Inside Erin: The AIF Newsletter Volume 2 Number 9 September, 2006 Letter from the Editor I’m hopeful that with the end of (northern hemisphere) summer, activity will begin to pick up in the AIF world. I’m beginning to see some signs of it already. In this newsletter alone, it’s evident. Chris Cole is back with a new “Seven Seas of Theah” episode and I am introducing a new feature by a new contributor, Bitterfrost. I spoke of Bitterfrost in my “AIF Scuttlebutt” article last month and he was so tickled at being recognized that he volunteered to contribute a game author’s development diary. There’s also been an uptick in discussion on the message boards, some of which includes repeat authors talking about new efforts, which is always a positive sign that we’ll have new games sometime soon, as well as potential new authors discussing some of their ideas. Here’s a reminder: The deadline for the Erins (October 31) is approaching. Authors who want to get their game(s) considered for this year’s awards should be sure to complete and upload them by that date. In my personal opinion, there’s no runaway ‘best game’ candidate out there this year. Not that there aren’t any high-quality games, just that none jump out at me the way IPCU and Tomorrow Never Comes did last year. I have turned over the reins for the Erins to BBBen this year. I’m pleased we have such a responsible and responsive volunteer to take it over. Many thanks to him for taking it on. I strongly encourage anyone who wants to get involved (judging, writing, web mastering) to contact him. Next item. In my own game development world, I’m happy to announce that I’ve completed the bulk of the writing and have begun my alpha-tests. There are still chunks of game to write, but most of that content is filler, atmosphere and NPC question/answer interaction - the kind of stuff that can be done while waiting for beta-test reports. Those of you who know what this game is about, I’m asking you to keep it dark a little longer. The suspense is killing me. Finally, many thanks to Jessamyn for being this month’s Green Summer: Live AIF player. She did an amazing job. I found myself not only taking the game’s commands from her, but also asking for input and comments on the responses, and in one case gave her two different responses to choose from. If you want to be next month’s player, please follow the instructions that follow this month’s episode. * * * This Month in AIF by BBBen There have been two new games this month, and it's nice to see things being a bit more active. It seems that the release of games encourages others to get work done on their projects, so the more games we get the more it snowballs into a series of game releases. Therefore: get working everyone! If you're inspired by somebody else's work, then take advantage of your inspiration and get something done. Despite the games, it has been pointed out that there hasn't been so much contraversy lately over new games. Some authors have expressed regret about the amount of hate-mail that they received over their games, but I think generally the concern is that for many game releases there is an apparent disinterest from the community. Authors need to know they're being read and appreciated, and the most useful and gratifying kind of feedback is that which analyses the specific strengths and weaknesses of the game in detail. Hopefully if a few people start setting an example on this - not full reviews mind you, just a few comments on the forums or in an email - then it will encourage others to follow suit. On the AIF Archive and AIFGames.com there was some discussion of ADRIFT programming issues, so I put together a couple of small .taf files to demonstrate how to accomplish them. These were both placed in a new "author resources" section in the "AIF Files" area of AIFGames.com. Hopefully in time this section will build up a lot of interesting resources for authors to use. Meanwhile, A. Bomire developed a theory that AIF authors are also pen and paper RPG players. I don't need any extra nerd points to my name but I will admit to having played P&P RPGs before, and this connection doesn't surprise me too much - particularly the idea that people who gravitate towards being a GM also gravitate towards writing games. Hence we see quite a few games that show an influence from settings like Dungeons and Dragons. Getting actual RPG-style gameplay in an AIF game is very complicated, but who knows, we may see an increase in that kind of thing over time; I for one am working on an RPG influenced game, although it's actually based on hentai games rather than P&P RPGs. To finish, a small announcement: I'm taking over running the Erin awards to give A. Ninny a break from all the organisational work he does for the community (running the newsletter, the last mini- comp, his master list of all games, etc.). In running the Erins I promise to be fair even if my own games are nominated, and I won't just be creating awards for myself to win. I hope that everyone will try their best to compete for the new categories of "Best Crossworlds Game" and "Best Author With Three Bs in Their Name". Actually I genuinely do have a few suggestions for tweaks to the existing categories, but I'll make sure they meet the approval of the community before making any changes. New Games: The Camping Trip by GoblinBoy, for TADS, released August 14th, 2006. You are on a camping trip with your girlfriend Becky, your friend Mike, and his girlfriend Melissa. Mike has a bet for you - who will be the one to take Becky's virginity? And will you be distracted by the slutty Melissa? Rodney and the Princess by Kaos Lord, for ADRIFT 4.0, released August 22nd, 2006. In this short game, Rodney is a young knight looking to save Princess Fiona from a goblin-infested cave. * * * GoblinBoy Interview by A. Ninny This month’s interview is with GoblinBoy, a new author this year who has released two games in relatively quick succession. We found he has a lot to say about his involvement in AIF. AN: Tell us a bit about yourself - who are you and what brings you to AIF? GB: Hmm, well, I'm a man, early 30s, English. I've been a sometime player of AIF for a number of years; GNA, and Ideal High School are the games which I remember as introducing me to AIF, along with Moist and Rogue Redux. AN: What led you from being an AIF consumer to being an AIF author? GB: I dabble a bit in computer programming, and from very early on I figured it would be interesting to write my own AIF. I quickly settled on TADS since the best games (it seemed to me at the time - and still does, I think) seemed to be written in TADS. I tried the sex.t libraries and rogue redux libraries, and decided on using the latter - mostly because it seemed more obvious to me how they worked, and they seemed more descriptive for what I wanted at the time (simple one on one encounters with a girl). I must confess to never having really tried out any other languages or libraries. After all, if it works why change it? I (half) wrote about half a dozen games. Actually, 'games' might be a strong word for them. Since I had no intention of publishing them to the larger world they were just for my own amusement. Hence they didn't really contain any puzzles. I mean - why bother? I already knew how to solve them, and they just got in the way of the sex! Then, a little over a year ago, I started The Camping Trip, which was actually based on a short story I had written (the game follows the plot of the story pretty closely, up to and including the second night). I thought it would be quite simple... just 2 girls, only a handful of locations... Blimey was I wrong! If I learned one lesson from Camping Trip (apart from some useful coding techniques) it was to limit the player! That may sound cruel and uninteractive, but the fact is with just the player and 2 girls (and another male NPC, who doesn't really do very much until the end) I found myself having to code a hellish amount of detail! A girl's reaction to you changes depending on what you have done with her previously, what you have done with the other girl, who else is present... Add all these variables, and it quickly spirals out of control! For example, Melissa... I wrote 11 different descriptions of how you climax with her. And cheated on about half a dozen more, just pointing them to ones I had already written. Partway through writing Camping Trip, I decided I needed a break. Just for fun, I decided to throw together a little fantasy game, which ended up being The Baron's Plot. I deliberately kept it small, and limited player interactions. There was only ever one girl present at a time (with the exception of Jeni wandering in occasionally to Lyria's rooms) and I decided the girls would not do everything with you. This greatly reduced the number of possibilities, and hence the amount of stuff I had to code. I also made the game much more linear, so that I didn't have to worry about how a girl's reaction changed based on your previous actions - because you only met the girl when I wanted you to, and I knew what you must have done (broadly speaking) to reach that point. Of course, this makes the game more restrictive and linear, but that's the price you pay! Anyway, I released Baron's Plot and people didn't seem to hate it. So I started work on a sequel. Then I thought I should probably finish The Camping Trip, since I *had* invested about a year in it. Beta-testing it was hell, of course – so many permutations to check. Plus I wrote it in a very haphazard way, with bits of code scattered all over the place. I'm a little more organized now, which makes it easy to work. I think I have got very much off the subject here. What was the question again?? Oh yes, what made me become an author. Well, I like authoring. It's interesting, it's a challenge, and you can put in the game exactly what you want. Is that a good enough reason? :) AN: Can you offer any insight as to how you feel a 'new' author fits in within the established AIF community? GB: To be honest, I never even knew there was an established AIF community until I decided that I might publish The Baron's Plot, and wondered how I would do it. I wanted beta-testers and didn't know where to find any, so I looked around and found the Yahoo! group and joined. Since then, though, I think the support of the group in all things AIF is pretty great. It's nice being able to ask coding questions and have someone answer. As to where the new author fits in... well, I guess everyone likes new games! So everyone likes new authors. Assuming, of course, that the new author's games are reasonably good, and properly tested. Testing is by far the hardest/dullest/most annoying part of the creative process so I can see why people do it. But if I had just released The Camping Trip when I thought it was finished, it would have been terrible. Appalling! Game- breaking bugs at every turn. Even though *I* could play it all the way through without it crashing didn't mean a thing. Players do stuff you don't expect. So, beta-test! Happily, though, there are plenty of willing volunteers to help you out. Some are incredibly helpful and you wonder if you should pay them (but I don't!)! Some just take the game and you never hear from them. But most are great. Thank you! AN: You mention that you worked on a bunch of games that you never meant to publish and never really finished. A lot of authors start in this manner. One trick some use is to take the best of those unfinished ideas and slide them into future games. Did any of those original ideas make their way into Camping Trip or Baron's Plot, or your current sequel? GB: Hmmm, not really. My early 'games' were really little more than a girl in a room. I wasn't trying to be particularly inventive, just to get TADS to work with my inept programming! The only possible exception - kind of - was a game I started a couple of years ago. In this game, you started in your bedroom and then went to sleep. You then found yourself at a crossroads. Going north, south, east or west took you to a different dream. One of these was a very primitive version of The Camping Trip! Another was a schoolroom, another was a fantasy castle with a princess and a maid that wandered around. I don't think I ever got around to deciding what was off to the south. Anyway, you could say that these were the germs of the ideas of The Camping Trip, and The Baron's Plot. The camping section was really just Melissa and Becky, and you could seduce them and do stuff. The idea for it did come from the same short story that the full game was based on, though. The fantasy section had a princess named Alicia - I can't remember what the maid was called. I suppose when I decided to take a break from The Camping Trip and write something shorter, I naturally thought of that half-written mini game in The Dream. The schoolroom section, for those who care, had you meeting a girl (I think her name was Kirsty) and talking to her. She would confess to having a biology exam the next day, and needed your help. By asking her biology questions (ie. about parts of her anatomy!) she would let you demonstrate biology on her. I suppose that's still a usable idea - it could be kind of fun, in a humourous context! AN: Baron’s Plot is set in a sort of hybrid fantasy / magic / medieval world. What was your inspiration for the specific details in that game? GB: My inspiration? Hmmm... well, I like the Fantasy setting. So that is always a plus. The other reason, I think, is the word itself - 'Fantasy'. Writing in a 'real world' situation can be extremely interesting. It is, after all, more realistic, which can be great. But if you write in a fantasy world then you can tweak reality to fit your game. For instance, in the world of The Baron's Plot, sex is much more readily available and accepted than our world. In addition, magic is tied quite closely to sex (explored a little more in the sequel). Thus, while you could have a soldier wandering around a castle in the real-world, having sex with everyone he meets, it would be a trifle unrealistic. Yes, I know, realism isn't always something you strive for in AIF - but at least by doing it in a fantasy world you can make the events in the game fit the conventions of the world. In the fantasy world of The Baron's Plot, for instance, you can legitimately meet a girl for the first time and immediately wonder when you are going to have sex with her. Or, more likely, in what position... This is, after all, the mindset of most AIF players! ;) Plus, to quote Thrud the Barbarian: "This is fantasy - anything can happen!" I like all the possibilities that fantasy allows you to have. Several scenes in Key to Eternity, for instance, could never happen except in a fantasy setting. AN: In The Camping Trip you included numerous 'dream girl' interactions. These are almost entirely a separate experience from the main plot line of the game. What, aside from sex content, do you feel they contribute to the game? GB: Honestly? Not much. Let's face it, they are purely there for the sex content. You could argue that they are a realistic representation of an adolescent male's thoughts. But mostly just the sex. I actually added them in as an afterthought - more as an exercise in seeing if I could do it. The dream girls and the school girls are coded differently. With the dream girls, I created a dreamgirl class, and then made 9 different dreamgirls, each with defined attributes. They shared the basic sexual commands and responses (which were set in the class) but with some unique responses for each girl. Then, I thought, can I create totally random girls for the player to interact with, using just the one NPC? I did this with the schoolgirls. There is one class, and only one girl. Every time you enter the dream world, a random set of attributes is defined for the girl, making it a (slightly) different experience each time. Boring to most people, I expect, but that was my main motivation for doing it. It was nothing to do with the plot - just a technical exercise which happily resulted in more sex! AN: What are your favorite AIF games? GB: Oh gosh... Is this the time where I have to admit to not having played that many games? And when I do play them I almost always use a walkthrough. That's terrible, isn't it? I'll go and stand in the corner now. I really liked Ideal High School, by Newkid, although I haven't played it for ages. I just liked the scenario of it, and the writing was good. Oh, I also enjoy the Sam Shooter games. I love the humour in them. I was trying to inject a little of that into The Baron's Plot. After all, AIF games can't really take themselves too seriously, can they? I mean... I think we all know what they are really all about, and it isn't the plot or the artistic vision of the author. Unless any author disagrees with me! I also really enjoyed several of the entries in the recent AIF competition - I can't remember names offhand, but there was the one where you start on a coach and then have to sneak into your girlfriend\'s room (although I think he went just a little overboard with the Shakespeare), as well as the one where you are in detention with your girlfriend. AN: What about them do you feel makes them so particularly strong? GB: Things that keep me interested in a game are, in no particular order: humour (see the Sam Shooter games for this), realism (Detention, Ideal High School etc), and a good plot (Tomorrow Never Comes, for example). Then, obviously, the hotness factor plays a good part... I also get annoyed by games that I can't solve. Which is lots of them, because I'm rubbish. Hence I use walkthroughs a lot. Looking at my list there, makes my wonder about how well I am implementing those features in my own games... Must try harder! AN: You're currently working on the sequel to "Baron's Plot". How's it going and what else do you have in the pipeline? The sequel is called Key to Eternity, part 2 of the Gifts of Phallius trilogy. It's coming along very nicely - especially considering how much time I've been spending finishing off The Camping Trip. There is a prologue and 10 chapters. I have just finished chapter 9. Then comes the laborious beta testing, which will be a pain because the game is very long. I've tried to be a little innovative with it... It is presented in chapter format, each being a more-or- less self contained episode, although your actions in one can have an impact in a later chapter (eg. if you are free a slave girl in chapter 3, she might come back and help you in chapter 7. Not that there are any slave girls in the game. Maybe I should add some...). You switch between two characters, one male one female, having mostly alternate chapters with each character. The sex system is new, with some hopefully interesting features which I won't divulge yet. Except to say it was probably a bad idea, in that it meant lots more coding... Again, the game is too long. I have tried to restrict certain actions, and the chapter format deals with a lot of the continuity issues (if you meet girl B in chapter 5, then you must have finished the earlier chapters, and the girl can react accordingly), but the game is still clocking in at 40+ files. Ah well. I predict it should be ready about Sept/Oct. After that... well, there is the final part of the trilogy. I haven't really planned that at all, except that the ending of Key to Eternity leads straight into it. Something of a cliffhanger, I hope... Then there are a couple of other projects I'm toying with. There is a Disney Princesses game... Then I am thinking about one set in a base at the Antarctic. You are part of a science team (some male, some hot females). Then some alien monster is let loose in the base. Imagine a cross between The Thing and, well, AIF. That would certainly be a challenge, at least how I am imagining it. It would be distinctly non-linear, with the monster roaming the base killing people... You can form a squad, send someone into the ventilation system to look for the monster, etc etc. Along with some hot sex on the way. I haven't done too much more planning than that, and I'm wondering if it might be impossible to do. Still, you never know until you try! One thing, though, which I have (sort of) decided. I think I would rather do more smaller games than fewer big games. People probably get a little bored of a game after the seventeenth hour, thirtieth sex scene, and eleventh chapter. Do a game, make is snappy, keep it fresh. That's what I'll probably try to do. Assuming I can resist the urge I always get to 'Just add another feature... and another girl... oh, and if I recode this section I can make the game twice as long...' Also, after Key to Eternity, I think I might have less sex. Shocking! By which I mean, I think a lot of the eroticism is in the build up. While there does, of course, need to be a payoff to that, there are only so many new and different ways you can write a sex scene. Key to Eternity has (so far) around twenty sex scenes, at a guess. Each with many different possible actions in them. I start to worry I am repeating myself... So, more build up. I think I did that reasonably well with Becky in The Camping Trip. Give the player a little more each time... make it mean something to them when (or if!) they finally get to go the whole way. Thanks again to GoblinBoy for his thoughtful responses. Look for Key to Eternity, the sequel to The Baron’s Plot in your AIF download place in the next couple of months, and be sure to try out The Camping Trip and The Baron’s Plot today. * * * AIF Author’s Log by Bitterfrost Hello, everyone! I’m Bitterfrost, longtime lurker and wannabe AIF author. I've been working on an overly ambitious ADRIFT game off and on for the past couple of years. Despite file corruption, fleeting free time and bouts of doubt, I keep soldiering on. I will see this thing through to release... then I'll probably go hide in a cave somewhere. A. Ninny has been kind enough to invite me to share a monthly log of my adventures as a first-time author. It's a little something I like to call "How NOT to Write AIF." Thinking about stepping up and creating your first AIF? Learn from my mistakes. Been writing AIF for years? Be amused by my stumbling around in the dark. It's all good. The game in question is How I Got Syphilix. No, it has nothing to do with venereal disease. It’s somewhat of a smartass interactive novel. I don’t want to spoil the premise, so let’s just say it’s a sex comedy. Let’s also just say I’ve got a lot of work yet to do. A lot. Because of the scope of this game, the gargantuan amount of text involved and my irregular free time, I have to keep a log detailing what I’ve done and what I need to do next. I’d be completely lost without it. As it is, if it’s been a few weeks since I’ve tinkered with this project, it takes me days to get back in the rhythm, even with the log’s help. Each month, I’ll share some of these notes, so you can see some of the small victories and large defeats I experience along the way. You’ll get a good picture of how much I love and loathe this project, how I always come back to it no matter how much I try or how many pesky “real life” distractions impede my progress. It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll teach you something about yourself. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of this it’s that you have to have a sense of humor about it or you’ll go mad. In the next issue, I’ll get into the joys and frustrations of a month’s journey down one very long road. For now, here are some general tips on How NOT to Write AIF: 1. Try to learn TADS. I mean, really try hard. Download the manuals and libraries. Read extensively, get within an inch of grasping it, then give up. Download ADRIFT 3.9 Generator and go to work. There are days that I really wish I had knuckled-down and learned TADS. ADRIFT is easy to use, but it has its limitations and--I'm learning the hard way--quirks. It can do a lot, though; it's just a matter of how much work you put into it. I’m giving it my all. 2. Casually commit to an AIF project thinking that you’ll be able to knock it out in a couple of weeks at most. Then discover that it will rob you of months of your life. Having played IF since Infocom was a zygote, I thought I had a good idea of how much work is involved. Man, was I naïve. It’s a ridiculous amount of work! If you find yourself hopping out of bed one day with a sudden drive to create an AIF game, don’t take that first step lightly. It’s a mammoth task even to make a lousy game. A good game is going to dominate your days. I sobered up quickly and accepted the fact that delivering a decent game was going to take a thousand little steps. It’s become an insane hobby (like making a scale model of Toronto out of toothpicks), but I’ll see it through to the end. 3. Start BIG. Traditionally, AIF authors start out with small, manageable games, exercise their skills and gradually become more confident and ambitious with their projects. However, if you suffer the same brain damage that I do, you'll go all-in and pack your entire AIF career into one game. I guess I’d rather do one good AIF than several mediocre ones. 4. Write HUGE chunks of type. It’s always been my feeling that as a text medium AIF could use, you know, more text. As a frustrated writer and colossal pervert, I’ve found AIF to be a tremendous outlet. The command responses in my game are lengthy, and the sex scenes are lovingly detailed. Unfortunately, that adds up to an enormous amount of text to manage in ADRIFT’s tiny text windows. However, writing and organizing my type chunks in Word has saved me a world of hurt. 5. Be sure to work in complete isolation. After rebuilding the game nearly from scratch, I began to doubt the whole project. It wasn’t until I was about to pack up the whole thing that I poked my head out of my cave and asked for advice. I got some great input that ultimately helped me streamline the story. It was invaluable to get that feedback while the game was still in development. Had that advice come along during the final testing, I would’ve had major restructuring on my hands late in the game. See you next month! The .taf Murder Mystery I don't know if anyone else has encountered this phenomenon. I nearly called on Stephen Hawking to help me rationalize this equation: Microsoft Word + ellipses + ADRIFT = corrupt .taf I lost lots of hair figuring that one out. Every now and then my .taf would corrupt after I copied and pasted from Word. It wasn't until I copied from Word to Notepad that I saw the peculiar (and formerly invisible) solid space symbol Word randomly added in front of my ellipses. Bloody Microsoft saboteurs! Now I filter all copy blocks through Notepad, delete any ghost spaces and paste into ADRIFT with no deadly consequences. An extra step in the process. See, kids, it's fun doing this completely in the dark, learning from your own mistakes! Oh well. That'll teach me to complete my sentences. 7/20/06 Thanks to some great banter with NASDAQ, I've got a nice, juicy ending sketched out. Much better than I had originally planned. Much as I want to just leave it to be fleshed out later, I am, under classic Bitterfrost logic, working on the final scene when I should be tackling that all-important middle bit. Must. Focus. Oh well. I suppose I shouldn't try to rein it in if I'm actually getting somewhere. It all adds up. 7/27/06 Having categorically avoided the threadbare second section of the game, I've finally decided to edit that bit out. Anything that resists that stoically simply does not want to be moved. That section of the game would've required a ton of work to make it halfway enjoyable for players. So I'm giving up and moving on. Lesson learned. I'm breaking all of the connections to that section and rerouting them to the third. I had to be careful. There were tasks and events tied to the bit I walled off. 8/3/06 It's time to back away from arranging individual blades of grass in the first section and look at the game as a whole. It'll be harder than hell to finish this thing if I don't know where the boundaries are. I've added all of the remaining rooms. Damn. I've got a mess of room descriptions to write. I'll get back to that. I need to add the rest of the cast. I'm sure the veterans are chuckling. Hey, I could've asked for help when I started this insane expedition, but I opted for the more difficult route. It's a bit like learning to play the piano by trial- and-error. If you hit enough keys, eventually you'll make music. Remember, kids, this is how NOT to write AIF. 8/14/06 Just as you’re building momentum, be sure to go on vacation. Now that I’m back, I haven’t the slightest idea where I left off. Oh well. Onward! * * * Seven Seas of Theah: Episode 8 by Christopher Cole OPTIONS: At the end of this story each month, you will be given a number of options. Choose the option that you like and vote in the poll at the Yahoo AIF Archive. The option that gets the most votes will determine how the story continues in next month’s newsletter. NOTE: You can read background information and other tidbits about this story here: http://ccole.aftermath.cx/theah.htm. Magnus could feel a small smile build on his face as he moved his hands from Violetta’s exposed left leg, up to her right. She kept her boot pressed against his chest, but she didn’t resist when he began to rub her right leg over her leather leggings. After a few moments, he deftly untied the straps of her right legging, slowly working his way up her leg. Soon her right leg was as exposed as her left, and he slid his hands along her smooth legs, enjoying the soft skin and toned muscles. Violetta stared at him, a slight smirk on her face. As he looked into her eyes, he again felt that he could get lost in there; they were dark and deep and full of mystery. Her left foot slid down his chest, and came to rest on his crotch. Her expression didn’t change as her toes started to caress his manhood over his leggings. He was quite hard now and she traced the length of him with her toes. She murmured slightly as if happy with his size. She allowed Magnus to slide her leggings down over her hips while she freed his thickness from his pants. She smiled a little more as she raised herself onto her haunches and lowered herself over him, guiding him inside her as she straddled him. A moan escaped her lips and his as she took him all the way in and stayed there, sitting on his lap for a long moment. She stared into his eyes. “This changes nothing,” she said. “And we must be quick.” Magnus nodded and Violetta raised herself slightly on her legs and then lowered herself again, taking his cock deep inside her. She began to ride him slowly, but steadily. Soft moans escaping her lips. Magnus tried to keep his breathing quiet and tried to keep his wits about him, but he was too amazed that he was doing what he was doing. He and Violetta had always flirted, but there was a sort of unspoken agreement that they would not let something like this get in the way of their partnership. The danger certainly added to the eroticism, but they had been in danger before. Perhaps it was the mage; they had never before faced that kind of danger. Magnus clamped his teeth as he grunted, feeling his cock slide into her tight, wet pussy. She had her hands on his shoulders as she guided herself up and down his length. He could be a generous lover, going as short or as long as he or his woman wished, but tonight was different. He couldn’t control himself with Violetta. He knew he was fast approaching his orgasm. He became aware of his surroundings again briefly, which gave him a slight respite. The only noise other than their muffled breathing was the creaking of the boat as before. He could hear slight noises coming from above, but nothing that gave a sign that anyone would be stopping in on them unexpectedly. Besides, they were in a tight corner of the hold, not near anything the crew would be needing immediately on the voyage. They were as safe as they had been in weeks. “I’m close,” Magnus whispered to Violetta. She slowed her pace so that she was barely moving. She no longer moved up and down, but instead just barely moved her buttocks back and forth across his lap, his cock deep inside her. It kept him on the brink in excruciating pleasure. She remained in that position a while. Barely moving, keeping Magnus so close to orgasm that he thought he would die. Neither of them spoke. Their breath whispered and was lost in the creaking of the ship and the splashing of the sea. Now, completely out of his control, Magnus could feel his seed erupting… WHERE SHOULD MAGNUS CUM? 1) INSIDE VIOLETTA’S PUSSY? 2) IN VIOLETTA’S MOUTH? 3) ON VIOLETTA’S STOMACH? 4) ON VIOLETTA’S CLEAVAGE? 5) ON THE FLOOR? * * * Green Summer: Live AIF by A. Ninny Note: Green Summer is an adult interactive fiction game that will be played out over a few months in the pages of this newsletter. The ‘player’ in this episode is Jessamyn—many thanks to her for participating. Please refer to the rules at the end of this episode to learn how you may become the next player. To see what happened before this, see the July and August editions. * * * >grab Carly's ass You grab Carly roughly and pull her close to you. She presses her mouth on yours hungrily while her fingers dig into your back. You move your hands under her skirt and grip her firm thighs, then move your hands up. She gasps softly when you reach her ass, then your fingers press into her soft flesh through her wet panties. Warm water cascades down over the pair of you while your kissing intensifies. >sweet talk Carly It occurs to you that despite the fact that Carly has pretty much thrown herself at you that you have done little or nothing to deserve her attention. In fact, all you really did was get puked on, and that is about as unappealing a thing as you can imagine. So you decide, a bit belatedly you realize, to chat her up and hope you don't sound like an idiot or, worse, a cliché. You loosen your grip and step back and look the woman in the eyes, which are obscured slightly by the cascade of shower water. Your fingers rest lightly on her arms. "I'm a bit at a loss," you begin at last, "because I'm overcome. I've never thought anyone could make stunning poetry out of the simple act of entering a shower..." You pause when you see her grinning. "Um.. what?" you ask. "Nothing. Sorry. Go on. Please." She tries to suppress her smile and assume a serious look, but (mostly) fails. >compliment Carly Aw, screw it, you think. You're not much for fancy sweet talk, anyway, so you just hold Carly in your arms and say, injecting as much meaning in your voice as you can, "I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're one a-fucking-mazing woman, you know that? I've really never met anyone like you." "That's more like it," Carly responds, a sexy smile playing across her face, "and yes, others have mentioned that to me before. And," she continues, "you haven't even seen the start of what's so a- fucking-mazing about me." >x shower The shower is a roomy square glass compartment, easily big enough for two (or three?!) adults. The shower head is mounted at the end of a hose attachment and can be removed from the bracket which supports it. There is a tiled bench that runs the whole width of one side of the shower. Sitting on the bench are several bottles of shampoo. There's a soap shelf with a bar of soap sitting on it. Warm water pours out of the shower head. Carly's hands work their way down the back of your shorts and grip your ass. She pulls you close to her and kisses you while holding your butt. >Remove Carly's bra You reach behind Carly and find the clasp of her bra. She lifts her arms and crosses them on top of her head. Without needing to look, you pop open the garment's three hooks, not without some difficulty - though in your mind you blame the fact that the bra is soaking wet. You slowly peel the back straps toward Carly's front, holding one end in each hand. Carly takes a step back away from you. You're now holding the two straps in front of Carly, but the wet cups cling to her breasts. She takes another step back and the cups slowly disengage and fall away. She drops her arms and you're left holding her bra dangling between your hands. You find your eyes glued to her breasts. They're large, but not overly so, and surprisingly firm. They sit quite high on her chest. Her young flesh is perfectly blemishless and transitions smoothly from her collarbone to her breasts, from which each breast curves pleasingly down and under itself, meeting her barely-visible ribcage below it. Her nipples are light pink and slightly upturned. Warm water cascades down them, highlighting every contour. You barely realize that the bra has fallen from your hands to the shower floor. She obviously notices you staring and smiles, then comments in her drop-dead-sexy accent, "I told you, a-fucking-mazing, right?" >Kiss Carly's neck, collarbone and breast 'A-fucking-mazing' definitely runs through your head, but right now you're entirely speechless. Instead of even trying to talk, you move in. Bending your knees and holding your hands on her waist, you aim your lips for Carly's neck. She accommodates by lifting her chin. Her neck feels soft under your lips. She gasps softly. You feel her hands on your back tightening their grip. You begin kissing down her throat, then pause at her collarbone. Your brain registers the contrast between her soft flesh and the rigid bone below it. Carly's hands on your back urge you lower, and she stands on her tiptoes, achingly pressing her breasts up to your face. You resist and remain, working your way up and down bewteen her throat and her collar, knowing that you're teasing both her and yourself. At last you relent, and press your lips into the fleshy top of her left breast. It offers just the right combination of give resistance. Carly mmm's breathily, and then gasps when your mouth moves to covers her nipple. "Yeah, that's nice," she breathes. >Take shower head You pull your mouth away from Carly's breast, leaving it with one last lingering kiss. Then you reach up over your head to pull the shower head from its mounting bracket. Carly watches you with a sexy glint in her eye, but doesn't say anything. >Carly, strip You suggest to Carly that she shed her remaining clothes. She reaches under her skirt, and without revealing anything, pulls down her panties. But the skirt stays on. "I feel far more sexy with something on than with nothing on," she explains, "especially this skirt." "But it's soaking wet," you protest. She does a quick turn about in the shower, and as you admire her fantastic ass and hips in the skirt, you have to admit that the effect of this little bit of modesty works wonders - more so since you know that beneath the skirt she wears absolutely nothing. > lift Carly's foot onto bathtub ledge You rest your fingers on Carly's forearms and move with her so she's standing next to the shower bench. She gives you a knowing look as you guide her thigh up so she rests one foot on the bench. Her arms wrap easily around your neck affectionately, and also they help her balance. >Set shower nozzle to 'pulse' "Just what do you have in mind?" Carly asks. You don't respond, instead studying the shower nozzle. Aiming it at the floor, you turn the dial on it, and the water changes from a boring steady spray to a rockin' pulse! It has a beat and you can dance to it, BABY! PSH! PSH! PSH! PSH! PSH! PSH! PSH! PSH! Carly's eyes are aglow with anticipation. Her fingers work down your chest and play over your skin while you cradle the nozzle in your hands. >Move to stand behind Carly Still pointing the pulsing shower head at the floor, you pivot your body so you are standing behind Carly. You wrap your free right arm around her chest and press your mouth against her wet hair. She turns her head around to kiss you and her right hand reaches back and gropes the front of your shorts, searching for something hard. After finding the expected hard item, she presses her ass back against it, grinding into you. You lower your hand so you're holding Carly around her hips and push your own hips forward. The two of you grind and sway in this position for a moment, both wishing there were far fewer garments in the way, but not moving to eliminate them - yet. > Spray Carly's tits While holding Carly firmly against your chest with your right arm, you stretch out your left (the one holding the shower attachment), getting as much slack as you can on the shower hose. Carly is still kissing you and doesn't notice what you're doing until you turn the sprayer around and shoot it straight at her left breast. Then she jerks suddenly in your arms, reacting like you've just sent a high-voltage charge through her body. The hard, pulsing spray of warm water cascades over her nipple. Her neck muscles relax and her head falls back on your shoulder, her wet hair trailing all over your back, but the rest of her upper body keeps convulsing in your arms. Each time she begins to calm a bit, You move the spray to her other breast, or simply aim the spray in a slightly different direction; each time you move it seems to recharge the experience for her. After a couple of minutes of this, she takes your hand holding the sprayer and pushes it down her body, off her breasts, over her belly down to her skirt. >Spray Carly's pussy You allow Carly to push your hand and the sprayer down between her legs. She pushes the skirt aside and, still holding your wrist, guides the sprayer to a spot about four inches below her spread thighs - and points it upward. The spray doesn't 'hit home' immediately, and you see the skirt fabric billowing and ballooning this way and that under the force of the pulsing spray. Then it falls calm - in stark contrast to Carly herself. She writhes and yelps with pleasure as the warm pulsing water smacks against her privates. She makes delicate adjustments to the position of the sprayer, heightening and amplifying the experience for herself. The presence of the skirt and her hand on yours makes this a fairly private pleasure for Carly, but you're pleased to be a part of it anyway, especially because she is almost continuously grinding her ass side to side against your cock. The water from the sprayer cascades down her legs, gathers at your feet and disappears down the drain. >remove shorts You allow Carly to take the sprayer, then let go of her and step back. She continues holding the shower head between her legs, moving it about, making little chirping "ooh!" sounds while looking at you with half-closed eyes. You quickly undo your shorts and pull them down, along with your boxers. You let them drop with a splat on the shower floor. "Mmm," she says, appreciating your now-naked body, "it's about time." She takes her foot down off the bench and turns to face you, transferring the sprayer to her right hand and holding it pointing at your legs below your knees. >Enter Carly from behind Carly reaches out to touch your penis, but you gently deflect her, and then, guiding her by the hips, turn her back around so you're behind her once again. You cuddle up behind her and press your body to hers, your arms crossing her chest and holding her breasts while your erect cock sticks between her thighs. She clamps her thighs on it and you slide back and forth a bit; her thighs are warm and wet and feel really soft and inviting. You let go of her breasts and reach down below her skirt and touch the backs of her thighs. She shivers, a chill coursing through her. You move your fingertips up until they're stationed at the spot where her thighs transition to her ass, and then you move several fingers under her ass and on to her pussy. Carly gasps, and spreads her legs, giving you a bit of room to maneuver. You push a fingertip into her and detect that she is extremely slick. Your cock is ragingly erect and is loudly asserting its needs. You take it and rub it forward and back over Carly's pussy lips a couple of times, then bend your knees so that you can point it upwards at her opening. You move up and forward and your breath escapes all at once as you feel yourself enter her. She squeals hoarsely, then turns her head to look at you. "You don't waste any time, do you?" she says, her voice sounding thick. Your only response is to hold her by her hips and to steadily move yourself deeply into her slick-wet vagina. >z Time passes... You hold as still as you can, holding your breath, your throbbing erection buried deep in Carly's pussy. You feel her body's every subtle movement transferred though the tautly-stretched skin of your cock. You even feel her vaginal muscles tense up and then slowly relax around you. Then you feel something else. The base of your penis and your scrotum is bombarded by a warm, wet pulse. You pull out almost all the way and feel the forceful vibrations caressing the head of your cock, and you begin to understand what the big deal is about vibrators. It feels shockingly good, like tiny jolts of electricity radiating out of your loins and through the center of your body. You remain still and concentrate on the feeling while Carly holds the sprayer close to her pussy and moves it slowly up and down and back and forth. She emits tiny gasps and short, private groans of pleasure. >Kiss Carly's neck You feel so close to Carly right now and almost without even thinking about it you bend your face to the side of her neck and kiss it hard, pressing your lips into her smooth flesh. She tosses her hair aside and tilts her head to allow you better access. You use your lips hard and your teeth gently and move up and down the side and back of her neck. All the while, she moves the sprayer back and forth across the junction between your cock and her pussy, and you and she both move gently back and forth. You slowly fuck her, enjoying everything: the solid wall of vibrating water and the welcoming inside-ness of her vagina, as well as the rest of her body pressing back against yours. >Palm Carly's tit/rub nipple You begin thrusting a bit more vigorously as you feel Carly's need growing. The sex is getting serious - more urgent. You cover Carly's breasts with your hands and feel her rigid nipples pressing into your palm. You pivot your hands and feel her nipples being pulled across your palms, eliciting a gasp from her. At the same time, you swivel your hips and try coming at her pussy from a subtly different angle. Every few thrusts you try to make this change. It doesn't make a sensational difference to you, but Carly appears to appreciate it - she reacts to each new position like you're entering her afresh, with a squealed "oh!" followed by an appreciative moaned "ooh, yeah!" She drops the shower hose, which clunks and bounces about on its own accord from the force of the spray from the head. Then, she apparently decides she needs to feel you closer to her because she turns around quickly and grabs you, mashing her chest into yours. Her arms wrap tightly around you, her hands gripping your ass and yours on hers. She presses her lips to yours hungrily, her tongue searching your mouth. You feel your erection pressing between you, compressed between your bellies. >Exit shower "Shall we go somewhere where we can get more comfortable," you ask Carly, "anytime I have sex standing up I feel like I'm in a porn movie." She laughs. "Sure, Phil, though I guess I never really noticed that before." She resets the shower head and turns off the water. Then the two of you step out of the shower. She grabs two towels, hands you one and rubs her hair with the other. >Dry Carly You take Carly's towel and fluff it, then you wrap it around her shoulders. You notice that a ton of water is dripping from her skirt. "May I?" you ask, tugging slightly at the soaking hem. "Sure," she responds. You kneel next to Carly, find the skirt's tiny waist clasp, undo it, then pull the skirt from her hips. You toss it into the shower, where it lands with a splat. Then, still kneeling, you take the towel and rub it up and down her legs. She spreads her thighs a bit and you slowly and carefully dry between them, nearly all the way to her mound. You take your time, enjoying your proximity to her. She turns, and now her ass is facing you. You dutifully dry it as well, being careful to collect the drops of water almost one by one. "Now these," she directs, and turns to face you and puts her hands under her breasts. You reach over and just as carefully dry her breasts. "Nicely done," she comments. "Shall we go to my bedroom?" She indicates the door and waits for you to agree. >Follow Carly Carly hangs up her towel. Does she intend to go out there totally nude? Does she intend you to? Your head swims! But then you follow her lead, hanging up your own towel. She opens the bathroom door and walks into the master bedroom with you behind her, your hands around her waist. Nicole is standing there. She gawps at the pair of you. The three of you freeze, not knowing quite what will happen. >Invite Nicole to watch You are the first one to regain your voice, possibly because Carly is between you and Nicole, so Nicole doesn't yet have a full view of your nudity. "I'm sorry, Nicole. Carly and I got carried away and we sort of ended up in the shower together. We were just going back to her room. Um, you can come and, well, watch us ... if you'd like..." "Step out from behind Carly," Nicole orders you. Moving slowly, you step to the side. Your erection, which was pressed into Carly's back, descends into view, a rigid cantilever projecting from your body. Nicole looks at you appraisingly, rather like she did when you first arrived at her door, but this time her eyes rest on your cock for several seconds. Finally, as if shaking off some internal cobwebs, she looks up and responds, "No, you two kids go have your fun. But leave the door open - I might just take you up on your invitation a little later." >Go to Carly's room Slightly guiltily and not without some embarrassment, you walk past Nicole, your arm wrapped around Carly's waist. You go out of the Master bedroom, through the upstairs corridor, and arrive in Carly's room. As Nicole instructed, you leave the door open. Carly's Room This is nominally the townhouse's spare bedroom or den, but it has been taken over by Carly, the au pair. The foldout bed is folded out. There's also a small dresser and nightstand and a television set. Carly's clothing and other belongings are somewhat haphazardly scattered about. "Do you really think Nicole will watch us?" You ask Carly. Carly shrugs. "I kind of hope so. She needs a bit of release, if you ask me. Her husband is constantly traveling. I think he's in Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok or somewhere like that." You and Carly sit on the uncomfortable fold-out bed. She puts her arms around you and pulls you for a kiss. > Finger Carly * * * Rules: To be the next player, please send an e-mail to aifsummer@gmail.com. I will select one player at random from all those who write in. The deadline for volunteering is the 5th day of each month. I will notify the selected player and invite them to begin playing. If the selected player does not respond in three days after I send the invitation, I will select someone else. The selected player will play until I decide that enough turns have lapsed. The number of turns may be an on-the-fly decision and will be fine-tuned as the game goes on. I’m interested in hearing what you think about this as the game progresses. If you have suggestions for how to make this a better feature, please write to me at the above address or at aifsubmissions@gmail.com.player. * * * AIF 101: Events by Johnny Freebase Editor’s note: We are re-publishing Johnny Freebase’s excellent AIF 101 tutorials that were originally posted on alt.games.xtrek. It’s our feeling that there are enough new community members who may not be aware of the existence of this guide. The tutorial was originally posted as a series of articles and we will maintain that construct here. This is the fourth installment. * * * We have characters. We have a setting. We have a plot. Now, all we need to do is make things happen. I use the word events here. Events are basically the things that happen in the game, weather initiated by the player or not. The first thing we should do is make a list of events... of what is going to happen. There are, more or less, three parts to every story. Three Acts. Act 1: Introduce the major characters Acclimate the player to setting Start the adventure with the protagonist's initial goal. Act 2: Complicate matters. Throw obstacles in the player's path. The lowest point for Our Hero. Goal Reversal. Act 3: Climax. Resolution. We'll list, as our first event, the intro. The intro can be done in many ways, from a block of text spelling things out for the player to an interactive scenario allowing the player to get used to the game. In any event, before the player enters his first command he should have a good idea of Who He Is and Where She Is... unless you actively don't want them to. Ideally, they should have some sort of goal, even if its only to get dressed and take a shower. THIS IS IMPORTANT: At no point should the player be without a goal! It can be as simple as going downstairs for breakfast, but unless exploring the game environment is a goal in and of itself, the player is going to get bored fast. The events that make up any given game are going to depend on the game itself, and its scope. Every event has two aspects, a trigger and an outcome. The trigger is whatever causes the event to occur, and the outcome is what happens. Your game may only have a linear series of events, each of which is encountered in order, or a matrix of events that can be triggered in any order. A flow chart helps immensely. Here's an example event: INTRO: TRIGGERED BY: Start of game Display introductory text. Tell who player is, describe kingdom. You can write the actual text now if you're in the mood, or wait until you're actually coding. If you plan to wait, just summarize it. So, lets figure out what we want to accomplish in Act I. Give player mission to find Princess Have player meet Prince, Queen, King, Sidekick, and Foil Eventually we want the PC to get his mission. At the start of the game, the Princess has not yet been kidnapped. We need an initial task to set the game in motion and reveal the nature of the characters. Okay... a royal ball. The player is attending a dreary royal ball, and is informed the Queen wishes to see him. He wanders about, encountering the principal characters (with the option to interact with them) until he finds the Queen (out on a balcony, or in the garden, or something.) EVENT 1: Triggered by: Finding Queen. She attempts to seduce you. The player can either resist or go with it, but then the Dragon attacks. EVENT 2: Triggered by: messing with the Queen, or refusing and leaving. There is an off screen ruckus... explosions, screams. EVENT 3: Triggered by: Player's return to ballroom. Player is hastily informed of events. Charged by King to rescue Princess, despite Prince's desire to send assassin/body guard. Sidekick sent along, as she got the best look at the dragon. At this point, the player has the goal of finding the Princess. Lets make a note to put the title screen here. Thats the end of Act 1. Act 2 will be filled with encounters which may or may not have anything to do with the Dragon and the Princess. For now, lets leave 3 blank spaces, and skip to: EVENT 7: Triggered by: The player catches up to the DRAGON and the PRINCESS. The player hears the gist of things from the fugitives, and must decide to let them go or take them in. EVENT 8A: Triggered by: Letting them go, escorting them to the port. The Prince's assassins have tracked them down. Player has to outwit them and protect the NPCs. EVENT 8B: Triggered by: Not letting them go, making camp. Sidekick, now Foil, helps them escape to tunnels leading to port city. Player has to follow, evading natural dangers and Dragon's traps, then show down with Dragon and Foil. EVENT 9A: Triggered by: Hiding in city with PRINCESS while SIDEKICK and DRAGON are out. Possible romantic interlude if you play your cards right. EVENT 9B: Triggered by: Capturing them, accepting PRINCESS'S body in exchange for freedom. Ends the game. You return empty handed, are disgraced, Prince ousts you. ACT 3 is the endgame. EVENT 10A: Triggered by: Escaping unharmed to boat. Assassin fights, wounding dragon. You MIGHT save him, if you go back for him (He's been cold to you the whole game) instead of helping SIDEKICK (who tells you to go, she can handle this!) EVENT 10B: Triggered by: Returning Princess unmolested. Given rank advancement by Prince, sex with Queen? EVENT 11A: Triggered by saving Dragon, didn't blow romantic interlude with Princess. 2nd Romantic interlude with Princess. GOOD ENDING: Triggered by end of 11A, skipping 11A You accompany Princess back to her homeland, possibly as her Champion/consort. So, there we have a basic event listing. You can develop events into scenes: Scene: Intro TEXT: You've never been terribly fond of royal balls, but as the King's Champion you are bound by both decorum and duty to attend. You hate the useless ceremonial armour you are forced to wear, hate the disgusting "gourmet" food they serve, and most of all, you hate the looks these soft courtiers give you, a battlefield veteran who earned his position not through an accident of birth but through the spilt blood of the kingdom's foes. You'd much rather be out in the rain drilling with the guard, performing maneuvers in the mud. Still, for now, you're a soldier, and you follow orders. You may have gone a bit grey, but you're not deaf and the painful whispers that you have passed your prime and should retire still reach your ears. You're determined to cling grimly to your title until one of the younger knights manages to wrest it from you at tourney, or until your body at last fails you. Your morbid musings are interrupted by a page. "Sir Jordan", he politely speaks. "Her majesty desires your presence." Player is in auxiliary ballroom with page. Player looks for QUEEN, encountering PRINCE, KING, SIDEKICK, PRINCESS, and ASSASSIN. Expository text whenever meeting new NPC. PRINCE snootily ignores NPC, maybe subtle jibes. KING is friendly, but senile, in main ballroom. SIDEKICK is awestruck and hero-worshipy, guarding PRINCESS. ASSASSIN is disrespectful and rude, talking with PRINCE. QUEEN is in secluded garden. Random other courtiers, a few guards So, as above, you can see we've added a minor NPC page, and probably a few minor npc Courtiers and guards. We have a few location ideas, a garden and a few ballrooms. We've also established some of the player's starting gear... a ceremonial breastplate. Note that I wrote some intro text… that isn't required at this stage, and it'llprobably be revised. Here's another scene. SCENE: Queen Seduction Scene begins with initial contact between Queen and PC Queen is lonely, wants to seduce PC. Queen is in secluded side garden Queen will greet PC seductively. Queen will be wearing elegant ball gown as befits the situation Queen's advances will grow bolder and bolder until PC either gives in or flees. As soon as either occurs, the dragon attack will commence. We could either work out the queen's plan of attack now, or leave it for later. * * * Game Reviews The Camping Trip, a review by Grimm Sharlak Game Info: The Camping Trip, released August 2006 Author: GoblinBoy Platform: TADS Size: 388KB (zipped) Content: m/f, f/f, m/f/f, voyeurism Game Type: Puzzle Length: Medium Reviewed: August 2006 Extras: None Basic Plot: Playing the role of a teenager who’s just completed his driving test, you, your friend Mike and your respective girlfriends, Becky and Melissa, head out on a camping trip. The lack of adult supervision gives you ideas for finally scoring with Becky, while Mike and Melissa seem to be all over each other! Things soon take a turn, however, as you and Mike enter a bet to see who can bed Becky first (just to encourage you, of course), with Melissa as fair game as well. The winner gets laid, the loser has to forfeit something to the winner… Overall Thoughts: GoblinBoy has made a worthy follow-up to The Baron’s Plot (although the real sequel is coming) with a game that while in a somewhat familiar setting; horny teens go off to camp, is an innovative and exciting game. Puzzles/Gameplay: Camping Trip is never too taxing, puzzle wise, and the game flows nicely. The camping area is small and self-contained, and most puzzles are solved by knowing what to ask – indicated by bolded text. As such, I was able to complete the game in quite an easy fashion, without any hold- ups to speak of. Sex: While some might think that having only two girls in the game would limit things, but there are number of interesting situations, and both girls are built up as being highly desirable throughout the course of the game, and not to mention that the end game rewards are great… Technical: The technical side of the game is handled well. The only bug I found (as this is version 1.3) was you could end up wearing both your swimming trunks and regular clothes at the same time. Not a problem except for in the game of spin the bottle, but still noticeable. Intangibles: The aforementioned spin the bottle game can get a bit grating, especially if you’re going for the alternate plotlines. The alternate plotlines, however, are handled well and I really enjoyed seeing them. Not to mention what happens if you choose to go to sleep at different times without anything interesting having happened with the girls yet… Final Thoughts: The Camping Trip, while short, is a fun little romp with a surprising amount of depth to it. Highly recommended. Rating: A Rodney and the Princess, a review by A. Bomire Name: Rodney and the Princess, released August 21, 2006 Author: Kaos Lord Platform: ADRIFT 4.0 Size: 9.6KB Content: m/f Game Type: Fantasy Length: Short Reviewed: August 2006 Basic Plot You are a warrior in a typical fantasy setting - armor clad and looking for a fight. You are searching for the missing Princess Fiona and doing battle with whatever evil creatures get in your way. Overall Thoughts The author points out that he was writing this game more-or-less to learn ADRIFT. In fact, he used the unregistered version of ADRIFT 4.0 which he mentions is why the game is so small (the unregistered version has a limit on game size). It all reads to me like the typical "first game" almost every author writes to simply feel out the writing process and a new language. As such, the game plays like you would expect a first game to play: minimal descriptions; very straightforward; almost no plot beyond the absolute minimum to get from the beginning to the end. Despite this, I found the game somewhat refreshing. Kaos Lord took the time to have his game beta-tested, despite it being a small, first try. When, after release, someone pointed out an error, he fixed it and released a new version almost immediately. And, he explains in his readme that he not only expects but welcomes (constructive) criticism. This, to me, sounds like an author who truly wants to create better games but doesn't yet have the tools and experience to do so. This is something to be encouraged. Puzzles/Game Play The game is short - very short. And linear - very linear. There are a couple of rooms beyond the minimal required to tell the story, but there is nothing to do or see within those rooms. The puzzles are also very simple - see the monster, kill the monster, move on. Let me offer some words of advice to Kaos Lord. First, unless you are content with creating mini-comp sized games, you should consider moving up to the full version of ADRIFT - either v4.0, or v3.9 if funding is a problem. Second, while there is nothing wrong with the room descriptions, you cannot examine any of the items within those rooms. This takes away from the immersive feeling of the game. To me, it is more enjoyable to see a pile of rags (for example) and search them myself, than to be told in the room description that I see the rags and search them. Even if there is nothing to be found. With regards to game play, the game put me in mind of those Dungeon & Dragons sessions I used to indulge in: a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl, with orcs and goblins falling before my mighty sword. At least, that is the image I assume Kaos Lord wanted to evoke. Some players will find that the orcs and goblins fall all too easily. A single sword thrust and they were dead, their bodies evaporating into smoke apparently as all that was left was their possessions. I usually find in-game combat to be annoying, as I dislike having the game outcome decided by chance. Even so, this combat seemed much too simple. Technical Kaos Lord mentions in his readme that the game was beta-tested, and it shows. I found a couple of minor things in the game but overall it played very cleanly. There were no game halting bugs (assuming you downloaded the latest version). The game displays random atmosphere messages from the Princess after you rescue her, and some of them are a little inappropriate (such as while combat is taking place, or saying "I don't feel like talking" while you are not talking to her), but those are pretty minor. Sex Yup, there's sex in this game. It isn't great, and it didn't put me to sleep. That's about all I can say about it. All of the princess's usual body parts are implemented and can be examined, but the protagonist is missing a very important piece. At least, it isn't examinable or addressable by command. This leaves out the usual handjob/blowjob scenes, which some players may miss. I mention it only for completeness, as it wasn't that big of an omission. Final Thoughts As was mentioned previously, this is a first game for this author. It offers a look into the humble beginnings of almost every author, who usually starts out writing a very simple game. Of course, most authors take that simple first game and throw it away (with good reason). Instead, Kaos Lord made the courageous (and yes, some will say foolish) choice of releasing it to the world and saying "Look it over, and tell me what I did wrong." I can't help but admire that. Rating: D+ * * * Erin! 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