Andrew Plotkin

IntroComp games are up! I helped test one of the games in the competition this year. You should play them! introcomp.org

If the Blue Prince devs were aiming for that standard, I assert that they failed. That's not a complaint either!

(Not complaining — I just think it’s funny, community-evolution-wise.)

This looks nifty...

...And I see we've arrived at the point where a Steam page has to say "No collaborative effort is required - all puzzles and secrets are discoverable by playing the game solo".

I can get some kind of second-order resolution out of the existence of the fairy circle, with its "RIP Mad Jack", somehow holding that bad future safely out of the world. Holding it in the past? Yes, I'm now just making things up that aren't in the show.

I feel like it amounts to *something*. But of course this is purely a feeling, and then I felt that I needed to write a 3000-word post to justify my feelings!

Lucky enough to be one of the writers involved in bringing this wild stygian world to life! If you've ever wanted to barter with a dead swan god or infiltrate the fortress where souls go to be flensed, wishlist this game...

I got up to "Fighting the Ear of Knives": "The ear sprouts more knives and advances" and wishlisted it right there.

Notes from Mysterium 2025:

blog.zarfhome.com/2025/08/myst...

Large... Limo... Model?

Even if you're optimistic about autonomous cars, why would you think a text chatbot would be the right tool?

We've acquired the historic game magazine Computer Entertainer.

As in, we got the rights. We own the magazine. And we're putting it into the Creative Commons for anyone to use for free.

Learn more: gamehistory.org/computerente...

Remember my comment a couple of months ago about a particular metal-printing process just vanishing? Followup: the company that originated it, or rather the company that acquired that company, has now declared bankruptcy.

blog.zarfhome.com/2025/08/age-...

Service has been restored to the intfiction.org forum following this week's Linode outage. Thank you to our tireless admins for getting everything repaired!

Heh, thanks!

Wrote up two Doctor Who episodes that I found particularly interesting: “73 Yards” and “The Story and the Engine”.

blog.zarfhome.com/2025/07/73-s...

(Spoilers, and anyhow the post won’t mean much to you if you haven’t watched both Ncuti Gatwa seasons.)

Very early Tom Lehrer memory:

About ten years old, arguing with a friend about whether “Think of all the marvelous ways / they’re using plastics nowadays” refers to the sergeant’s *food* or his *prosthetic taste buds*.

I finished replaying _1000xResist_. I am once again astonished how much goes on in that game.

Also, independently of that: how much you can do with stylized models and only the most sparingly deployed animation.

With the advent of the UK Online Safety Act, all games on the IF Archive are currently unavailable to users whose connections place them in the UK. This restriction is temporary as we review the IF Archive's holdings and flag works that are legally required to be restricted. Our apologies!

Isn't "ban pig" just "sow"?

A classic of English literature!

Which I listened to at the same age as Tom Lehrer, as well as Flanders and Swann. All of a category in my head.

The only thing I need say of Tom Lehrer is that every time someone mentions a title (which of course they’ve been doing all day), I can sing the whole song.

Notes on some puzzle games:

- Cipher Zero
- Coupling
- Monument Valley 3

blog.zarfhome.com/2025/07/summ...

The worst feeling when you name a pair of variables “drag_start_pos”, “drag_start_end” and then write three days’ worth of UI code before noticing that the second one should have been “drag_end_pos”

Good to know you can still put one over on the Man, eh?

oh no

NEUROCRACY by pyrofoux, Playthroughline Solve a murder in the future by diving into its Wikipedia

✨ NEUROCRACY ✨

🌐 Play a Wikipedia editor in the year 2049
🤝 Discuss how to document an assassination
👀 Your theories influence what happens...

🚨 EPISODE 2 OUT NOW 🚨

Check it out for free on omnipedia.app or buy the companion app for $12 if you want to make your own conspiracy board!

Repeating a comment from Mastodon:

Unfortunately, the market can remain irrational longer than Ed Zitron can remain salient.

(This on the news that @writnelson.bsky.social is going to be the lead voice in a new Hellraiser game. Wow!)

I spent some of this weekend alternating between _El Paso Elsewhere_ and (replaying) _1000xResist_. Both games carried by the intersection of voice acting and WTF, but in completely opposite directions. But you’re going to be dashed on pointy rocks either way.

My Worldcon schedule:

blog.zarfhome.com/2025/07/my-w...

I’m on three panels: “The Indie Video Game Scene”, “Best Game or Interactive Work Hugo Potentials”, “IF: Video Game Storytellers”. With some names you may recognize.