Chris Crawford (previously) has released the beta version of his Storytron engine. The first demo? Balance of Power: 21st Century. [more inside]
posted by Iridic on Mar 31, 2009 - 30 comments

Blueful. Web-dispersed storytelling reminiscent of the some of the stuff in We Tell Stories to promote the free interactive fiction game Blue Lacuna from Aaron A. Reed, the creator of the excellent interactive fiction title Whom the Telling Changed. Caveat: the ending is only available (afaik) on a (free) postcard so if you don't feel comfortable giving up a mailing address, you won't see the ending.
posted by juv3nal on Jan 30, 2009 - 8 comments

The 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition has been released. History of the competition. Previously on Mefi. Emily Short reviews this year's entrants. [more inside]
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed on Oct 3, 2008 - 21 comments

Robert Pinsky writing about Zork. Yes, I know its super old.
posted by juv3nal on Jun 10, 2008 - 15 comments

The Wager: "I'll bet you that video games will never become a significant form of cultural discourse the way that novels and film have. I'll bet you that fifty years from now they'll be just as mature and well-respected as comic books are today," posits game designer Steve Gaynor. Responses and rebuttals. [more inside]
posted by Pastabagel on Feb 19, 2008 - 140 comments

"GET LAMP is a documentary about Text Adventures (later Interactive Fiction), the storytellers who created them, and their unique place in the history of computer games." Although not completed yet (it will be soon, as filming was completed in October), this documentary will contain 76 interviews with people involved in the industry at the time, including Scott Adams (not the cartoonist), Marc Blanc and Tim Anderson (who both worked on Zork, one of the best known examples of the medium) . Here's a teaser trailer. And here are some fun representatives of the genre to play online.
posted by SpacemanStix on Jan 2, 2008 - 55 comments

To celebrate the results of this year's IF Comp, why not check out the entries on the new Interactive Fiction Database? [more inside]
posted by flatluigi on Nov 18, 2007 - 7 comments

Let's Tell a Story Together (A History of Interactive Fiction)
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Sep 2, 2007 - 32 comments

The Twelfth Annual Interactive Fiction Competition begins today. Non-contestants can take part in the proceedings by grabbing a torrent of the competing games and judging them over the next six weeks. If you're new to interactive fiction, Emily Short's "How to Play" will acquaint you with its conventions. And if you're enough of an I.F. expert that even a full slate of Comp games won't satisfy you, you can find every competition entry since 1995 archived at Baf's Guide.
posted by Iridic on Oct 1, 2006 - 3 comments

Inform 7 Released. Inform is a language used for creating interactive fiction, and is one of the most widely used languages for this task. After several years of effort, Graham Nelson has released a new version of Inform, and is seeking to create a new way of creating IF, with natural language instead of traditional programming code. [more inside]
posted by zabuni on Apr 30, 2006 - 38 comments

Pygmalion stories in literature and art. The myth of the scuptor who fell in love with a statue and prayed for it to be brought to life.
Related :- Galatea, a piece of interactive fiction which allows you to interact with a interpretation of the living statue (by Emily Short); Wikipedia entry on the myth.
posted by plep on Feb 21, 2005 - 10 comments

Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks tried to do Choose Your Own Adventure books one better with D&D-style rules. These massively single-player games, released in Britain, absorbed '80s nerds into the kind of murky, dead-serious fantasy recently parodied by Trogdor, in a decade when interactive fiction was on the rise. A bunch of the Gamebooks are now available to play online. Hang on to those healing potions.
posted by inksyndicate on Sep 14, 2004 - 32 comments

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike...
posted by grumblebee on Sep 18, 2002 - 18 comments

"Massively Multiplayer Online Entertainment." Our own AdrianHon has posted an interesting article to his weblog, dealing with this budding genre. Last year's AI movie web game tie-in was the first of a new breed of online interactive fiction, attracting thousands of players world-wide. Mr. Hon takes a look at the genre and puts forth some interesting ideas about where it could go. (more inside)
posted by SpaceBass on May 19, 2002 - 7 comments

9:05 Remember back in the heyday of Infocom when you would routinely spend four or five days straight (subsisting on RC cola and beef jerky, only taking breaks to visit the john) trying to crack all the puzzles in Zork II or Suspended? Yeah, those were the days. Now, of course, you're a busy guy -- you can no longer devote entire weekends to the joys of text adventuring. That's why, today on your coffee break, you should play Adam Cadre's 9:05. Playing the entire game, from start to finish, should take you no longer than 10 minutes. But set aside a bit more time, because you'll probably want to play it again.
posted by Shadowkeeper on Apr 3, 2002 - 28 comments

Remember Zork, Planetfall, and the other creations of late game company Infocom? Well, "interactive fiction," as the format is called, is still alive and well. Every year the IF community -- which is known for releasing work of quality far surpassing even Infocom's masterpieces -- holds a competition for short works, and this year's contestants have been released! Read this post's comments for more info...
posted by tweebiscuit on Sep 30, 2001 - 13 comments

If you are interested in interactive fiction, this is a MUST READ. By "interested" I don't mean you want to know about the latest cool games--I mean interested in IF as an artform, its possibilities, its future. NOTE: to understand this exchange, you only need to know that one of the authors is the developer of an interactive storytelling program called "erasmatron."
posted by grumblebee on Jun 11, 2000 - 0 comments