Category Archives: games

Are We Board Yet?

Posted on September 27, 2022 by midiguru

I’ve always been fascinated by board games. Over the past three years I’ve acquired quite a nice collection of clever and colorful modern games. We’re not talking Parcheesi, Risk, or Monopoly, though I do have a few classic games on … Continue reading →

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Game Night!

Posted on July 26, 2022 by midiguru

We’re living in a sort of Golden Age of board games. When you say “board games,” many people surely think you mean Monopoly and Scrabble, or possibly checkers. But modern board games have advanced miles past those dusty classics. Today’s … Continue reading →

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Testing, 1, 2, 3…

Posted on July 17, 2022 by midiguru

This week I’ve had three intrepid beta-testers thrashing their way through my latest text adventure game, The Only Possible Prom Dress. The way this works is, I send them a version of the game and they start a playing session … Continue reading →

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From Inform 7 to TADS 3

Posted on June 16, 2022 by midiguru

From time to time, an author who has been writing interactive fiction in Inform 7 gets curious about how easy or difficult it would be to switch to TADS. Eric Eve (who has used both systems) wrote a good comparison … Continue reading →

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No, It’s Not Easy

Posted on June 10, 2022 by midiguru

Writing text adventure games is not easy. It’s a craft that combines conventional writing with both computer programming and game design. It’s kind of a niche art form, but people are still actively engaged in it. I’m one of them. … Continue reading →

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Any Port Is a Storm

Posted on June 2, 2022 by midiguru

The long-awaited open-source version of Inform 7 has now been released. (Yay, I guess.) For those who don’t know what this means, Inform is a specialized programming language designed for writing text adventure games, a medium that is often dignified … Continue reading →

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Balancing Act

Posted on May 10, 2022 by midiguru

I’m a lousy chess player, but I’m endlessly intrigued by the game as a field of far-reaching possibilities. Not just for game-play, but as a source of ideas for game design. I’ve designed a few chess variants, and I’m not … Continue reading →

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Unreality Check

Posted on May 7, 2022 by midiguru

Current events in the real world are so disturbing that I need to check out. Not deal with it, if possible not even think about it. Because what good would it do to think about it? None. I take refuge … Continue reading →

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Runs & Wild Suits

Posted on February 3, 2022 by midiguru

The Looney Labs Pyramid Arcade is a nice set of widgets with which to design your own games. I posted a new one here last week and asked in a couple of Facebook game groups if someone would like to … Continue reading →

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Fun with Pyramids

Posted on January 25, 2022 by midiguru

I recently bought Pyramid Arcade, a big box from Looney Labs that contains no less than 22 board games. Some of them are silly, and some are quite challenging, but they’re all a bit peculiar. Looney players have invented more … Continue reading →

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