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.
Your destination for Adult Interactive Fiction discussion
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Monday, 29 February 2016
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Random News - 19 January Edition
The first in a (hopefully) regular series
This week's piece of random news is that House Party by Eek Games entered beta a few days ago.
I found House Party to be notable for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's built with the Unity engine, so it actually looks like you'd imagine a 21st-century adult game to look (ie. a 3D environment with a first-person view). Secondly, unlike all the other graphical games I've seen on Patreon recently, the writing is actually halfway decent.
Of course, having only just entered beta, House Party is still pretty rough around the edges. The plot feels a bit random, and is completely linear (each problem can only be solved one way, even though other plausible solutions exist). The gameplay is mostly limited to finding objects and delivering them to other people. And, probably most importantly, there's very little content as of yet.
And that was the news for today.
If you have a piece of random AIF-related news that you'd like to share, please send it to editor.aifblog@gmail.com.
This week's piece of random news is that House Party by Eek Games entered beta a few days ago.
I found House Party to be notable for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's built with the Unity engine, so it actually looks like you'd imagine a 21st-century adult game to look (ie. a 3D environment with a first-person view). Secondly, unlike all the other graphical games I've seen on Patreon recently, the writing is actually halfway decent.
Of course, having only just entered beta, House Party is still pretty rough around the edges. The plot feels a bit random, and is completely linear (each problem can only be solved one way, even though other plausible solutions exist). The gameplay is mostly limited to finding objects and delivering them to other people. And, probably most importantly, there's very little content as of yet.
And that was the news for today.
If you have a piece of random AIF-related news that you'd like to share, please send it to editor.aifblog@gmail.com.
Thursday, 1 January 2015
And the winner is...
It gives me a great deal of pleasure to announce that the winner of the Badman Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award for 2014 is Purple Dragon!
Voting was very tight, but PD emerged the winner and enters the AIF Hall of Fame:
"For services to AIF and keeping the community alive."
"Instrumental in keeping the Erins alive for a while and also as a beta tester."
"For running the Minicomp for several years on Yahoo! groups, which I hope continues on in strong form."
"The AIF community was on its arse for a few years between 2009 and 2012. PD desperately held everything together, trying to manufacture content for the newsletter and organise the comps at a time when most people just sat on the forum asking when GoblinBoy was coming back. Finally, he fell on his own sword in a glorious sacrifice that galvanised the whole community into what it has now become. Thanks PD."
Honourable mention to A. Ninny, who pushed PD hard all the way and has to be a favourite for 2015:
"He created games to a high standard, was the foremost tester in the community and ran things like the newsletter. His games were also under-recognized at the time."
"The Sex Artist."
"What didn't A. Ninny do for AIF? His work was mostly behind-the-scenes, but it was significant none-the-less. As a beta-tester, he wasn't one of the best. In my opinion, he was THE best. I do a significant amount of beta-testing for AIF now, and his methodology and reporting style has influenced my own ever since he first tested one of my games. His tenure as editor of the AIF newsletter marked a significant improvement both in the newsletter itself, and in the website behind it. As far as games, he didn't author a bunch of games, but the ones he did were all good. He took on the challenge of writing a sequel to Moist by Scarlett Herring, a daunting task when you consider the esteem in which that game is held by most of the AIF community. While I can't in all honesty say that he surpassed the original, he did an excellent job in following it up. Lastly, if I'm not mistaken, it was his idea to actually host an Erin's awards show (of sort) at the ifMUD. Or, at least he organized it (as it may have been the result of discussion)."
If there had been an award for Best New Author of 2014, Palmer would have been a shoe-in
"Really great game implementing graphics and good story into one. Possibly may become the next GoblinBoy."
"He made a damn good game."
"For his successful attempt at bringing character development to a new level with ESA, while blogging about his experience and listening to and implementing player ideas."
"For his innovative game Emily - Sister Attraction."
"Because great game."
Those three were the clear frontrunners in this year's voting. Clustered behind them were a number of people, including one of the unsung heroes of AIF, Matrix Mole ("Quietly and selflessly providing storage & web hosting to the entire AIF community."). Alongside him, a number of retired authors also received much deserved recognition, including Adam Hendine ("While Adam's been silent for a long time his work was some of the first that got me into AIF and the games are still well-written, witty, and extremely sexy."), One-Eyed Jack ("OEJ is one of 'big names' in AIF history. As the once-prolific author of a classic series (Sam Shooter), he deserves to be honoured alongside past recipients of the award."), Lucilla Frost ("I vote for Lucilla Frost, she changed the way in which female PC's and authors were portrayed and, to the best of my knowledge, no-one has come even close to matching her, for her efforts."), and Vachon ("For his persistence").
Finally, big thank you to everyone who took the time to vote.
Addendum: after thinking it over, I realised it was a bit unfair of me not to repeat all of the comments, so here they are:
ArianeB
"Because it's a shame she doesn't have one yet!"
"The 4 games (Date Ariane, Ariane Blackjack, Something's In the Air, and the 10th anniversary Date Ariane update) are thoughtfully designed and reasonably well implemented.
Date Ariane is identified as 'the original HTML dating game' from which many, many others have drawn inspiration. Ariane Blackjack has not received much press since it was a fairly unimpressive, somewhat banal strip blackjack game. The RenPy effort, Something's in the Air, was quite an opus; good graphics, good stories, high degree of replay value with a bit of 'gotta catch 'em call' hooks built in (it was surprising how much effort everyone put in to find all possible endings and reveal all the character diary text for each of the major characters.)
Also, the sheer amount of effort that went into revamping Date Ariane into the 10th anniversary edition; especially with the effort that went into reinforcing the continuity between the revamp and the Something's in the Air storylines was quite impressive.
While other authors inspired by Ariane, like HTML dating game authors Chaotic and the team of Tlaero and Phreaky, may have produced more games in the same timeframe, the cookie cutter nature of their works pales in comparison to the techniques implemented by Ariane"
Lamont Sanford
"Three solid full length games (well, two) with graphics. Biggest contributor not on the list."
"Pleasantville and RTP are both excellent games with lots of replayability and good graphics."
One-Eyed Jack
"Creating one of the best damn series going"
"Great writing, fantastic humour, and the only one who has made multiple games that I return to that has *not* already won the award."
Sly Old Dog: "For Rachel's Bad Day :D"
And finally, a couple of people who'd already won the lifetime achievement award, but got votes anyway:
BBBen: "Is the last real AIF creator"
GoblinBoy: "School Dreams 3 is an amazing AIF game that raised the bar."
Voting was very tight, but PD emerged the winner and enters the AIF Hall of Fame:
"For services to AIF and keeping the community alive."
"Instrumental in keeping the Erins alive for a while and also as a beta tester."
"For running the Minicomp for several years on Yahoo! groups, which I hope continues on in strong form."
"The AIF community was on its arse for a few years between 2009 and 2012. PD desperately held everything together, trying to manufacture content for the newsletter and organise the comps at a time when most people just sat on the forum asking when GoblinBoy was coming back. Finally, he fell on his own sword in a glorious sacrifice that galvanised the whole community into what it has now become. Thanks PD."
Honourable mention to A. Ninny, who pushed PD hard all the way and has to be a favourite for 2015:
"He created games to a high standard, was the foremost tester in the community and ran things like the newsletter. His games were also under-recognized at the time."
"The Sex Artist."
"What didn't A. Ninny do for AIF? His work was mostly behind-the-scenes, but it was significant none-the-less. As a beta-tester, he wasn't one of the best. In my opinion, he was THE best. I do a significant amount of beta-testing for AIF now, and his methodology and reporting style has influenced my own ever since he first tested one of my games. His tenure as editor of the AIF newsletter marked a significant improvement both in the newsletter itself, and in the website behind it. As far as games, he didn't author a bunch of games, but the ones he did were all good. He took on the challenge of writing a sequel to Moist by Scarlett Herring, a daunting task when you consider the esteem in which that game is held by most of the AIF community. While I can't in all honesty say that he surpassed the original, he did an excellent job in following it up. Lastly, if I'm not mistaken, it was his idea to actually host an Erin's awards show (of sort) at the ifMUD. Or, at least he organized it (as it may have been the result of discussion)."
If there had been an award for Best New Author of 2014, Palmer would have been a shoe-in
"Really great game implementing graphics and good story into one. Possibly may become the next GoblinBoy."
"He made a damn good game."
"For his successful attempt at bringing character development to a new level with ESA, while blogging about his experience and listening to and implementing player ideas."
"For his innovative game Emily - Sister Attraction."
"Because great game."
Those three were the clear frontrunners in this year's voting. Clustered behind them were a number of people, including one of the unsung heroes of AIF, Matrix Mole ("Quietly and selflessly providing storage & web hosting to the entire AIF community."). Alongside him, a number of retired authors also received much deserved recognition, including Adam Hendine ("While Adam's been silent for a long time his work was some of the first that got me into AIF and the games are still well-written, witty, and extremely sexy."), One-Eyed Jack ("OEJ is one of 'big names' in AIF history. As the once-prolific author of a classic series (Sam Shooter), he deserves to be honoured alongside past recipients of the award."), Lucilla Frost ("I vote for Lucilla Frost, she changed the way in which female PC's and authors were portrayed and, to the best of my knowledge, no-one has come even close to matching her, for her efforts."), and Vachon ("For his persistence").
Finally, big thank you to everyone who took the time to vote.
Addendum: after thinking it over, I realised it was a bit unfair of me not to repeat all of the comments, so here they are:
ArianeB
"Because it's a shame she doesn't have one yet!"
"The 4 games (Date Ariane, Ariane Blackjack, Something's In the Air, and the 10th anniversary Date Ariane update) are thoughtfully designed and reasonably well implemented.
Date Ariane is identified as 'the original HTML dating game' from which many, many others have drawn inspiration. Ariane Blackjack has not received much press since it was a fairly unimpressive, somewhat banal strip blackjack game. The RenPy effort, Something's in the Air, was quite an opus; good graphics, good stories, high degree of replay value with a bit of 'gotta catch 'em call' hooks built in (it was surprising how much effort everyone put in to find all possible endings and reveal all the character diary text for each of the major characters.)
Also, the sheer amount of effort that went into revamping Date Ariane into the 10th anniversary edition; especially with the effort that went into reinforcing the continuity between the revamp and the Something's in the Air storylines was quite impressive.
While other authors inspired by Ariane, like HTML dating game authors Chaotic and the team of Tlaero and Phreaky, may have produced more games in the same timeframe, the cookie cutter nature of their works pales in comparison to the techniques implemented by Ariane"
Lamont Sanford
"Three solid full length games (well, two) with graphics. Biggest contributor not on the list."
"Pleasantville and RTP are both excellent games with lots of replayability and good graphics."
One-Eyed Jack
"Creating one of the best damn series going"
"Great writing, fantastic humour, and the only one who has made multiple games that I return to that has *not* already won the award."
Sly Old Dog: "For Rachel's Bad Day :D"
And finally, a couple of people who'd already won the lifetime achievement award, but got votes anyway:
BBBen: "Is the last real AIF creator"
GoblinBoy: "School Dreams 3 is an amazing AIF game that raised the bar."
Monday, 30 June 2014
This month in AIF (June 2014)
Rather a short post this month. The AIF Central subreddit is now open for business, and will hopefully become the
destination for AIF news, since it's far more accessible to new posters
than either Yahoo! or this blog. It also has the advantage of broadening
AIF's profile, which has already resulted in the 'discovery' of a new
game. So if you want to publicise a newly released game, gain feedback
for something or if you just have a random thought you want to
discuss, I encourage you to make use of the subreddit.
With the subreddit becoming the major AIF news source, it doesn't
make a lot of sense for me to write monthly summaries any more, especially since they're generally out of date by the time I write
them. A case in point is the release of Super PAC, which is June's main piece of news and happened three and a half weeks ago as I write this.
So, unless someone else decides that they want to take over the job, this is going to be the last monthly summary. Likewise, I'm not going to be automatically setting up posts to announce the release of new games either, although I certainly will on request.
ttfn
Saturday, 7 June 2014
AIF comes to reddit
Courtesy of jordanb716, we now have an AIF subreddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/AIFCentral/. Hopefully that should overcome the major weaknesses of the blog system, which is that if you want to post something gaining author access is pretty time consuming (since I have to manually approve everyone).
The AIF Central blog will still be here for longer and more detailed posts, but an AIF subreddit should make it easier to quickly share news.
The AIF Central blog will still be here for longer and more detailed posts, but an AIF subreddit should make it easier to quickly share news.
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
The month in AIF (May 2014)
May was an unusually busy month in the world of AIF. Both Emily: Sister Attraction by Palmer and the final version of Magician's Nephew by Mr Flibble were released, to widespread acclamation.
Emily was initially released as a demo last year, and Palmer has done a good job of both maintaining the level of interest that the demo generated and delivering on it with the finished product, which is probably the best incest-themed game in AIF history so far. Of course it doesn't hurt that Emily makes extensive use of graphics alongside a strong story.
Emily: Sister Attraction is for ADRIFT 5 and is available from http://palmeraif.weebly.com/games.html
Magician's Nephew was released as an open beta almost a year ago. The final version squashes a lot of bugs and adds some extra content for the ending. Perhaps because a lot of people had already played the beta, the final version didn't really receive the reception that it's ambition deserved, but it's an excellent and involving game and I encourage you to seek it out if you haven't already played it.
Magician's Nephew is for Inform 7 and is currently only available from the aifarchive Yahoo! group (where Mr Flibble has also kindly uploaded the source code).
On top of that, towards the end of the month two other authors announced that they had games ready for beta testing. One of them, Minterlint, has set up a blog to chronicle his game's development. Additionally, the first chapter of Pervert Action: Origins by EFon, a three chapter CYOA prequel to BBBen's Pervert Action series, was released and can be found here.
In other news, this year's AIF Minicomp was formally announced. The deadline this year is July 14, 2014. Full rules can be found here.
As usual, if there are any news items we've missed, let us know via email or the comments below.
Emily was initially released as a demo last year, and Palmer has done a good job of both maintaining the level of interest that the demo generated and delivering on it with the finished product, which is probably the best incest-themed game in AIF history so far. Of course it doesn't hurt that Emily makes extensive use of graphics alongside a strong story.
Emily: Sister Attraction is for ADRIFT 5 and is available from http://palmeraif.weebly.com/games.html
Magician's Nephew was released as an open beta almost a year ago. The final version squashes a lot of bugs and adds some extra content for the ending. Perhaps because a lot of people had already played the beta, the final version didn't really receive the reception that it's ambition deserved, but it's an excellent and involving game and I encourage you to seek it out if you haven't already played it.
Magician's Nephew is for Inform 7 and is currently only available from the aifarchive Yahoo! group (where Mr Flibble has also kindly uploaded the source code).
On top of that, towards the end of the month two other authors announced that they had games ready for beta testing. One of them, Minterlint, has set up a blog to chronicle his game's development. Additionally, the first chapter of Pervert Action: Origins by EFon, a three chapter CYOA prequel to BBBen's Pervert Action series, was released and can be found here.
In other news, this year's AIF Minicomp was formally announced. The deadline this year is July 14, 2014. Full rules can be found here.
As usual, if there are any news items we've missed, let us know via email or the comments below.
Monday, 12 May 2014
AIF Minicomp 2014
AIF Minicomp 2014 is go!
Reposted from the Yahoo! aifarchive group:
Well, it seems like we might have some interest in the comp after all so let's go ahead and do it. We'll make the deadline July 14th, which gives all would-be authors exactly 2 months to get their games ready. The full rules for the comp are listed below. You can also read them on the 2014 mini-comp page I just added to the newsletter website here.
Reposted from the Yahoo! aifarchive group:
Well, it seems like we might have some interest in the comp after all so let's go ahead and do it. We'll make the deadline July 14th, which gives all would-be authors exactly 2 months to get their games ready. The full rules for the comp are listed below. You can also read them on the 2014 mini-comp page I just added to the newsletter website here.
Thursday, 1 May 2014
This month in AIF (April 2014)
April is over (in my part of the world at least) and it was another quiet month for the AIF community, with no games being released. That's not to say that there's been no activity, as to my knowledge there are at least four games currently in testing. However, I'd counsel caution to anyone hoping for a deluge of games in May. Beta testing always takes longer than you think (at least if it's done right), and real life has a way of intervening.
We're also heading into what used to be Minicomp season, although the Minicomp has been held later and later in recent years. No official announcement has yet been made, but if you were intending to enter the Minicomp this year, now would be an excellent time to start work on your entry (if you haven't already).
Elsewhere in the wider world of AIF, over at Shark's Lagoon BobbyTally has released a demo of Room 112, a dating game that he's developing. Unlike most dating games, rather than being predominantly HTML, it's written in JavaScript. Graphically it's quite impressive, although I'm not sure how many university students dress up in a halter top and tie for a study session. English isn't the author's first language so some of the writing is a bit wonky, but if that doesn't bother you I'd encourage you to check it out (http://www.the-new-lagoon.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3207) and give BobbyTally your feedback.
Did anything AIF-related happen in April that we've missed? If so, leave a comment below.
If you have something to say that won't fit in a comment box (or two), why not email editor.aifblog@gmail.com and ask for author access?
We're also heading into what used to be Minicomp season, although the Minicomp has been held later and later in recent years. No official announcement has yet been made, but if you were intending to enter the Minicomp this year, now would be an excellent time to start work on your entry (if you haven't already).
Elsewhere in the wider world of AIF, over at Shark's Lagoon BobbyTally has released a demo of Room 112, a dating game that he's developing. Unlike most dating games, rather than being predominantly HTML, it's written in JavaScript. Graphically it's quite impressive, although I'm not sure how many university students dress up in a halter top and tie for a study session. English isn't the author's first language so some of the writing is a bit wonky, but if that doesn't bother you I'd encourage you to check it out (http://www.the-new-lagoon.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3207) and give BobbyTally your feedback.
Did anything AIF-related happen in April that we've missed? If so, leave a comment below.
If you have something to say that won't fit in a comment box (or two), why not email editor.aifblog@gmail.com and ask for author access?
Saturday, 1 March 2014
This month in AIF (February 2014)
February saw the release of 2014's first AIF game, Study Date by Karrek. It's been very postively received so in the unlikely event that you haven't played it yet, I encourage you to check it out. The game is being discussed (including links to the latest version) at the following locations:
http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/study-date-v09-by-karrek.html
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aifarchive/conversations/topics/21443
http://www.the-new-lagoon.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3155
Archer Fifteen has also announced that he has a new game in development, X-Men: Amnesia. You can find all the details at http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/development-diary-x-men-amnesia.html. THK has also released an updated version of his 2012 game Another Friday Party 2.
On the technical side of things, Another Wannabe has released a new version of his AIF Toolkit extension for Inform 7. Details can be found at http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/aif-toolkit-v052.html.
As far as this blog goes, there were thirteen posts in February, and the blog got 25,918 pageviews. Overlooked AIF Games 2 and the Study Date thread led the charge with more than a thousand pageviews each.
If there's anything else newsworthy that we've missed, please leave a comment below. And if you'd like author access, send an email to editor.aifblog@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/study-date-v09-by-karrek.html
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aifarchive/conversations/topics/21443
http://www.the-new-lagoon.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3155
Archer Fifteen has also announced that he has a new game in development, X-Men: Amnesia. You can find all the details at http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/development-diary-x-men-amnesia.html. THK has also released an updated version of his 2012 game Another Friday Party 2.
On the technical side of things, Another Wannabe has released a new version of his AIF Toolkit extension for Inform 7. Details can be found at http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/aif-toolkit-v052.html.
As far as this blog goes, there were thirteen posts in February, and the blog got 25,918 pageviews. Overlooked AIF Games 2 and the Study Date thread led the charge with more than a thousand pageviews each.
If there's anything else newsworthy that we've missed, please leave a comment below. And if you'd like author access, send an email to editor.aifblog@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Sunday, 2 February 2014
The month in AIF (January 2014)
January was a fairly quiet month for AIF. Two games (Magician's Nephew by Mr Flibble, and Emily: Sister Attraction by Palmer) are in beta testing. Two other games (Erin's Rescue by Scion of Eros, and Friends and Yearnings by Lost Trout) have been announced.
As far as this blog goes, there were ten posts in January, getting 6814 pageviews. There have been some discussions on the open thread regarding what this blog should be called, and what it should look like. At the moment "AIF Central" seems to be the most popular title. If you have any suggestions, head over there and leave a comment.
If there's anything else newsworthy that we've missed, please leave a comment below. And if you'd like author access, send an email to editor.aifblog@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
As far as this blog goes, there were ten posts in January, getting 6814 pageviews. There have been some discussions on the open thread regarding what this blog should be called, and what it should look like. At the moment "AIF Central" seems to be the most popular title. If you have any suggestions, head over there and leave a comment.
If there's anything else newsworthy that we've missed, please leave a comment below. And if you'd like author access, send an email to editor.aifblog@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
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