Discussing interactive fiction: reading, writing, playing, crafting, implementing.
Text Club, March 2017 -- 'Midnight. Swordfight.', 'Secret Agent Cinder', 'Magical Makeover'
Welcome to the first month of Text Club! (FAQ) Our three games this month are:
Midnight. Swordfight
by Chandler Groover, 2015, ifdb
Play online: http://www.castleprincessdragon.com/InteractiveFiction/MS/play.html
Or download the .gblorb story file on the ifdb.tads.org page linked above. You have several options for interpreters to run that .gblorb file. Lectrote by Andrew Plotkin is really easy to get going and runs on Windows/Mac/Linux - https://github.com/erkyrath/lectrote/releases
(If anyone has another suggestion for standard interpreters we should link, please holler out!)
Secret Agent Cinder
by Emily Ryan, 2015, ifdb
Play online: http://emilyryan.se/cinder/secret-agent-cinder.html
Magical Makeover
by S. Woodson, 2014, ifdb
Play online: http://www.philome.la/Citrushistrix/magical-makeover-v2/play
Notes:
I sort of cribbed these from Emily Short's recent post on Rock, Paper, Shotgun called "Dressed for the Party. (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/02/15/if-onlycostumes-disguises-games/), plus "Midnight. Swordfight.", which seems thematically related and is a really interesting one I've been eager to spend more time with. Her notes about these games (and her column there, + her blog at https://emshort.blog/) are definitely worth reading!
So let's go on and get into it! In order to give everyone time to fit the games into our various schedules, we'll hold off on substantive discussion until the last week of the month -- the week starting March 26th. Meanwhile do feel free to use this thread to ask+answer any more technical questions about how to get going or how to get unstuck, and share any resources you think might be useful while playing.




I hope it's okay that I added 4 game suggestions to the wish list... I went to add one and then got overexcited and added three more in case you want to compare three works by the same author in the same fictional universe (but using three different systems). If I've jumped in too quickly feel free to delete them (of course).
no that's great, thanks! good idea on the extra data too (rough length/notes), i added column headings for those
I played through Secret Agent Cinder a couple of times. Has anyone gotten different endings yet, or is it the same ending just with different achievement stats?
<aside>Is this level of discussion appropriate for this thread, or should we wait until the end of month? :)</aside>I haven't gotten to Cinder yet, but with regards to your aside/second Q -- yeah I think that kind of discussion looking for info & assistance while playing thru makes sense here!
I haven't found any ending besides the one, although I'm having trouble getting all the stars at once. I'm not sure if it's possible to have three stars in stealth and the other two as well?
I've found two (aside from landing in the bastille)
I love this idea so much. March and April are nightmarish for my time professionally/personally, but I'll be lurking for May.
This seems like a lot of fun! Looking forward to it and talk to everyone at the end of the month. :)
Awesome!
Like this idea. I'll try to join in as well!