The People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction convened on Monday November 25, 2024 over Zoom. Pinkunz, anjchang, Cidney, Hugh,  Mike Stage, Doug, Zarf, and Stephen attended. Warning: What follows is probably not proper English, but just my log of notes from the meeting to jog people’s memories.

If you’re looking for older version of Inform. you download 6M62 from https://ganelson.github.io/inform-website/downloads/ it should work on 2017 MacOS.

What we’re playing:

StardewValley – experience of playing a game across years. Think about designing updates that are unexpected, but fit within the overall designed world. The game is also interesting because it supports different player rolls collaboratively.

Scroll Thief and puzzles within it were discussed.

Rise of the Golden Idol from a series (first one is Case of the Golden Idol)l. Evidence hunting game, reminiscent of Case of Auberdim). Game quizzes you on what happened. Story is about ancient idol that people are stealing and then there’s a mystery around it.

Enjoy the worldbuilding in Color of Magic, great allegory to real fables like the Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause, and other contemporary myths. HogFather is great for holidays.

Dune Series – world building is so comprehensive. David Lynch movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(1984_film) Mention of game about Dune. Newer movies are deeper in the story. Talk about book versions– much better than the movies. First book is a must-read. Second book has some elements.

Recommendation for Enchanted Castle Puzzle Hunt https://thetravelers.guide/ Online Escape Room by Laura Hall. Synchronous activity over Zoom!

Real world immersion with CluedUup’s Alice in Wonderland. Mystery hunt, and Miami Herald Tropic Hunt mentioned.

Geocaching – riddles and puzzles mixed into geocaches. What if geocaching x IF? Considerations regarding safety https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/treasure-chest-worth-millions-rocky-mountains-found-after-decade-long-n1227231 The need for playtesting and guard rails. Sunsetting for timeline of game. Reddit whereIsThis WhatIsIt collaborative identification. Collaborative Crimesolving… Traveling Figurines and history of the figurine over the world.

Forbidden Island, forbidden Desert games where you play collaboratively as a particular character with separate roles.

Ryan Veeder’s Fly Fishing mentions geocaching. https://rcveeder.net/flyfishing/

https://rcveeder.net/tacofiction

How clues are given to help puzzle solving? We also talked about playing the rated games from IFComp and EctoComp. People enjoyed ones that didn’t rank so high, mentioned:

Please sign here from last year’s IFComp (ifdb)

Human resources stories spawned Dragon Resources Stories.

Potential meeting in Cambridge to commemorate the closing of Cambridge Brewing Company. Next meeting poll will include a link to who can make possible meetup at MIT (potentially Trope Tank) followed by CBC.