![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Interactive Fiction in Yuletide 2021
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.
(This is copy-pasted from the excellent posts of previous years; let me know if anything needs updating!)
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 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.
If you would be happy to receive IF this year, please leave a comment below, following this template:
Please do stick to the template! This streamlines my loading it into the spreadsheet. For an example, see my comment below.
Plenty of IF canons get nominated for Yuletide! While it's still important to ask before writing IF for someone, someone who consumes IF already will probably be more interested in getting it. (Some of these canons were adapted into other mediums, so it's possible that someone who's interested in one of those isn't at all into the IF side of things. Thus why it's important to ask.) Consider requesting or offering one of these if you're interested in IF for Yuletide.
VERY MUCH incomplete - anyone up to help compile?
Arcade Spirits (Fiction Factory Games)
Black Closet (Hanako Games)
Butterfly Soup (Brianna Lei)
Cinderella Phenomenon (Dicesuki)
Code:Realize ～創世の姫君～ | Code: Realize - Guardian of Rebirth (Otomate) (not available for purchase online)
Collar x Malice (Idea Factory) (not available for purchase online)
死印 | Shiin | Death Mark (Aksys Games)
花帰葬 | Hanakisou (Haccaworks)Heaven Will Be Mine (Pillow Fight)
ダウト～嘘つきオトコは誰？～ | Doubt ~Usotsuki Otoko wa Dare?~ | Liar! Uncover the Truth (Voltage) (cell phone app)
Love & Legends (Lovestruck (cell phone app))
Magical Diary series: Horse Hall and Wolf Hall (Hanako Games)
Monster Prom (Beautiful Glitch)Pyre (Supergiant Games) (gameplay is half visual novel, half sports game)
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (demo); MediaFire links to extended demo for PC and for Mac (Azalyne Studios)
Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind (A Sharp)
sweet pool (Nitro+CHiRAL)
Togainu no Chi (Nitro+CHiRAL)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry (07th Expansion)
We Know the Devil (Date Nighto)
キミガシネ | Kimi ga Shine | Your Turn To Die (Nankidai)
Zero Escape Trilogy (Spike Chunsoft)
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.
(This is copy-pasted from the excellent posts of previous years; let me know if anything needs updating!)
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:
Please do stick to the template! This streamlines my loading it into the spreadsheet. For an example, see my comment below.
IF Canons Nominated for Yuletide
Plenty of IF canons get nominated for Yuletide! While it's still important to ask before writing IF for someone, someone who consumes IF already will probably be more interested in getting it. (Some of these canons were adapted into other mediums, so it's possible that someone who's interested in one of those isn't at all into the IF side of things. Thus why it's important to ask.) Consider requesting or offering one of these if you're interested in IF for Yuletide.
VERY MUCH incomplete - anyone up to help compile?
Arcade Spirits (Fiction Factory Games)
Black Closet (Hanako Games)
Butterfly Soup (Brianna Lei)
Cinderella Phenomenon (Dicesuki)
Code:Realize ～創世の姫君～ | Code: Realize - Guardian of Rebirth (Otomate) (not available for purchase online)
Collar x Malice (Idea Factory) (not available for purchase online)
死印 | Shiin | Death Mark (Aksys Games)
花帰葬 | Hanakisou (Haccaworks)Heaven Will Be Mine (Pillow Fight)
ダウト～嘘つきオトコは誰？～ | Doubt ~Usotsuki Otoko wa Dare?~ | Liar! Uncover the Truth (Voltage) (cell phone app)
Love & Legends (Lovestruck (cell phone app))
Magical Diary series: Horse Hall and Wolf Hall (Hanako Games)
Monster Prom (Beautiful Glitch)Pyre (Supergiant Games) (gameplay is half visual novel, half sports game)
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (demo); MediaFire links to extended demo for PC and for Mac (Azalyne Studios)
Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind (A Sharp)
sweet pool (Nitro+CHiRAL)
Togainu no Chi (Nitro+CHiRAL)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry (07th Expansion)
We Know the Devil (Date Nighto)
キミガシネ | Kimi ga Shine | Your Turn To Die (Nankidai)
Zero Escape Trilogy (Spike Chunsoft)
Some IF Tools
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.
no subject
Letter link: https://yhlee.dreamwidth.org/3894144.html
Fandoms:
- Fighting Fantasy - Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone
- Nice Marines (Tabletop RPG)
- Steve Jackson's Sorcery! - Steve Jackson
- Top 10 Games You Can Play in Your Head by Yourself - J. Theophrastus Bartholomew
Anything else: (optional - the sort of things you love about IF, specific IF prompts and preferences etc)
All of my requested fandoms are games or game-adjacent. I think Fighting Fantasy and Sorcery! would especially lend themselves to an IF treatment, but the other two should also be doable! I'm familiar with both choice-based and parser-based IF, and I have access to Mac, Windows, and iOS so I should be able to handle anything you throw at me unless it's, like, Linux-only.
Note that I am terrible at puzzles, so either a hint system or a walkthrough will be appreciated in case I get stuck. XD
no subject
Letter link: https://estirose.dreamwidth.org/732511.html
Fandoms: Cozy Grove, The Expression Amrilato, Fantasy Life, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, and The Tomorrow People (1992)
Anything else: I did IF (using Twine) for my recipient last year and it was really fun! Of my canons, Expression Amrilato is a visual novel and lends itself especially to IF, but seeing IF in any of my canons would be fun. I especially like the Choose Your Own adventure format.
no subject
Letter Link: https://fencesit.dreamwidth.org/2021/10/20/
Fandom and character(s):
no subject
Letter link: https://mixtapestar.dreamwidth.org/529398.html
Fandoms and Characters:
- 그 악녀를 조심하세요! | Beware of the Villainess! (Webcomic): Melissa, Yuri, Nine
- 30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい | Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (TV): Kurosawa Yuichi (Cherry Magic TV), Adachi Kiyoshi (Cherry Magic TV)
- Fence (Comics): Any (Aiden, Harvard, Seiji, and/or Nicholas)
- Imposters (TV): Any (Ezra, Richard, and/or Jules)
- Long Exposure (Webcomic): Jonas Wagner, Mitch Mueller
- Sex Therapy (Web Comic)
Any (Elliot, Andreas, and/or Haruto)
Anything else: I've never received IF but I enjoy it so much! If you have any ideas in any of my fandoms, I would love it!
no subject
Letter link: https://tranquiliteal.dreamwidth.org/810.html
Fandoms: JUDGE EYES | Judgment (Video Games), クロヒョウ龍が如く新章 | Kurohyou Ryū ga Gotoku Shinshō | Black Panther: Like a Dragon New Chapter (Video Game), Shenmue (Video Games)
Anything else: I enjoy both parser and choice IF. I primarily use a Mac.
no subject
Letter link: https://quillori.dreamwidth.org/31960.html
Fandoms:
- Ancient Egyptian Religion
- Omar Rayyan Undersea Paintings
- The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer
- Liáo zhâi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sônglíng
Anything else: 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.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2021-10-24 12:23 am (UTC)(link)Letter link: https://skazka.dreamwidth.org/175800.html
Fandoms: Dune - Frank Herbert (Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen); Edward Edward - Lolah Burford (Edward Clare Armstrong); The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters (Roderick Ayres, Caroline Ayres); Mary Reilly - Valerie Martin (Mary Reilly); HBO's Rome (Gaius Octavian); These Violent Delights - Micah Nemerever (Julian Fromme)
Anything else: I love interactive fiction's strong sense of atmosphere, and the ability to explore alternate sequences of events and to let the reader keep those divergent paths and plotlines up in the air at the same time. I'm most used to parser-based games ("take lantern", "go n", etc.) but I've made and played cool stuff in choice-based games like Twine and the CYOA-style format is a lot of fun for me. Logic puzzles are tricky for me, so I'd appreciate hints on that front, but otherwise I'm especially fond of mysteries, horror, and dark comedy in IF.
no subject
Letter link: https://corpsebrigadier.dreamwidth.org/19533.html
Fandoms: Final Fantasy Tactics (Milleuda Folles), The Woman in White (Marian Halcombe, Laura Fairlie), Wuthering Heights (Catherine Earnshaw)
Anything else: I like IF a lot, and I have a short section of my letter that includes specific details of what I love about the medium as well as prompts for individual fandoms. As a brief overview, I'm a little more familiar with Twine-style Choose Your Own Adventure games than parser interfaces (although I love both), and I'm really interested in IF pieces that play with weird mechanics, that experiment with showing a story from unexpected perspectives, or that don't quite deliver the options or endings a reader might initially want.
no subject
Letter link: https://paranoidangel.dreamwidth.org/412250.html
Fandoms:
Daisy Dalrymple - Carola Dunn, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969), The Persuaders
Anything else: I mainly use Linux, but do have access to Windows. I am there for the CYOA and text adventure and logic puzzles.
no subject
Letter link: https://shamanicshaymin.dreamwidth.org/948466.html
Fandoms: Mawaru Penguindrum, Yuri Kuma Arashi, Rubyquest, Nanquest, Cannibal Ants in a Polish Bunker, SCP Foundation
Anything else: Rubyquest and Nanquest were originally quests on /tg/, so they fit for IF perfectly. :D
no subject
Letter: https://penguinzero.dreamwidth.org/502.html
Fandoms: Sleepless Domain, The Locked Tomb Series, Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Legendary Sorceress!, Kase-san and Morning Glories
Anything else: I've loved interactive fiction ever since I was a kid, when Infocom was still going strong and I would indulge myself in the Zork games or Trinity or A Mind Forever Voyaging for hours on end. I followed the amateur IF scene of the late 90s and early 2000s with great interest (I still have great memories of games like Photopia, Jigsaw, and Spider and Web), and though I've drifted away from the scene a bit, I've been pleased by the rise of tools like Twine and Ren'py that have given openings for entirely new formats. Though I'll always have a weakness for parser-based games.
I'm not sure if any of my fandoms are good matches for IF, but if it's something you want to do, and you have any ideas for it, I'd be glad to receive a game! It might be a good format for a weird dreambubble in the Locked Tomb Series, or maybe a parody of dungeon crawling for Sexiled?
I primarily use OS X, though thankfully it's not hard to get any of the major IF platforms running on it these days.
no subject
Letter Link: My Letter
Fandoms:
Anything Else: I think that the Wonder commercial and Unethical Zoo lend themselves to some kind of IF, particularly of a 'chose your adventure' kind. I also included Are You Being Served, because I thought it might be fun to have something IF about his wacky costumes and the stories behind them.
no subject
Letter link: https://sarunohadaki.dreamwidth.org/544.html
Fandoms: Monster Prom (video game), Starlight Brigade — TWRP music video, Rune Factory 3 (video game), Spiritfarer (video game)
Anything else: I would go wild for IF with any of the requested fandoms, but especially a fanmade extension of Monster Prom/Monster Camp!
no subject
Letter link: https://dreamerinsilico.dreamwidth.org/19414.html
Fandoms: Wayward Children (Seannan McGuire), Kushiel's Legacy (Jacqueline Carey), Crusader Kings III (Video Game)
Anything else: I could see both Wayward Children and CK3 potentially producing some really neat IF. Maybe not so much for Kushiel's Legacy. I'm not great at parser-based IF, so I'd be less enthusiastic about that than a choice-based thing.
no subject
Letter link: https://eyeballboba.dreamwidth.org/379.html
Fandoms:
- Deltarune
- POKEMON Detective Pikachu
- Wayside School
Anything else:
I love both parser and choice IF, but parser has been my first love. I think IF is especially well suited to weird perspectives and worlds. Some of my favorite IF games include Lime Ergot, Suveh Nux, Spider and Web, Insight, Broken Legs, Horse Master, You Will Select a Decision, and With Those We Love Alive (to name a few). I would adore receiving any IF!
no subject
Letter link: https://misspinkman.dreamwidth.org/1448.html
Fandoms: Deliverance, Midnight Cowboy, Vulgar, WKRP
Anything else: I'm open to any IF! Surprise me!
no subject
Letter link: https://reeby10.dreamwidth.org/41582.html
Fandoms:
- Dinotopia - James Gurney
- Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys (Music Video)
- Hellboy (Movies 2004-2008)
- Thalasso Hobbyer (Web Series)
Anything else: I really don't know much about IF in general, but I think it's cool! Feel free to go wild, have fun! I have windows and android machines. Some things I think might be interesting:
- Archaeological exploration of Dinotopia.
- Escaping the monster house Everybody (Backstreet's Back).
- A BPRD agent on a mission.
- Exploring a Thalasso environment and finding remnants of a lost civilization.
no subject
Letter link: https://lirin-lirilla.dreamwidth.org/33659.html
Fandoms:
- Danny Dunn Series - Jay Williams & Raymond Abrashkin
- Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis
- Poirot - Agatha Christie
- Robot Series - Isaac Asimov
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, I don't mind if you include it in the rest of the story.
Also, I opted in to treats in several other fandoms in the Partridge in a Pear Tree post and am open to IF in all of those as well. Also, if treating, feel free to ignore my requested characters and focus on any character in the tagset and/or none of them at all.
no subject
Letter: here
Requested fandoms:
If you're creating IF, I don't mind if you ignore the requested characters entirely, to be honest (e.g. if you were going to write something set in the canon world with an OC protagonist for the reader to be).
Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson - Anatoly Sergievsky, Florence Vassy, Frederick Trumper, Svetlana Sergievsky
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Corazon Santiago, Deirdre Skye, Planet, Worldbuilding
1066 and all that [no characters in tag set]
Jupiter Ascending - Jupiter Jones, Caine Wise, Worldbuilding
The Avengers (TV 1961) - John Steed, Emma Peel
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (Comics) - Chelli Lona Aphra, Domina Tagge
IF likes: 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!
no subject
Letter link:http://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tags/fandom:yuletide
Fandoms:Astielle, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Boxcar Children
Anything else:
Astielle is a novel based on the ideas and tropes of open-world video games; it would be neat do turn that back into IF, or to write one of the sidequests that way!
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story structured around the main character making difficult choices, so letting the reader make those choices differently and a go a different way would be really cool!
Loki:Agent of Asgard is the God of Telling Your Own Story so super-meta IF of any kind with him would be perfect!
The Boxcar Children are a kids' series that follow a fairly consistent formula, that might be fun to turn into IF.
no subject
Letter link: https://esteliel.dreamwidth.org/477711.html
Fandoms: Disco Elysium, Dune - Frank Herbert, A Christmas Carol - Thorne, His Dark Materials (TV)
Anything else: I'm open to anything :)
no subject
Letter link: Letter Link is here!
Fandoms: A Discovery of Witches, Hadestown, Hercules (1997), Lore Olympus
Anything else:
One thing I'm absolutely fascinated by is the way stories like The Kiss play with narrative, where it's just one moment in time but the author focuses the narrative on one moment in time but the context around it changes depending on the choices the player makes. I find this so very neat! I love a good outsider perspective and I really love "For want of a nail" AUs where the canon can change largely based on a small event.
I tend to prefer story based IF and like both parser and CYOA type IF and have no preference as far as OS.