The Rosebush – Interactive Fiction Theory and Criticism

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SV Linwood is an interactive fiction author, known for their award winning games, A Long Way to the Nearest Star, Dr Ludwig and the Devil, and most recently, winning Best in Show at the SpringThing, Cut the Sky.

The basics of coding in Infocom's ZIL: Zork Implementation Language

Chandler Groover is an interactive fiction author, known for his influential games such as Eat Me, Toby’s Nose and Midnight. Swordfight., as well as his contribution in Fallen London’s storylines. He recently released The Bat, which won the 2024 IFComp.

The Z-machine is the interpreter that Infocom created to allow them to write a game once and run it on a wide variety of different computers.

What if you wrote a parser game using only sentences taken verbatim from other parser games? Like a cento for text adventures?

Sophia and Manon chat about running game jams to foster creativity and experimentation, and to build bridges between different IF communities and forms.

Trauma resists definitions. Nevertheless, people will try to write about it, even within interactive fiction.

In “The Bloody Wallpaper” the player is conscripted to work in a luxury hotel for a single evening. But menial labor isn’t famous for being fun, and “The Bloody Wallpaper” is premium DLC for an online game: it needs to be fun, doesn’t it?

Ian Greener recalls the vibrant early hobbyist IF scene in the UK, briefly discussing The Hobbit, The Philosopher's Quest, and interactive fiction creation tool The Quill, before turning to a long discussion of the 1984 game Hampstead.