On Halloween, the People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction hosted a collaborative IF playing of The Lurking Horror. We were joined by the game’s author, David Lebling, who subsequently led a tour through the MIT-based locations of the game. Among the regions we visited were the Department of Alchemy, the Infinite Corridor, and the infamous sub-basements. Details of our adventure are soon to come.
A few days before our Halloween event, we held our general meeting on Monday, October 25. First up was Andrew Plotkin who gave us an exclusive preview about what the Interactive Community now knows: He has decided to write IF full-time. If you haven’t visited his Kickstarter project, then do so for the exciting details of his plans. And although he attained his funding goal in under 12 hours (and doubled his goal within 48 hours), there’s plenty of time to contribute to the cause.
Kevin Jackson-Mead updated us on the recently resurrected IF Theory Book project. Progress continues, and the plan is to have something available by PAX East 2011. Speaking of which, we have started contacting the organizers of the event as we slowly start planning the second annual East coast gathering of IF authors. And, as noted before, we hope to run an IF event at the Cambridge Science Festival. As always, we will provide updates on our web site.
Coming up sooner: Nick Montfort is hosting a Curveship party where participants have a chance to write Curveship components, games, and generally have a good time. The event occurs this weekend (Sunday, November 7), so if you are interested in joining the fun, please contact him.
Finally, we played the introductions to several games from this year’s Interactive Fiction Competition. The list included The 12:45 To Asgard, Death of the Cuff, East Grove Hills, Heated, Flight of the Hummingbird, and Ninja’s Fate. A list of reviews for all of the games are available at IFWiki.org, and PR-IF members Kevin Jackson-Mead and Michael D. Hilborn are also reviewing their experiences online. You can find their reviews at The Gameshelf and Mike’s web site, respectively.