Oct 6, 2011

Deirdra Kiai presents: The Play

Kicking off my coverage of the 2011 Interactive Fiction Competition is The Play. An online choose-your-own-adventure type experience by the incredibly talented indie game designer Deirdra Kiai, and thus a quality piece of interactive fiction you can immediately play in the comfort of your own browser without having to type a single word. Come to think of it, it's an excellent and definitely gentle introduction to the world of text adventures, what with its elegant and intuitive interface and very simple puzzles. Anyway. Here is the link you'll be needing to, err, play The Play.

Interestingly and rather appropriately considering its tittle, The Play has gamers assume the role of a slightly frustrated theatrical director trying to save a dress rehearsal and, hopefully, a premiere, while juggling a tight budget, a trusted co-worker and three actors capable of arrogance, stupidity and sexism (among other commendable traits), though not necessarily talent. Keeping them moderately satisfied and off each others throats seems like the key to a better result, but winning is not what really matters in a game like this one. Enjoying the interesting and very well-written story, on the other hand, is.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

12 comments:

  1. Play! :D... play the Play.. :)..

    (spots the "working on room" heads over to the Super secret iPhone game....Alarms sound, lights flash....)

    :( oops!

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  2. Nah, that's okay. Nothing's worth that much secrecy and that's why I'll have to let the Ogre bouncer go I'm afraid and rehire him as a sound designer.

    He too plays the play :p

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  3. What Ogre boun.....

    ...(suddenly notices the cleverily camouflaged Ogre looming above him......)

    gulp!....

    (waves tentatively..)

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  4. Don't worry, he's been shown pictures of you. He knows you are not one of them.

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  5. (rubs sweat from brow, breathes a sigh of relief)

    You mean "they" are here now!?

    (elderly feels his heartbeat rising again)

    ....!? Please tell me you didn't show him the pink tutu photo

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  6. No, no, it's the Quenn mother phot, back from your knightly youth in England. Now, shhh...

    They are approaching.

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  7. :)

    (breathing a sigh of relief, elderly hides behind rubber plant....whispers to Gnome..)

    psst! how many of them are there?

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  8. They are countless, but I have a plan. It's cunning and involves tripwire, a stolen napalm bomb from the 60s, a mouse and swedish porn.

    Hope to avoid casualties. Even entities for a dark parallel dimension have rights you know.

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  9. (whispers..)

    yes your right, the interstellar Geneva convention thingy, for those you are about to kill, do so with stealth, guile ... wait..

    ....we can't use the napalm.. banned weapon!

    (borrows the swedish porn)

    ...go to see some things never change...

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  10. It's been banned? Damn, if only we knew this back in 1945. The civil war would have had a different outcome and the IMF wouldn't be here...

    Oh well. Guile...

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  11. ..yeah but (holds magazine on it's side...)

    8( nah, that's not biologically possible...

    sorry... guile! nope dosen't have the same range as napalm, only momentarily confuses the enemy...

    (peers over rubber plant...)

    they're taking their sweet time getting here.

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  12. Still, guile, confusion and misdirection can work, especially when facing severe lack of ammunition.

    Tea?

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