]

AO3 username: radioqueen

https://radioqueen.dreamwidth.org/3826.html

Fandoms you would like IF for:
* Adventures in Odyssey
* The Bright Sessions
* The Magnus Archives

[rosehiptea]

TeaRoses

https://rosehiptea.dreamwidth.org/278598.html

I would take IF for any of my fandoms. I think it would work especially well for Cells at Work! and Jordskott. Since A Little Lily Princess is a visual novel already that might work too.

I love CYOA, especially when there's action-type material involved, but any kind of IF would be great.

[donutsweeper]

AO3 username: donutsweeper
Letter link: https://donutsweeper.dreamwidth.org/546450.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, To Whatever, The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change, The Thing From Another World or Donut Shops

[keerawa]

AO3 username: keerawa
Letter link: https://keerawa.dreamwidth.org/1587.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: A Taste of Honey, Binti, 221b Baker Towers (a 5-minute fandom!) All 3 fandoms have some canonical basis for an atypical, achronological narrative.
Anything else: I'm particularly interested in very dark choice-based IF, where almost every possibility leads to even more death, destruction, and horror - but there is, if you choose just right, a path that leads you out of the darkness, into the light. There's something to be learned, some step that must be taken, some sacrifice made, to earn that hopeful ending. Here's a couple of prompts, to show you what I mean.

221b Baker Towers
* Harrowing Interactive Fiction or groundhog day style story, with Sherlock just trying to make it through one damn day with himself and John alive and free. Maybe it’s really happening, maybe he’s blazed and his own powers of deduction are spinning out of control and driving him round the bend – your call. If I, as the reader, can’t tell, either, more power to you.

A Taste of Honey - Kai Ashante Wilson
* The monstrous Sybil's fragmented view of the many future possibilities and probabilities as she sends Lucrio to Olorum to meet his love, anticipating his bitter tears. This could take experimental forms, from verse to IF. This prompt (and any other IF or multiple timelines fic) is an exception to my DNW unhappy endings in this fandom, as most of the potential endings can and should be dark.

[glitterpig]

AO3 username: glitterpig
Letter link: https://glitterpig.dreamwidth.org/1183.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: I would love IF for any of my fandoms - People of Earth, Crashing, Him & Her, Goblin

[tristesses]

AO3 username: tristesses
Letter link: https://tristesses.dreamwidth.org/47749.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: The Red Tree - Caitlin R. Kiernan, Aristasia (ARG), Thrawn Trilogy
Anything else: I really liked the manuscript format of The Red Tree and would love to see another tree-related adventure/tragedy take place, this time documented in IF! For Aristasia, it would be interesting to experience the contrasts between, say, being a blonde and a brunette in IF form. For the Thrawn trilogy, making it a choice-based game could be really fascinating - take us through the twists and turns of his brain!

[(Anonymous)]

AO3 username: TheBigCat (https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBigCat/pseuds/TheBigCat)

Letter link: http://therogueofblood.tumblr.com/post/178916004190/dear-yuletide-author-letter

Fandoms you would like IF for: Tanis (Podcast), Bernice Summerfield (Big Finish Audio), Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio), Ruby Redfort - Lauren Child.

Anything else:

Tanis: Honestly, a Tanis IF would be especially intriguing to me (not least because I've made one before (https://archiveofourown.org/works/10093298) and I'd love to see somebody else's take on it) but also because I feel like the structure of the podcast lends itself to IF styling.

Bernice Summerfield/Gallifrey: If you can think of something to do with either of these two, go for it. I have no specific ideas, unfortunately.

Ruby Redfort: the series is about problem-solving and adventure, and I feel like you could do a super cool point-and-click inspired thing where you've got to travel around picking up clues and talking to people! Or even just a story about Ruby mucking around in Spectrum while the team is on a case. (I especially like the concept of her having to complete a very mundane task, like fetching a cup of coffee for Blacker, but she turns it into a whole ridiculous adventure.)

I am very fond of Twine games in general, especially when they utilize cool/unusual mechanics.

[isis]

AO3 username: Isis
Letter link: https://isis.dreamwidth.org/2018/10/11/
Fandoms you would like IF for: The Chrysalids, Jane Unlimited
Anything else:

For The Chrysalids, Michael's journey to rescue Rachel and/or their journey to Zealand would make an awesome CYOA! I'd love to see how they make it out of Waknuk without being discovered, and how they travel (overland? by ship?) and if they make it to Zealand or to some other enclave of telepaths or other survivors.

For Jane, Unlimited, since the book itself is in the nominal form of a CYOA, I'd love a story where Jane (or Ivy, or someone else) gets to make choices and different things happen. I'd especially love to see something like this with the different choices leading to different alternate worlds. And I'd love a CYOA for Ivy where she tries different ways to rescue Jane from the alternate ending where the mansion eats her!

For both of these, please have at least one happy ending.

[triflingtiefling]

AO3 username: infernal
Letter link: https://triflingtiefling.dreamwidth.org/767.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Any! My fandoms are The Arcana, The Magnus Archives, and Sagas of Sundry: Madness.

Anything else:

I feel like The Arcana lends itself well to choice-based IF given that it's a visual novel, and would love to see something canon-typical (and it's totally fine to be as linear as the game itself is).

For The Magnus Archives and Sagas of Sundry, either choice- or parser-based atmospheric horror would be amazing!

I'm pretty familiar with all of the IF tools in the post above and am happy to receive anything made with any of them. I do have a preference for web-based games, though, as my computer situation right now is not great and sometimes downloaded games (Ren'py in particular) don't function properly.

[quillori]

AO3 username: Quillori
Letter link: https://quillori.dreamwidth.org/2018/10/05/
Fandoms you would like IF for:
Le città invisibili | Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
Omar Rayyan - Works
Liáo zhâi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sônglíng

Anything else: I find IF fascinating, so I'm pretty much guaranteed to love whatever you do - if you want to do something I don't mention, the very fact I didn't think of it means I'll be interested to read it. So these prompts are only suggestions, not in any way requirements.

I have far more experience with choice based than parser based games, but I'm open to either. I'm all mac though, so web based or works on a mac, please.

For Invisible Cities, I would have thought Euphemia, with its trade in memories, offers some fascinating IF possibilities - for example, normally in-game choices affect what happens in the future; how would it work if they reflect what you remember of the past? Or a story pieced together from many fragments of memories. Or something else entirely!

Berenice's intrigue and intricately nested stories offers a different type of inspiration, with its informers and hidden communities.

Anything exploring the world of the painting Spanish Mackerel (Omar Rayyan - Works) would be very welcome, in whatever form you want.

Very much the same elements appear again and again in Strange Tales - the scholars and the monks and the beautiful women, the ghosts and the foxes and the demons - but the outcomes and the characters of the participants changes radically from story to story.

(I haven't included The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer, Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights and Ancient Egyptian Religion in the list of fandoms I'd like IF for, because my fairly character focussed requests this year seem to me more suited for a more conventional, non-IF story, but if I'm wrong about that, and you see the perfect way to write one of those requests as IF, go ahead.)

[alexseanchai]

AO3 username: AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)
Letter link: Letter ho!
Fandoms you would like IF for: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Anything else: I don't have any specific story prompts, unless you want to cross-pollinate this challenge with Two for One, in which case running any of my Emelan crossover prompts (other fandoms: Knit One Girl Two - Shira Glassman; Learning Curves - Ceillie Simkiss; The Mistletoe Inn (2017)) as an IF game, or doing something where where one or both of my requested characters from one of the contemporary canons portal-fantasy their way into the world of Emelan, would be badass.

(You do not have to cross-pollinate this challenge with Two for One.)

I like IF because of the multiverse feel it has. I can play it through more than once and choices I made in earlier times through influence later ones, or I can play it through more than once and make different choices and see how the changes propagate.

[babster]

AO3 username: bygoshbygolly
Letter link: https://babster.dreamwidth.org/2738.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Any, but I think Dungeon Meshi lends itself to IF the most. That said, Trial and Error IF would be fantastic
Anything else: I'm still fairly new to IF, so I think choice-based would work best for me, but if parser-based would be the best method of doing something, I would be excited to test it out!

[prosodiical]

AO3 username: prosodiical
Letter link: Here!
Fandoms you would like IF for: Any! I'm requesting:
アオイシロ | Aoi Shiro (Visual Novel)
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North
Horizon Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Hustle Cat (Visual Novel)
Zero Escape (Video Games)

Anything else:
I'm up for choice- or parser-based IF; I like puzzles and exploratory/world-building-type enhanced prose IF and single or multiple endings are all great. I'd also adore a dating-sim-esque IF for any of my ship requests!

[sathinfection]

AO3 Name: Sath
Letter: https://sathinfection.dreamwidth.org/5806.html
Fandoms: A House of Many Doors (Video Game)

I'd love to receive IF involving Genevieve Caul.

[shadowsapiens]

AO3 username: shadow_lover
Letter link: https://shadow-lover.dreamwidth.org/10930.html

Fandoms you would like IF for:
Karneval
Love Nikki Dress Up Queen
Night Sun Tarot Deck
Shadowscapes Tarot
Togainu no Chi

Anything else: Down for any format :)

[bardsley]

AO3 username: Bardsley
Letter link: https://bardsley.dreamwidth.org/13911.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Crazyhead, Girl in Space, Penny Dreadful, Mabel
Anything else: I'm really new to this kind of storytelling, but excited to see it in action.

[moonlight69]

AO3 username:

moonlight69
Letter link: https://moonlight69.dreamwidth.org/355050.html

Fandoms you would like IF for: Any!
Cal Leandros - Rob Thurman
Caliban Leandros, Niko Leandros, Robin Goodfellow (Cal Leandros)
Dark Tower - Stephen King
Alain Johns (Dark Tower Books), Cuthbert Allgood (Dark Tower Books), Roland Deschain (Dark Tower Books)
Cook Serve Delicious (Video Games)
Any (see tagset)
Hilda the Plus-Sized Pin-Up - Duane Bryers (Illustration Series)
Hilda (Plus-Sized Pin-Up)
Doctrine of Labyrinths - Sarah Monette
Felix Harrowgate, Mildmay Foxe
13 Reasons Why (TV)
Alex Standall (13 Reasons Why (TV))

Anything else: I have never requested or received IF before, but I love the idea of them. CYA books are a longtime fave, and the Zork games, while I never passed them, are beautiful. :D

[makiyakinabe]

AO3 username: makiyakinabe
Letter link: https://makiyakinabe.dreamwidth.org/

Fandoms you would like IF for: El Ministerio del Tiempo (TV), さぼリーマン甘太朗 | Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman (TV)

Anything else: I would prefer to recieve choice-based IF

[bonstrosity]

AO3 username: Bonster
Letter link: https://bonstrosity.dreamwidth.org/41815.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Big Little Lies (TV), Castlevania (Cartoon), Endless Summer (Visual Novel), The Royal Romance (Visual Novel), Your Dry Delight (Video Game)
Anything else: Choice based preferred.

[ceb]

AO3 username: molybdomantic

Letter link: https://ceb.dreamwidth.org/384430.html

Fandoms you would like IF for: The Order of the Stick, The Dundaxian Codex - Gloryhammer (Albums), Paranoia (Roleplaying Game)

Anything else: I love all styles of IF (including the sort which uses a parser to produce a story with occasional effects rather than involving any decision-making or game elements).

[naemsie]

AO3: Naemi
Letter: here

Fandoms:
American Horror Story: Hotel
The Book of Mormon
Dark Matter
The Faculty
Penny Dreadful
Z Nation

Anything else: Tbh, I'm hardly familiar with IF, but it sounds just so awesome that I wouldn't wanna miss out if there's a chance to receive some :o)

[reconditarmonia]

AO3: reconditarmonia
Letter: here (prompts are now live).

I'm requesting Far From the Madding Crowd, Harlots, Monstrous Regiment, Simoun, and Spinning Silver.

Oh, and I especially love parser IF but choice-based would also be cool!

[weakinteraction]

AO3 username: weakinteraction
Letter link: https://weakinteraction.dreamwidth.org/11970.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, The Culture (books), Q.U.E.E.N. (music video), Chess (musical), Jupiter Ascending

Anything else:

I am equally happy with both parser-based and CYOA IF. I'm happy for it to land anywhere on the various axes of "game" vs "simulation" vs "story"; I do enjoy puzzles, as long as they aren't insanely difficult to work out. On the more story-ish end, I do enjoy it when there isn't an obvious "good ending", or at least where it's left open to interpretation whether any particular ending is good or not. On the fanworks end, I do enjoy little details in how things are presented that call back to canon, if that makes sense (e.g. making the interface look like something in-universe), though I realise that's very tricky so it's very much an optional extra!

[lirin_lirilla]

AO3 username: lirin
Letter link: https://lirin-lirilla.dreamwidth.org/23842.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Epistory - Typing Chronicles (Video Game), Go Fug Yourself (Blog), Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis, Toliver's Secret - Esther Wood Brady
Anything else: I'm not very good at playing parser-based IF; I'm totally up for giving it a try, but please don't make it super difficult! As regards choice-based/CYOA, I'll soften my character death DNW: as long as one ending (that I can pretend in my head is the "real" ending) doesn't contain non-canonical major character death, you can include it in the rest of the story.

A few non-comprehensive possibilities for each of the fandoms:

Epistory - Perhaps some snippet of the canonical adventures but with the fox—or one of the creepy-crawlies, or an unseen observer, or whoever—as the protagonist? Feel free to require lots of typing, since this is originally a typing game...or play in any way with the interaction and overlap between words and pictures that is a bit of a theme in the game. For a CYOA, perhaps something where the protagonist doesn't always successfully escape the origami world.
Go Fug Yourself - Anne and/or Charlotte solve a mystery! (Doesn't have to be a complicated mystery. The mystery of What Happened to Charlotte's Chemistry Set?)
Oxford Time Travel Universe - I'm not sure how well the prompt in my letter would work for IF, but you could also go earlier and have the adventures of Colin looking for & trying to rescue Polly et al. Parser-based...it would be cool to play as Colin and go through random newspaper articles trying to find which ones have significance. Or choice-based...those stuck in the future (including Colin) hit a lot of dead ends in trying to rescue their friends in the past, so perhaps something where you play as one of them but your choices almost never pan out.
Toliver's Secret - Perhaps something that follows Ellen Toliver on her journey (if choice-based, perhaps exploring the places where things could have gone better or worse than they did), or another adventure later in the war or after the war is over.

[minnarr]

AO3 name: minnabird
Letter link: https://minnarr.dreamwidth.org/415.html
Fandoms you would like IF for: Campaign: Star Wars; Seven Kingdoms Trilogy - Kristin Cashore; Blades in the Dark; Tricksters - Tamora Pierce.
Anything else:

I prefer choice-based over parser-based, but would be happy to receive either.

[esteliel]

AO3: Esteliel
Letter: https://esteliel.dreamwidth.org/474097.html
Fandoms: Les Miserables (Dallas 2014)
American Gods (TV)
Les Misérables (1952)
Broadway RPF
Anything else: I'm up for anything! :)

[reeby10]

AO3 name: reeby10
Letter: https://reeby10.livejournal.com/129935.html

Fandoms:
- Deep Blue Sea
Carter Blake, Sherman "Preacher" Dudley, Tom Scoggins
- Dinotopia
- Fence
Aiden Kane, Bobby Rodriguez, Harvard Lee, Nicholas Cox
- The Last Witch Hunter
Chloe, Dolan 36th, Kaulder, Miranda
- River of Teeth
Adelia Reyes, Hero Shackleby, Regina Archambault, Winslow Remington Houndstooth
- Venom
Eddie Brock, Venom Symbiote

I don't have a whole lot of experience with IF and I don't know how well some of these are actually suited for IF, but I thought it would be fun!

[the_alchemist]

A03 Name: the_alchemist

Letter: https://the-alchymist.tumblr.com/post/179091637149/dear-yuletide-writer-2018

The Voynich Manuscript:
Any

I think the VM lends itself well to IF and would be delighted to receive anything.