Here is the proposed schedule for the AIF Writing Salon. Authors will have three months to put together their work for the AIF Fest. There will be weekly events that will guide new authors through the process of creating a small game with a single sex scene. Experienced authors are welcome to post progress about their own works at these events too.
May 1-7 - Pitch your story ideas
Have an idea for an erotic adventure? Have a steamy sex scene that you want to write down? Have you ever wanted to 'ship your favorite fictional characters? Pitch your ideas and get feedback from others. We'll spend time talking about how to flesh out concepts and simplify ideas.
May 8-14 - Choose an engine
If you want to program interactive sex, you need a game engine to run in. Discuss your choices or come get advice about your options. Choose one, install it, and start it up.
May 15-21 - Introductions
Every AIF game needs a sex scene. We're going to concentrate on writing a game with only one sex scene first. Later, more chapters can be added on to create a longer work. Choose one sex scene from your game and write an introduction that summarizes everything in your story leading up to that sex scene. Post these teasers to get feedback and to generate excitement about your full game.
May 22-28 - Program that introduction
Cut & paste that introduction into your game. When you start your game, that introduction should appear, drawing players into the story.
May 29-June 4 - Room descriptions
When your game starts, the player needs to know where he or she is. Establish the setting. Write a paragraph describing where the sex scene takes place. Is it an empty room, or do you want to have interactive objects in the room too?
June 5-11 - Program the room description
Add the room description to your game so that players can look around.
June 12-18 - Character description
Write descriptions for the player and partner. What do they look like? What are they wearing? What do they look like naked? Do you want to let players examine individual body parts?
June 19-25 - Program the character descriptions
Add character descriptions to your game so that characters can be looked at.
June 26-July 2 - Sex transcript
Write a sample playthrough of your sex scene. List the commands that a player will do and write the responses that will happen. Think about alternate commands that the player might try.
July 3-9 - Program the transcript
It's time to get interactive! Add the commands from your sex transcript into your game. You should be able to play through your game now.
July 10-31 - Fleshing things out
Now that you have a playable game, it's time to flesh things out. Add more commands to your game. Add extra rooms. Add puzzles and plot. Add a conclusion.
What do you think? Does this schedule seem reasonable?
Your destination for Adult Interactive Fiction discussion
Wednesday, 30 March 2016
Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Open Thread: Authors and AIF Engines
There have been a few times on this blog were people have discussed the pros and cons of the different engines available for AIF, but I don't think we've had a thread directly about the topic
So I thought I'd address that: Authors (whether you have ever finished/released a game or not) why do you use the engine that you do? Have you tried others? What features do you like about the one you are using.
BTW, this thread is not about neutrality, this is about personal opinion. Why have you made the choice that you have?
So I thought I'd address that: Authors (whether you have ever finished/released a game or not) why do you use the engine that you do? Have you tried others? What features do you like about the one you are using.
BTW, this thread is not about neutrality, this is about personal opinion. Why have you made the choice that you have?
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Idea for AIF Writing Salon and Minifest
Here is my current thinking about the AIF Writing Salon and Minifest. Or perhaps a more accurate description would be Mini-Writing Salon and AIF-fest.
As part of moving the focus away from winners and towards writers, I think the core of the event will be modeled after a game jam. Writers will be encouraged to start working at the start of May. At the end of July, I'll gather all the completed games, and we can have a Minifest where people can download all the games and talk about them. It will be a celebration of all the games that were finished. Since there won't be a competition, there will be no voting. If people are really interested in awards, I'm sure some sort of award for "AIF Short" can be added to the Erins next year. Since there won't be a competition, there also won't be any rules except for "don't ruin things for other people." If someone wants to take their 100 room mega-game that they've been working on for the last three years and offer it as part of the Minifest, that's fine. Unlike the Minicomp, you can talk about and share your games before the deadline. In fact, I encourage you do that. Although the Minifest will be modeled after game jams, I will try to avoid using game jam terminology. The AIF community has always had its roots in the fan fiction and IF communities. Its strengths has always been in its writing. There are many things that are hard to implement as a game, but very easy to implement with writing. I want to see if we can draw more writers into the community who are interested in dabbling with interactivity. So from now on, I'll try to describe the event as a NaNoWriMo for AIF, but you'll all know what I mean.
Running simultaneously from May to July will be the AIF Writing Salon. This will be like the Iowa Writers' Workshop but with more sex. The AIF Writing Salon will also not take place in Iowa, will not involve top writers, and will not be a rigorous graduate program. Actually, now that I think about it, the AIF Writing Salon will not be like the Iowa Writers' Workshop at all. In fact, I think the Iowa Writers' Workshop probably has more sex than us too.
What the AIF Writing Salon will be is a series of weekly events where authors can talk about their progress on their works. Each event will have a suggested thing to bring, like a room description, or a description of naked people, or a transcript of a sex session. If new authors keep pace with all the events, they should end up with a simple "One Night With..." AIF game at the end. As part of the no rules thing, everyone is welcome to participate at any time. You can jump in and jump out of events as you wish. If you only want feedback on your room descriptions, then you can participate in only the Room Descriptions event. If you think the events are moving too slowly, then you can speed along at your own pace. It's meant to be a fun weekly gathering where you can get feedback on your ideas and see how a work of AIF comes together. I will try my best to give some comments to anyone who submits anything to these events. The first few weeks will focus on concept. Basically, you'll pitch your story ideas, and everyone will tell you that you're being too ambitious and that you should simplify your ideas. You'll disagree, and we'll argue about this for several weeks until you realize that you're wrong. The next few weeks will alternate between writing and programming. The events will focus on different parts of a one-room sex scene, so by the end, you should have all the pieces needed to put together a simple AIF. Then there will be a few weeks at the end where you can focus on adding more elements to your AIF to turn them into fuller works.
Thoughts? Do these sound like the sorts of events that you would be interested in joining?
As part of moving the focus away from winners and towards writers, I think the core of the event will be modeled after a game jam. Writers will be encouraged to start working at the start of May. At the end of July, I'll gather all the completed games, and we can have a Minifest where people can download all the games and talk about them. It will be a celebration of all the games that were finished. Since there won't be a competition, there will be no voting. If people are really interested in awards, I'm sure some sort of award for "AIF Short" can be added to the Erins next year. Since there won't be a competition, there also won't be any rules except for "don't ruin things for other people." If someone wants to take their 100 room mega-game that they've been working on for the last three years and offer it as part of the Minifest, that's fine. Unlike the Minicomp, you can talk about and share your games before the deadline. In fact, I encourage you do that. Although the Minifest will be modeled after game jams, I will try to avoid using game jam terminology. The AIF community has always had its roots in the fan fiction and IF communities. Its strengths has always been in its writing. There are many things that are hard to implement as a game, but very easy to implement with writing. I want to see if we can draw more writers into the community who are interested in dabbling with interactivity. So from now on, I'll try to describe the event as a NaNoWriMo for AIF, but you'll all know what I mean.
Running simultaneously from May to July will be the AIF Writing Salon. This will be like the Iowa Writers' Workshop but with more sex. The AIF Writing Salon will also not take place in Iowa, will not involve top writers, and will not be a rigorous graduate program. Actually, now that I think about it, the AIF Writing Salon will not be like the Iowa Writers' Workshop at all. In fact, I think the Iowa Writers' Workshop probably has more sex than us too.
What the AIF Writing Salon will be is a series of weekly events where authors can talk about their progress on their works. Each event will have a suggested thing to bring, like a room description, or a description of naked people, or a transcript of a sex session. If new authors keep pace with all the events, they should end up with a simple "One Night With..." AIF game at the end. As part of the no rules thing, everyone is welcome to participate at any time. You can jump in and jump out of events as you wish. If you only want feedback on your room descriptions, then you can participate in only the Room Descriptions event. If you think the events are moving too slowly, then you can speed along at your own pace. It's meant to be a fun weekly gathering where you can get feedback on your ideas and see how a work of AIF comes together. I will try my best to give some comments to anyone who submits anything to these events. The first few weeks will focus on concept. Basically, you'll pitch your story ideas, and everyone will tell you that you're being too ambitious and that you should simplify your ideas. You'll disagree, and we'll argue about this for several weeks until you realize that you're wrong. The next few weeks will alternate between writing and programming. The events will focus on different parts of a one-room sex scene, so by the end, you should have all the pieces needed to put together a simple AIF. Then there will be a few weeks at the end where you can focus on adding more elements to your AIF to turn them into fuller works.
Thoughts? Do these sound like the sorts of events that you would be interested in joining?
Thursday, 3 March 2016
AIF Writing Salon?
While reading the comments of one of the other posts, I noticed that someone suggested an AIF Writing Salon event. That sounded like a great idea. I've decided that I would like to run such an event. I'm aiming for the May-July timeframe.
Whereas contests focus on producing winners, the AIF Writing Salon will focus on producing writers. I have a few ideas for how to organize one. I'm interested in hearing other people's ideas first. What sort of event would help get you writing? How many of you are interested in participating in such an event? Obviously, we need writers but we also need people willing to give constructive feedback to the writers. Feedback is one of the main motivators for getting writers to share their work, so an AIF Writing Salon will need people willing to give some feedback for all the writers.
Whereas contests focus on producing winners, the AIF Writing Salon will focus on producing writers. I have a few ideas for how to organize one. I'm interested in hearing other people's ideas first. What sort of event would help get you writing? How many of you are interested in participating in such an event? Obviously, we need writers but we also need people willing to give constructive feedback to the writers. Feedback is one of the main motivators for getting writers to share their work, so an AIF Writing Salon will need people willing to give some feedback for all the writers.
Monday, 29 February 2016
Leap Day Open Thread: Time
Earlier we had the Valentine's Day Open Thread. Leap Year gave me another idea for one (I doubt this will be able to continue to any future holidays).
How important is time in AIF?
Games (not just AIF) can be criticized for everything seeming to stand still while the player runs around and does everything he wishes. Most AIF is like this where the other characters stand still while the player controls the actions.
Some though give more of a sense of time passing while the player moves about. Other characters move, surroundings change, and the player doesn't have infinite time to peak under every object.
In my attempts at authoring games I can say adding in other factors that respond to time passing increase the design difficulty substantially. Instead of one moving piece you have many. So, is that extra headache worthwhile for authors? Does a sense of time passing make for a better AIF? What are some of the best ways that authors can create a sense of time passing around the player?
Or does none of this matter and when given a situation with limited time you just undo/save scum until you get the perfect combination?
How important is time in AIF?
Games (not just AIF) can be criticized for everything seeming to stand still while the player runs around and does everything he wishes. Most AIF is like this where the other characters stand still while the player controls the actions.
Some though give more of a sense of time passing while the player moves about. Other characters move, surroundings change, and the player doesn't have infinite time to peak under every object.
In my attempts at authoring games I can say adding in other factors that respond to time passing increase the design difficulty substantially. Instead of one moving piece you have many. So, is that extra headache worthwhile for authors? Does a sense of time passing make for a better AIF? What are some of the best ways that authors can create a sense of time passing around the player?
Or does none of this matter and when given a situation with limited time you just undo/save scum until you get the perfect combination?
Random News - 1 March Edition
The second in a (hopefully) regular series.
Today's piece of random news is to draw your attention to Night Games by Silver Bard Games, which has been around for a while but was recently added to Patreon.
Night Games is a Java game where the PC is a college student who is invited to an underground sexfighting competition. It's not really AIF in the traditional sense, being more of an RPG/dating sim hybrid.
Silver Bard Games website: http://www.silverbardgames.com/
Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/silverbardgames
Forum thread: https://fenoxo.com/forum/
Thank you to Octarine Flash for providing today's random piece of news!
If you have a piece of random AIF-related news that you'd like to share, please send it to editor.aifblog@gmail.com.
Today's piece of random news is to draw your attention to Night Games by Silver Bard Games, which has been around for a while but was recently added to Patreon.
Night Games is a Java game where the PC is a college student who is invited to an underground sexfighting competition. It's not really AIF in the traditional sense, being more of an RPG/dating sim hybrid.
Silver Bard Games website: http://www.silverbardgames.com/
Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/silverbardgames
Forum thread: https://fenoxo.com/forum/
Thank you to Octarine Flash for providing today's random piece of news!
If you have a piece of random AIF-related news that you'd like to share, please send it to editor.aifblog@gmail.com.
Sunday, 14 February 2016
Valentine’s Day Open Thread: AIF and Love
Being it is Valentine’s Day I thought I would ask: what are your thoughts on love in AIF? By this I mean what impact does a believable
intimate relationship between the player and a character(s) add to the game. AIF
has sex, but do those sex scenes become better if the characters have developed
a deeper relationship?
Feel free to give your opinion on the topic, but some
suggested questions to answer:
Does a believable relationship add a lot to a game, a
little, or is it unnecessary?
What are some things authors have done/can do to make great
relationships in AIF?
What elements of AIF detract from believable relationships?
What is your favorite AIF relationship?
Monday, 8 February 2016
The Erins: 2015 - Results!
The results of the 2015 Erins can now be announced!
The top three places in
each category are listed below, together with honourable mentions (listed
alphabetically) for any else who got a significant number of votes.
NB. some feedback
comments have been lightly edited.
----------
Game
of the Year
(117 votes)
1st – Working Man by Ice
2nd- The Lost Hound by Palaverous
3rd – Let Me In by BBBen
Honourable mention: Teacher's Pet by Dr Realgood
Working Man
"It's complete,
it's functional and has the right blend between storyline and puzzles. A very
pleasing first effort."
"Lots of options,
PC is male, game has pictures, technically works fine, hot sex scenes, well
written, good story. This game was the only one in the list to have it all."
"The amount of
content was pretty staggering for a first game, it was virtually bug-free, and
it had great writing and interesting characters. Just a fantastic debut for Ice
and hopefully he continues to develop AIF."
"The bad endings in
Working Man were great. If only things turned out that way in real life..."
"It has a good
storyline, multiple choices and the fact that it has pictures inserted is a big
plus."
The Lost Hound
"I'm a fan of the
more traditional text heavy AIF games (Newkid, A Bomire) so I enjoyed the
excellent writing."
"Shows how one can create a great game even without images."
"The Lost Hound was
a masterpiece, Palaverous is a new GoblinBoy"
"Though the
fighting system seemed mostly a love it or hate it, the amount of content was
great. The sexual encounters as well as the locations were all varied. It was
also nice to see a bit of build-up / growth in the NPC Aura."
"The Lost Hound may
not be perfect but it's the best text-based AIF game in a while. The story is
bonkers but interesting, the characters and the world are varied and
surprising, the game challenges (once it gets going - the combat thing is a bit
annoying) are fun, it's technically very sound, the writing is great."
Let Me In
"BBBen's game
"Let Me In" really deserves more recognition than it has received as
being one of the truly original games in a good long while"
----------
Best
New Author
(104 votes)
1st – Ice
2nd – Palaverous
3rd – Dr Realgood
Honourable mention:
BeanBean
Ice
"He created the
best game of the year, what else can I say?"
"Ice reminds me of
my favorite AIF author, GoblinBoy, in how his game looks and plays, so that
makes him a top choice for me. As such, I really, really look forward to any
future games he does now."
"Ice took stories
not at all new to AIF, but did a good job at presenting them in entertaining
ways. The art was well done and the variations of what you could do added
either a bit of replay or some retrying as you learned the consequences of your
actions. A lot of fun!"
Palaverous
"Palaverous gets
this vote, the writing was by far the best thus giving you the best mental
image. Graphics are all well and good in a game, (I use them myself) but the
art of writing in such a way that it provides a clear mental image has to be
applauded. Palaverous did this exceptionally well."
"Palaverous did a
great job with the number of things stuffed into the game by trying to give it
some variation and seemed to have a lot of fun with it. The game held together
nicely as a whole and a lot of effort was put into testing before release."
"The Lost Hound is
an amazingly well realised first game... also, I should say, the only
new-author one that I didn't find bugs or obvious design flaws in. It doesn't feel like a first game, it
references other games but doesn't feel like an imitation."
Dr
Realgood
"I felt that the
writing and artistic talent of Dr. Realgood was definitely promising. I just
wish he gave the game more time and effort to flesh it out into a more fun and
complete game"
"Dr Realgood showed
some real promise. The game was a huge jump from his previous entry into the Minicomp.
After dealing with reworking the artwork all over, it came out wonderfully -
much better than his original vision - and made for a good time. The quiz left
some with a bad taste in their mouth, but once beyond it most people seemed to
enjoy what was there, their only complaint left that they wanted more!"
----------
Best
Character
(58 votes; 4 invalid)
1st – Stephanie (Working
Man)
2nd= - Sharon (Working
Man)
2nd= - Twyla (Let Me In)
Honourable mention: Aura
(The Lost Hound)
Stephanie
"Stephanie just
comes off as a genuinely likable character, is written well, and also is very
attractive-looking."
"She's believable
with the right amount of innocence/naughty curiousness that makes her feel
real. Her model is easy on the eyes as well."
Twyla
"Twyla is a bit of
a one off, she is pretty, smart and thick as shit all at the same time. She is
funny for one in such a small game, but I like her and that's that!!"
Aura
"It was nice to see
somewhat gradual build-up and a touch of growth in Aura. It may not be the most
complex character, but in AIF it was a nice change of pace and fit the
story-like progression the game made vs. the usual (but still loads of fun!)
"find an item so we can screw" setup."
"She was a sexy
inaccessible character, which made the end goal something to really go for"
----------
Best
Sex Scene
(54 votes; 7 invalid)
1st – PC/Stephanie
(Working Man)
2nd – PC/Crystal/Tiffany
(Working Man)
3rd – PC/Lisa (Teacher's
Pet)
Honourable mention:
PC/Sharon (Working Man)
PC/Stephanie
"I liked this one
because of the build-up to it throughout the game. It requires you to
"work" for it (no pun intended) by being nice to Stephanie throughout
your encounters as well as some good ol' fashioned seduction, but it just felt
really exciting leading up to it. The writing was great, and as a player I felt
just as excited as the player character when Stephanie asks you to go all the
way with her. Just an all-around really satisfying gameplay branch from
beginning to end. The sex scene itself is also very interactive and detailed,
but also realistic as well (considering you're taking someone's virginity it
makes sense that you don't do any kinky stuff or anal)."
----------
The
Badman Memorial Award
This year's winner is…. A.Ninny!
"Though I had
another name or two in mind, it seems almost criminal that A. Ninny isn't
already established in the list. Hopefully there are enough dwelling from the
past that recognize the work put in (or hear about it from said dwellers), as I
would hate for Ninny to be forgotten in time."
"He released really
good games and contributed a lot to the community."
"He made a number
of good games, including The Sex Artist (a personal favourite of mine) and won
4 Erins (and 10 second places) for them. However, it's what
he did for the community that deserves recognition. Beta-testing (for which he
won two Erins), organising the Minicomp in 2006 and 2007, and most
impressively, editing Inside Erin for three years."
----------
Final
Comments
Firstly, a big thank you
to everyone who took the time to vote, and congratulations to this year's
winners.
There were 118 votes
cast this year, which is a little disappointing given that there were 147 votes
last time. Any suggestions for increasing participation would be welcome.
As suggested last time,
'Best Character' and 'Best Sex Scene' were added as categories. With the
benefit of hindsight, it would have been better to have some kind of nomination
process beforehand. The write-in vote attracted about half as many people, and
their votes were spread over a large number of candidates (18 for Best
Character, and 20 for Best Sex Scene).
Thursday, 4 February 2016
Game Release: The Aftermath
I have just released my second game, a mini-sequel to The Lost Hound written in TADS. I'll keep this brief since I wrote a longer introduction elsewhere, which you can read along with the download link over here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/game-release-4329557
Enjoy!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/game-release-4329557
Enjoy!
Monday, 25 January 2016
AIF Game List update
Just to let everyone know, AIF Community Newsletter Games List has been updated from 354 games on July 3, 2013 to 394 games as of January 24, 2016. 41 games were added, one was deleted. Also, with the loss of the aifgames site, many of the links had to be rehabilitated, so hopefully links will be good for a while.
I took the liberty of changing the default sort to descending date so that the most recent games are near the top. Assuming you have javascript turned on, you can still click on the headers and re-sort by title, author, or even the various content classifications. If I inadvertently left an important AIF game off the list, let me know. I plan to do a touch-up to the list around Valentine's Day. Also, if any data point on this list needs addition or correction, you can email garyplume on standard yahoo domain with the title of the game and the updated info.
Things already on my to-do list for the Valentine's update:
Another Friday Part 2 link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/adrift/Version_5.0/AFP2_GAME.zip
Briar version 2 link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/inform/Briar.v2.zip
In Darkness pictorial version link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/tads/tads_2/In_Darkness1.1.zip
Leather Goddesses of Phobos link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/inform/Leather_Goddesses_of_Phobos.zip
Maybe disaggregate the minicomp games into discrete downloads
Gary Plume
I took the liberty of changing the default sort to descending date so that the most recent games are near the top. Assuming you have javascript turned on, you can still click on the headers and re-sort by title, author, or even the various content classifications. If I inadvertently left an important AIF game off the list, let me know. I plan to do a touch-up to the list around Valentine's Day. Also, if any data point on this list needs addition or correction, you can email garyplume on standard yahoo domain with the title of the game and the updated info.
Things already on my to-do list for the Valentine's update:
Another Friday Part 2 link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/adrift/Version_5.0/AFP2_GAME.zip
Briar version 2 link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/inform/Briar.v2.zip
In Darkness pictorial version link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/tads/tads_2/In_Darkness1.1.zip
Leather Goddesses of Phobos link is broken http://www.aifcommunity.org/games/inform/Leather_Goddesses_of_Phobos.zip
Maybe disaggregate the minicomp games into discrete downloads
Gary Plume
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