A bunch of things have hit all at once, so I’ll just toss some items here:
Parsercomp 2023 is live! This is a competition intended for “traditional parser” games, where you type GET LAMP and all that. There’s a Classic category (11 games) and a Freestyle (5 games) where I believe the latter is intended to stretch the definition of “parser”. As of this writing there’s 8 days left to put ratings. If you just want to read about the games, Carl Muckenhoupt has been writing reviews at his blog, starting here.
Stuart Lloyd has a new gamebook here titled The Ravages of Hate, a “fan game” spin-off of The Coils of Hate. From the intro:
I remember the time I was first introduced to The Coils of Hate – one of my friends at primary school gave it to me thinking I would like it. He was right. It is a gamebook after all. I also remember the character I played – I picked Swordplay, Spells, Charms and Cunning, wanting to be both a warrior and a wizard in one. I wanted it all. However, the book took me ages to crack, but eventually I did. After a while, I forgot about it and went on to read other gamebooks.
However, 20 years on, when people started writing about gamebooks on the internet, I found out and rediscovered a great deal about The Coils of Hate. People wrote scathing reviews of it, citing its illogical choices, its numerous sudden deaths and its errors. This may have been true, but upon rereading it, I found a great deal of depth not found in almost all other gamebooks. First of all, there is a message of tolerance. The plight of the Judain was far too subtle a parallel for real life persecution to a 10 year old me, but I quickly found out about it and I realised that Mark Smith was trying to accomplish a lot in what at first glance is a book about killing a giant monster.
Emily Short has one or maybe two new games depending on how you count. First off is Elite Status: Platinum Concierge for Choice of Games.
How far would you go to make a billionaire’s dreams come true? Find the unfindable and do the impossible? It’s all in a day’s work for an employee of Platinum Concierge.
Elite Status: Platinum Concierge is a 500,000-word interactive contemporary drama by Emily Short, with additional content by Hannah Powell-Smith, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Charter a helicopter on fifteen minutes’ notice to bypass LA rush-hour traffic? Transport a priceless emerald-and-diamond necklace across three continents? Arrange a candlelit dinner in a cave with waiters rappelling down the walls? No problem at all. You have your pulse on every brand, trend, and connection of the still-new 21st century.
And she led the team but I still think it counts as an Emily Short game: Mask of the Rose, a Fallen London dating sin spinoff, launched on Steam.
Aaron Reed has a new article, for those who couldn’t get enough of the 50 Years of Text Games series, this time on the ultra-obscure “book game” The Antagonists from 1985.
In Kickstarter news, Mark Bauermeister’s Ocean Thrill Murder Mystery is nearly funded with 7 days to go.
A missing submersible, a group of rich adventurers who vanished on the way to the wreck of the RMS Lusitania and, on top of it all, the Interim CEO of OceanThrill (owner and operator of the missing Kepler 1 sub) murdered at his own private beachfront … you follow in the footsteps of a weary yet witty detective and his adorably mouthy female partner as they uncover a deep web of lies, intrigue and subversion.
And finally, if you just want to relax a bit with a slice of life, just yesterday the author Clover just released the game Peaches Interplanetary, where you can name your own price.
Margot’s dream is to roam the stars, providing peaches to all. For, even on the harshest of moons, everyone deserves a fresh peach! But, is she ready? And more importantly: are the peaches?
(Also, I have a working version of Colditz now. New post likely tomorrow.)
Renga in Blue 