28 October 2007
A whole number of games have been added to the Games Archive which hasn't been updated since February. Ouch.
Quite a few reviews have been added, though as the majority are of Vachon's games, you might be best to read the reviews but suppress the desire to actually play any of them.
Main work in progress at the moment is A Date With Death which is coming along very nicely. If everything goes according to plan, it ought to be my entry in the Spring Thing 2008. Other than that, I've done a little more work on Scarlet and Without A Clue, but neither are likely to be released any time soon.
24 July 2007
10 July 2007
4 June 2007
Anyway... the 35th issue of the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter is out. Thanks to everyone who contributed something.
A number of reviews have been added to the Reviews Archive covering the recent AIF Minicomp and from the last issue of the newsletter.
16 May 2007
Several reviews added to the Reviews Archive, mainly of the games from the Spring Thing but several others as well.
1 May 2007
The Spring Thing 2007 recently concluded and I came a very respectable 2nd place with The Reluctant Resurrectee. Well pleased with that :)
Main work in progress right now happens to be In The Mind Of The Master, likely to be my entry in the IFComp 2007. Hopefully it'll fair a little better than my 19th placing last year with Mortality.
25 April 2007
Another competition is in the works. This time it's the H. P. Lovecraft Commonplace Book Comp and Exhibit, whose games are based on the works of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The competition is to run from 15th April to 15th June and I've been asked to organise the ADRIFT side of things. The discussion on the ADRIFT forum about it can be found here. My own entry - The Cellar - I put the finishing touches to today so there will be at least one ADRIFT entry.
The only other news is that several broken links on the site have now been fixed. Thanks to Ron Moore for pointing them out.
7 April 2007
Another long time since the last update. Things are happening, I just never seem to get round to updating this page about them :(...
First off, the 34th issue of the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter is out. Thanks to everyone who took the time to fill in the survey.
Next, the Spring Thing 2007 is underway, including my entry The Reluctant Resurrectee and three other games. I was hoping that the comp might increase in size as the years went by, but again the turnout has been a little disappointing. Still, hopefully there'll be some worthwhile games to play and at least with so few, people really don't have any excuse for not getting them all done.
Several other games are now in the works, including my superhero game Scarlet, a huge detective game called Without A Clue and one by the name of In The Mind Of The Master.
14 February 2007
Three new games have been added to the Games Archive: Eric T. Dorrath's Terrified (the sole submission to my failed NaADWriMon Comp), BBen's Scream For Me and phkb's ADRIFT port of Classic Adventure.
With Quest 4 recently released, I decided to download the first games with it and see what I thought of them. And what did I think of them? Er... not much really. Read my reviews for some real vitriol.
On the games front, The Reluctant Resurrectee is almost ready for testing in readiness for the Spring Thing 2007.
5 February 2007
Another long overdue update. Plenty happening, but I just never seem to get round to updating this page... :(
First off, the 33rd issue of the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter is out, including the Big ADRIFT Survey. Please take the time to fill it in if you like.
Secondly, NaAdWriMon was a no show after receiving just one game (the minimum requirement was three). So another ADRIFT comp gone up in smoke. Thanks to the one person who submitted a game. To the others: where were you?
Several games on the go at the moment, the main one being The Reluctant Resurrectee (my entry in the Spring Thing 2007 if I manage to get it done in time), an adult James Bond parody called Jim Pond: A Meeting With S.K.U.M. and a superhero game called Scarlet. No time frame for the last two, though I'm hoping to get the James Bond game out in the next six months.
9 January 2007
The first new update of the year and several things to mention.
First off, the ADRIFT End of Year Competition results were announced and my game The Warlord, The Princess & The Bulldog came joint first with Richard Otter's Unauthorised Termination. Well done to him and thanks to everyone who voted. The competitions page has been updated with the latest news.
Second, I've decided to run another Comp. It's called NaAdWriMo (National ADRIFT Game Writing Month) and will run for January. Full details about it here.
Several games in progress at the moment: Without A Clue, a huge sprawling detective game; Scarlet, my superhero epic; Mind Shadows, a horror game (likely to be my entry in either the Spring Thing or the IFComp next year); Grove Of The Ancients, another work in progress... and several others.
19 December 2006
Has it really been almost a month since the last update? It doesn't seem anywhere near that long...
Added my recent articles from the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter.
Several games in progress at the moment: Without A Clue, a huge sprawling detective game; Scarlet, my superhero epic; Mind Shadows, a horror game (likely to be my entry in either the Spring Thing or the IFComp next year); Grove Of The Ancients, another work in progress... and several others.
25 November 2006
Another day and four more walkthroughs have been added, all games in the recent Hourglass Competition: Dancing Even Him by Richard Otter; Herr Doktor von Nördlingendinkelsbühlhündchen-am-Rhein by The Mad Monk; The Long Barrow by C. Henshaw; Quest For Food by Lumin.
24 November 2006
The 32nd issue of the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter is out. As usual, thanks to everyone who contributed to it.
Three new walkthroughs added for some of the recent IFComp entries: my game Requiem, revgiblet's The Sisters and Richard Otter's Unauthorised Termination. Walkthroughs for the last two courtesy of the authors themselves.
Without A Clue is now at a heady 546 KB and still going. The sheer size of it means that it might well not be finished in readiness for the Spring Thing next year so I'll probably be coming up with an alternative game for it.
16 November 2006
And the IFComp is over with for another year. I came 19th. :( Better than the 23rd I achieved in 2004 but quite a bit lower than last year's 12th placing. Still, there's always next year...
My reviews for the IFComp entries have been added. I see I did a pretty decent job of predicting the top three (all in the wrong order admittedly, but closer than I've been in previous years).
Full details of the ADRIFT entries have been added to the competitions page.
5 November 2006
As you can probably see from the top of this page, I've made the older news updates easier to find.
Added a review for Robb Sherwin's A Crimson Spring, a pretty decent superhero game I finished playing recently.
Without A Clue is up to 471 KB. I'd guess about 60% of it's now done and I'm reasonably pleased with the way it's turning out.
23 October 2006
A few more reviews for several of the ADRIFT games entered in last year's IFComp. They've been added to the Reviews Archive.
Without A Clue is just shy of 400 KB now. Finishing by Christmas is looking unlikely now but it ought to be done pretty early into the New Year to allow me a few precious months for testing in readiness for the Spring Thing 2007.
18 October 2006
The 46th issue of SPAG is out. Always worth a read, but especially so this time as it features reviews of a couple of ADRIFT games. Including a glowing review of a little game I wrote last year called A Spot Of Bother. I've added both to the Reviews Archive.
15 October 2006
The Amateur Gamebooks page has pretty much fallen by the wayside for the past year, what with my own attempts to write a gamebook failing on every occasion, but as I've kindly been sent a new gamebook, the page gets a new addition. Thanks to Philip Sadler whose Riders Of The Storm is that addition.
Three new walkthroughs added: Boiled Eggs by Sprite, The Demon Hunter by David Parish [thatguy] and Rolling The Dough by Richard Otter.
Without A Clue is now at a huge 337 KB and hopefully will be completed around Christmas time, or early in the New Year.
1 October 2006
Where to start...? Lots and lots of updates today:
The 31st issue of the Inside ADRIFT Newsletter is out. My reviews from it have been added to the reviews page.
A good deal of reviews from the ADRIFT forum and the last few issues of the Inside Erin Newsletter, as well as one review from Baf's Guide, have been added to the Reviews Archive.
The IFComp 2006 is underway and this year there are again five ADRIFT entries. Only four proper games, alas, as Slan Xorox chose to inflict his latest creation on the IF world with ADRIFT. Don't we all feel lucky...?
A walkthrough for Psystorm's The Crash has been added. Thanks to Ferdi Saalmink for that.
Work on Without A Clue (hopefully my entry in next year's Spring Thing) is coming along nicely. It's now at the giddy heights of 261 KB and is roughly a third of the way through.
20 September 2006
The Previews page gets a makeover. At long last. It's now been split into three main parts: Previews being the game I'm currently working on; Drifting Aimlessly are the games that I intend to finish one day but not right now; Off The Rails are the games I've given up on. Which doesn't mean to say I definitely won't finish them one day, just that I'm not working on them now and don't intend to for the foreseeable future.
17 September 2006
Three more walkthroughs added, for my game Choose Your Own Three Hour Adventure, Richard Otter's Pestilence and for TDS' The Road Leads To Nowhere.
Without A Clue is now at 217 KB and day one of the game is just about complete.
8 September 2006
Added a walkthrough for my one room game For Love Of Digby.
5 September 2006
The Hourglass Competition results are out and the winner is... not me unfortunately :( . But well done to C. Henshaw who took first place honours with The Long Barrow. Full results on the competitions page.
A huge number of bugs have been fixed in Requiem and some extra content added, including a walkthrough. I don't think anyone will really need a walkthrough to complete it, but if they do it's there.
Without A Clue hit 175 KB today and is coming along nicely. I have a sinking feeling it will be even larger than I originally anticipated but I'm happy with the way it's heading so far so that's one positive thing.
31 August 2006
A new review added for the winner of this year's Spring Thing - The Baron as well as an updated version of my fave ADRIFT game - The PK Girl - in the Games Archive.
24 August 2006
Added a new game - Rodney & The Princess - to the Games Archive as well as fixed a number of broken links on the walkthroughs page.
Without A Clue is coming along nicely, having just topped the 150 KB stage and, even though it will probably be larger than I originally expected, still ought to be done in plenty of time for the Spring Thing 2007.
15 August 2006
The Hourglass Comp is underway and the games from it have been added to the Games Archive.
The finishing touches have now been put to Requiem and it's going through the final stages of testing prior to the IFComp.
9 August 2006
8 August 2006
7 August 2006
Surprisingly, I've never added a walkthrough for my CYOA game Choose Your Own...... but now I have. I also added a walkthrough for Campbell Wild's interpretetion of Cloak Of Darkness. Not really a necessity, of course, as it's more a demo than an actual game, but for the sake of completeness...
4 August 2006
Game wise: Requiem is being tested in readiness for the IFComp; Without A Clue has just hit the 100 KB stage and is coming along very nicely indeed. Though it will almost certainly be the biggest game I've ever written, it should be done in plenty of time for next year's Spring Thing.
22 July 2006
21 July 2006
20 July 2006 3 July 2006 2 July 2006
The ninth issue of the Reviews Exchange is out, a little slimmer than previous issues but with a couple of glowing reviews for games I've written so no complaints from me. :)
With The Reluctant Vampire now done and dusted (though hopefully not staked), I've gone back to Requiem, my entry in this year's IFComp, as well as a few other ideas I've had for games.
19 June 2006
The Reluctant Vampire is almost finished, and not a moment too soon with the Summer Comp deadline next week!
1 June 2006
27 May 2006
The first issue of the Inside Adrift newsletter, which I'm now the editor of, is out. Thanks to everyone who contributed to it.
Current works in progress are:
The Reluctant Vampire, which is intended as my entry in the Adrift Summer Comp 2006.
Requiem, my entry in the IFComp 2006.
Scarlet, a huge, sprawling superhero epic which probably won't be entered in any competitions but should be done sometime next year.
And several others...
27 April 2006
9 April 2006
6 April 2006
4 April 2006
With that out of the way, it's now time to press on with Scarlet, my huge superhero game, and Requiem, my entry in this year's IFComp.
1 April 2006 With my Spring Thing game now out of the way, I've gone back to working on
several games that I pushed aside in order to get WPB done in time for
the comp. For Love Of Digby (originally called either Changing The
Channel or A Day In The Life Of A Couch Potato) is close to
completion and ought to be done over the next week or so; Jim Pond: A Meeting
With S.K.U.M. is my long overdue follow up to Jim Pond & The Agents Of
F.A.R.T.; Scarlet is coming along nicely, although all I've really
added over the past month or so is a little background and fleshed out some
locations. 31 March 2006 19 March 2006
12 March 2006
The Warlord, The Princess & The Bulldog is pretty much done and dusted now. Just waiting till the Spring Thing deadline to see how it does.
Works in progress: Scarlet now coming along very well (76 KB); Requiem (30 KB); and a few others...
27 February 2006
Other than that, I've started working on getting Requiem ready for the IFComp 2006, and progress on Scarlet - my superhero epic - is coming along nicely.
12 February 2006
6 February 2006
The Warlord, The Princess & The Bulldog is about three quarters done and looks like it'll be done well in time for the Spring Thing 2006.
29 January 2006
Work on Scarlet has slowed while I make progress on The Warlord, The Princess & The Bulldog, my intended entry in the Spring Thing 2006. Now up to 82 KB and probably about half done. Hopefully it'll be as well received as A Spot Of Bother by the time it's finished.
13 January 2006
9 January 2006
8 January 2006
Firstly, the results of the Inside ADRIFT Awards were announced here. I came second with my game Mortality behind Cannibal's well deserved win for The Plague: Redux. With two games tying for 3rd, 9th and 11th places and no less than four games in 5th place, I think it's fair to say the voting system used isn't working particularly well. Fingers crossed for a return to the standard 1-10 system next time a Comp rolls around... Full details as usual on the competitions page.
It was also Issue 7 of the Reviews Exchange (although at the time of writing the new issue hasn't made its way onto the site), containing reviews of 18 games in total: 17 ADRIFT games and one I did for a great Inform game I played recently called House Of The Midnight Sun. My reviews have been added to this site and the rest have made their way into the Reviews Archive
4 January 2006
The latest issue of the AIF Newletter - Inside Erin - is out, including two reviews I wrote, for Notice Me and Rachel Has A Bad Day respectively, as well as a review courtesy of Grimm Sharlak of my game Consequences. All are available at the Reviews Archive.
Current works in progress are:
Scarlet - a huge superhero game. Currently standing at 59 KB and between 5% and 10% finished.
The Warlord, The Princess & The Bulldog - a sequal to A Spot Of Bother. 10 KB in the works so far and likely to end up just a bit bigger than the previous game.
Added a walkthrough for my ADRIFT Summer Comp entry - The Reluctant Vampire.
The results of the ADRIFT Summer Competition 2006 have been announced and the winner is... me! With The Reluctant Vampire. Well done to everyone who entered and a special thanks to KFAdrift for organising the comp. Full details on the competitions page.
Added a walkthrough for Sara Brookside's It's Easter, Peeps!.
Reviews for a couple of recent Quest games I played have been added. Terrible games unfortunately. The 'quest' for a decent Quest game continues in vain it seems.
Current work in progress is a huge detective game called Without A Clue. Although it features the same character as in my other detective games, this is a serious effort and, fingers crossed, my entry in the Spring Thing 2007.
Firstly, the ADRIFT Summer Comp 2006 has kicked off. Full details here, although it's disappointing there were so few entries. All the games have been added to the Games Archive.
Several long overdue updates:
Numerous reviews for the games from the recent AIF mini-comp have been added to the Reviews Archive.
After a long, long delay, I've updated the Previews page. No big changes there, but before to long I ought to get round to clearing out some of the older (never likely to be finished) games and putting a few of the newer works of progress in.
Sara Brookside's [jsh11a] entry to the One Room Competition has been added to the Games Archive.
Work on The Reluctant Vampire is coming along nicely with it topping the 70Kb stage today and looking like it ought to be ready a fortnight or so before the deadline for the Adrift Summer Comp at the end of June.
My Spring Thing entry - The Warlord, The Princess & The Bulldog - has been stripped of bugs (hopefully) and version 2 is done and dusted.
For Love Of Digby is now done and dusted, and (hopefully) bug free. It can be downloaded from the my games page.
The Writing Challenges Comp is over with Ren's Jonathan Grim: Space Tourist taking
first prize. Full results on the competitions page.
Both Scarlet and The Warlord, The Princess & The Bulldog are coming along nicely, the first now at 73 KB and the second at 28 KB. With the cancellation ot the ADRIFT Spring Comp, WPB will now most likely be my entry in the Spring Thing 2006.