I’ve wanted to write some IF for ages, and if I’d written up a near years resolution this would have been on it!

Setting Out
Your father has been missing for some time, you decide to set out for the local town in order to get help.

You can play it online here.
If you’d like to download and play it off-line then you can download the Zblorb file here. You’ll need an interpretor such as Windows Frotz to play it

It’s been a long standing ambition of mine to write an adventure game, and though I’ve been experimenting I’ve never made anything that you could sit down and play.  Since I have some free time at the moment I thought I’d go ahead and write a piece of Interactive Fiction, using Inform 7. I’ve tried Inform before but never really got anywhere, but this time I’ve gotten a lot further, and created a two room game. It’s very simple and deeply un-original but even the act of creating this simple game has taught me a lot.  I still have a way to go, whilst I think I’ve grasped writing puzzles that require one action e.g unlocking something but I’m a little stumped on how to arrange puzzles that require the user does more than one thing.  I’m reading through some IF forums and worked examples so hopefully something will click soon.

Despite it being very simple, I am enjoying the process of writing it a lot.  There’s a lot to remember though, forgetting to define a fireplace as fixed in place allowed me to pick it and and carry it around, whilst amusing  allowing it to remain would completely destroy any kind of atmosphere I create. I’m also trying to make it as non linear as possible to encourage exploration, and avoid frustrating users by forcing them through in a set order.

I’m also debating ’set dressing’, whilst the aims of the piece are simple I do wonder if it’s worth putting items such as photographs about the world which when looked at give some background information. These items wouldn’t be needed for solving the game just to add atmosphere, but then again I don’t want to clutter it.

Still first I need to figure out this whole multi requirement puzzle thing, so it’s kind of like I at least am on my own adventure already.

Now I’ve got some voice acting to finish, and I’m then once again going to try and animate a walk cycle…

Voiceacting.co.uk

In the screenshot above you see the Voice Actor’s Directory, all the site’s users can create their own VA resume. There’s also a production directory, forum, as well as all the site’s previous tutorials, news and reviews. It’s aimed at amateur voice actor’s, but it’ll also be useful for those needing voice actors such as games makers, animators, podcasters etc. I also hope it will be an interesting place to hand around.

I’ll be adding new features as time goes on.

Red/ Car Green Car

It seems to Scott that his son always has to the right about everything, and he almost always is. But what worries Scott is that the facts might be changing to fit what the boy says and not the other way around. Strange events have been swirling around Sam ever since he was a baby when he was rejected and almost killed by his mother. Now at the age of twelve the strange phenomena seem to go increasing at an exponential rate. How much is Scott imagining? Is he jealous of his son? or has he passed on the strangest of special talents?

Download

Stream @ Sheezyart

A Fyrestarter/ Solider production

Written by: Rebecca Mccarthy

Produced/ Mixed by: River Kanoff

Music : Dan Bradley

Cast:

Featuring the vocal talents of:
River Kanoff as Scott Canessa,
Michael Johnston as Sam Canessa,
Ryan Gilbert as Dr Borne and Bear
Hathor Liderc as Mr Holt
Maria Vu as Emily
Clym Angus as the taxi driver
Mindy as Miriam
Mippa as Hannah
Rebecca McCarthy as the Nurse
And narrated by Richard Bartok
A fyrestarter production podcast.voiceacting.co.uk