interactive fiction

Hooray, my game is done! And! It mostly came out how I wanted it to (...mostly)!

First off, make sure you at least have Zoom Version 1.1.2 or it won't run.  read more »

Okay, if anyone wants to try and play this, here it is. I used Inform's default file type, so I hope that works... If it doesn't please comment and I'll try to fix it.
I hope everybody has a good summer and good luck on exams!

Doesn't it seem like everything today is "interactive?"
Everyone says that the world is getting smaller- now, instead of sending letters back and forth to families and friends and waiting days for their responses, we just dial them up on a phone, IM, or webcam if we really want to see them. It's a million times easier for us to talk to people on the other side of the world than it used to be- in fact, isn't it remarkable that that's even possible? Anything can happen at the touch of a button, thanks to advances in technology that make these things possible.  read more »

I know many of us have expressed our ideas as to why interactive fiction was never able to make the fortunes traditional literary forms have. I believe that people have an innate desire to read. Reading allows one to escape all that reality and enter into a world that is strictly their own; one that is created just in their own minds as well as the author. Reading allows all of us to quietly demonstrate our own creativity without fear of someone finding out our level of creativity.
I know in my own life sometimes the thought of my creativity being displayed for others stifles those ideas. However, I have always been able to submerse myself into fiction and create my own narratives. Since I was young this has been my way to escape.
So to answer the question, "Why has interactive fiction not taken off?" I believe it is because people truly desire traditional forms of narrative, in which they can escape reality. Interactive fiction requires thinking and action on the reader's part. However, traditional reading only involves a couch, a snack, and an eager mind!

Photopia made me interested in Interactive Fiction. I enjoy seeing how writers and artists can experiment with communication and narrative in different media, and I think Adam Cadre is extremely creative in how he works with a medium to interact with a reader/viewer/player/etc.

Although I found Photopia intriguing -- like reading an interesting book -- I don't think it was as impacting for me as it was for other people, judging by their blogs, but I decided that I enjoyed it enough to check out some of Cadre's other work.

The comments about Cadre's "Shrapnel" made the game seem unresistable:

"Unsettling. Brilliant. Damn you." —Ian Finley

"Really good game, but REALLY CREEPY. I honestly woke up with nightmares after playing it." —Sean Gaffney

"This was the most unsettling piece of IF I've ever had the pleasure to play." —Oren Ronen

"I think I'm now warped for life." —Alan Monroe

Could it really be that disturbing? I guess my penchant for trying to scare myself (see my last post about Silent Hill) got the best of me.  read more »