It would come first, but I apparently slept through a tornado this morning…
Textfyre Inc are a recently formed company (so recently that their website is close to the size of a novel’s blurb at the moment) with a relatively ambitious goal. Comparable I’d argue to deflecting a cataclysmic meteor with your face. To quote the company themselves on this;
“Over the last year we’ve been diligently working to build a new publishing company, to create new interactive fiction works, and to bring those works to the public. As of June 2007, we’re getting closer and closer to an official launch date. We still have a lot of work ahead of us and as we pass each milestone in our development processes, we’ll report back to you here about it.”
So, their mission statement is simple; Revive the interactive fiction genre. It’s an interesting goal, because it isn’t really like the genre is dead (Although it does depend on your distinction between Text Adventure and Interactive Fiction, so the following may sit less well with some than others). We did just have Pacian’s fantastic Poizoned Mind for the B-Game competition, and of course the IF Comp which always draws a strong creative response (Deadline for uploading is on the 29th don’t forget! I want to play!). However, the genre has been isolated from the commercial market for longer than I’ve been alive, with just boxed copies of ‘Zork’ and ’Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy’ for me to know that era by.
It definitely seems a challenge to try and sell these kinds of games again when such accomplished efforts as Slouching Towards Bedlam exist not only as incredible freeware IF, but also despite this greatly unknown and underappreciated. As much as I would love to see Adam Cadre works as successful financially as they are in my pants, I also know that it’s a long shot. A very long shot. From a bouncy castle. Covered in landmines.
(Source: Kotaku)