In today's paper I reminisced about one of the oft-overlooked text adventures from the 1980s: Hampstead. From its beginning in a squalid flat in East London to its eventual end in a large, multi-million pound manor in London's affluent NW3, you made American Psycho's Patrick Bateman look like a pussy cat in fluffy clothing as you manoeuvred through the 1980s Zeitgeist.
Even at that ripe young age, I recognised it as a welcome change from the swords and sorcery of most text adventures. It introduced a sense of satire to the new interactive genre, matched only by the magnificent Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And now I look back on it, it seems that this gaming platform had and still has the best chance at creating compelling interactive stories.
I recently attended a Coding Dojo during the Festival season in Brighton where I sat like a lemon watching people far more computer literate than I programming a text adventure. I had no chance of contributing to the nuts and bolts of the project, but I could offer my thoughts on plot and direction. So, inspired by the trip down Hampstead's memory lane and spurred on by both the Dojo and Penguin's recent A Million Penguins WikiNovel experiment, I thought the talented gamesbloggers could create a text adventure ourselves, set in modern day, with modern themes, without an orc in sight. If it was worthy, we could release the final product on an independent platform.
All in favour in a bit of interactive collaboration, say Aye. If we get a critical mass, we'll set up a wiki and get started.
