Everybody Dies

It starts with a metalhead, Graham, realizing that throwing that shopping cart over the bridge was not the great idea he thought it was. Even if it did get him out of washroom duty at Cost Cutters.

Play it here.

Everybody Dies an Indiecade Finalist

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Sep 302009

The most excellent festival Indiecade has nominated my illustrated text game Everybody Dies as a finalist in their annual competition. Even better, they’re flying me out to Los Angeles to take part in the whole conference, which includes hanging out with the other awesome finalists and talks by the designer of Katamari Damacy (Keita Takahashi) and the Sims (Will Wright).

It’s been tremendously encouraging to see the response to Everybody Dies, so much so that I’ve started planning a new adventure game with crazy-talented artist Ben Shannon. Click through for more! Continue reading »

Interactive Non-Fiction

May 042009

At this year’s Game Developers Conference I was commissioned to do a text game set there — I got the nifty press pass pictured in exchange — and I spent the last month making it. You can play it in your browser here. Thanks to the betatesters, who I named the attendees in the game after, as well as the Hand Eye Society Social where I got a nice reception for a mini-talk about it a few weeks back.

In other IF news, Everybody Dies won a XYYZY award for Best Non-Player Characters! They had a pretty funny real-time text award ceremony. And the excellent e-zine SPAG did an interview with me about my interactive fiction.

Update: Kotaku warns it causes GDC flashbacks, Offworld said it “manages to capture quite accurately the collaborative, socially supportive and intellectually curious aspects of what it’s like to actually be there”, and Rock Paper Shotgun declares it an “oddly human little thing which captures quite a bit about the human side of development.”

Gaming Critics Lose Their Minds

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Jan 072009

Our illustrated text adventure game, Everybody Dies, has chalked up over 7000 plays to date, in no small part due to the great press it’s been getting. It was declared one of the Top 5 Indie Games in 2008 by the great game industry site Gamasutra, it was listed as one of the Top 10 videogames of 2008 (alongside, y’know, Grand Theft Auto IV) by entertainment mag Variety. And you know the Onion’s AV Club? Gave it an “A”. All for a dinky little text game. Just crazy! Update: My first ever Russian review, in any medium.

If you haven’t yet, you can play it here. I’ve added Invisiclue style hints.

Everybody Dies Takes Bronze at IFComp

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Nov 162008

My new text adventure videogame, Everybody Dies, was just voted third out of 35 entries at the annual Interactive Fiction Competition!

It starts with a metalhead, Graham, realizing that throwing that shopping cart over the bridge was not the great idea he thought it was. Even if it did get him out of washroom duty at Cost Cutters.

UPDATE: Invisiclue Style Hints provided below, Windows exe customized.