Weekly Links #212

Hello, everyone. As implied last time, working on a new game engine gave me a ton of ideas for how to fix and improve its older brother. So I've switched tracks: spent the week bringing Adventure Prompt back to life, and things are going great. Not only it will have all the features I had planned 15 months ago, but some other stuff too. But the best thing? Writing a text adventure in the form of an INI file turns out to be quick and painless, allowing me to focus 100% on the fictional space I'm trying to create. And damn, I missed doing this. It's been years since last time.

Otherwise, not many news this week, but what's there is worth a read.

2018 is a year of remembrance for gaming, as a number of beloved classics reach their 25th anniversary. One of them is Star Fox, and Gamasutra takes the opportunity to interview the original authors. And you know, at the time I was already used to playing first-person 3D games, even space shooters, on the Speccy. Apart from looking better, Star Fox wasn't that novel anymore, even if it was on a console. (Heck, the first level with the walkers is straight out of Starglider.) But the feeling of being there, shooting and dodging enemy fighters while strafing their space battleships, and then going inside one... No other game came close until the much later Battle for Endor. And that's something to remember it for.

Over on fiction-interactive.fr, Hugo Labrande has a comprehensive survey of the various media used for interactive storytelling since the 1980s onwards (article in French, which amusingly points back at many others in English). I have little to add; the article casts a wide net, covering the digital and analog alike, and giving each medium a fair shake. A fun game is to count how many of these you've tried yourself, either as a player or creator. In my case, that's a lot, yet there's still more out there left to experience. Goes to show how important stories are for people, and how many ways we've found to tell more and more of them. Much food for thought.

Last but not least, we have a game developer explaining why she makes gay games, and a brief interview with Amanita Design. And that's it for now, so, until next time.