Hello, everyone! It's another week when the news from game development at large failed to hold my attention. In my defense, for once it's because I've been doing a lot of my own work, and there's even more coming. So let me tell you about it.
To begin with, I wrote Try this INSTEAD, the promised game engine review; the game port it mentions is still unfinished for reasons you'll see in a moment, but going very well. It's just that my plans have shifted.
You see, after trying various new things to do with my phone, so I can cut down on computer time (never mind why), I finally ended up installing a Z-Machine interpreter, namely Text Fiction. Chosen for its small size, it also proved to be gorgeous, and very well designed for its purpose. I can only play certain games that way, but that's less of a problem than you'd expect, for reasons explained in my second article this week, Text games forever.
Which brings me to current plans. On this blog, I always treated interactive fiction as just another game genre to compare against others and learn from. Arguably for the best, seeing how my own attempts flopped badly (especially on Itch). Text adventures mean a lot to me anyway, and after ten years of No Time To Play I need to spend some time doing things I love without having to think of an audience.
Oh, the site isn't going anywhere (unless disaster strikes). There will still be news and reviews, and the occasional experiment too. Not to mention the upcoming second book, which looks poised to hit the 28K-word mark. From now on however it's all going to be much more personal and relaxed. And starting next year, who knows. Something must change in any event.
Thanks for sticking with me throughout this all. Until next week, be well.