Interactive Fiction Saturday: AdventureX 2016 and WordPlay London

For some reason, this weekend seems to be the weekend of Interactive Fiction here in London. AdventureX is enjoying its sixth(?) and biggest year, with all manner of people demoing all manner of interactive adventures over the course of the weekend at Goldsmiths University in south-east London, and yesterday saw the international WordPlay festival take over the British Library for the day. Seeing as how I live a tube ride away from central London, it seemed rude not to attend both.

Goldsmiths University, venue for AdventureX 2016.

I started at AdventureX, where I listened to a very interesting conversation with Rhianna Pratchett and briefly got the chance to say hello afterwards, and then headed back across London to the British Library, where I was appearing on a panel myself.

Rhianna Pratchett in conversation.

Both events took over their respective venues, with laptops dotted about the place and people trying out each others games (AdventureX in a stairwell/hallway, and WordPlay in the environs of the British Library). There was a real buzz at both events and it was pleasing to see that the gamebook hasn't died out, rather than it has evolved.

The British Library, venue for WordPlay London.

I arrived at WordPlay in time to hear the panel before mine, entitled 'Practical Considerations of Writerly Games' and found myself nodding away as the panellists discussed the pros and cons of crowdfunding platforms, the challenges faced by independent games designers trying to market their games, and how to actually earn any money from such ventures.

Does what it says on the tin...

And then it was time for 'Worldbuilding with Words'. Hannah Powell-Smith (creator of various interactive games in which a far bit of making out seems to take place) did a sterling job moderating our panel, on which I was joined by Helen Carmichael (whose new game 'Shadowhand' is out imminently) and Nate Crowley (who has contributed a story to the soon-to-be-Kickstarted short story anthology SHARKPUNK 2).

We discussed how to avoid overloading readers with information, pacing, design vs storytelling, creating believable worlds within a limited word count, and matching the setting to the game mechanics. (I also plugged Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and The Wicked Wizard of Oz - a lot!)

After all that talking, it was only right that we decamped to a hostelry down the road to refresh ourselves and talk more about this business we call 'Writing'.

Thanks to everyone who came along to listen to our panel (especially loyal FF fan James Aukett) and for being such an involved and interested audience*. And here's to WordPlay London happening again next year!

* One gentlemen was taking copious notes on his laptop and I'd love to read his transcription of the talks, if such a thing were possible.

Gamebook Friday: NaNoWriMo progress and WordPlay London

Just a reminder that tomorrow, Saturday 19th November 2016, I shall be taking part in WordPlay London at the British Library.

You can find out more about this event by following this link to last weekend's post about it. The panel I'm going to be on is currently scheduled to take place from 4.15pm-5.00pm, and is called:

Worldbuilding with Words

Creators of interactive fiction, prose-forward games, Twitter microfictions and gamebooks discuss the challenges and joys of using words to evoke historical eras and weird universes.

In other news, you'll see that I've made significant progress with The Wicked Wizard of Oz since last week.

Jonathan Green at WordPlay London 2016

Next Saturday, 19th November 2016, I shall be taking part in WordPlay London at the British Library.

WordPlay is the Hand Eye Society's international festival of writerly games and the British Library is the ideal venue. For one thing, it’s the largest library in the world boasting a collection of over 170,000,000 items. For another thing, one of those items is the manuscript copy of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (which was later published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). And for yet another thing, the Beowulf manuscript (the oldest surviving long poem in Old English) is housed there.

London has been chosen as the location for this year's festival because of the wealth of interactive fiction talent in the UK, including friends of Fighting Fantasy, inkle Studios. The date, Saturday 19th November, has been chosen to coincide with International Games in Libraries Day.

The panel I'm going to be on is currently scheduled to take place from 4.15pm-5.00pm, and is called:

Worldbuilding with Words

Creators of interactive fiction, prose-forward games, Twitter microfictions and gamebooks discuss the challenges and joys of using words to evoke historical eras and weird universes.

Hannah Powell-Smith, Twine creator

Nate Crowley, dystopic Twitter writer

Helen Carmichael, historical game writer

Jon Green, gamebook author

As the focus of the festival is digital games, I think I'm there to represent the retro processed tree carcass contingent.

So, if you're interested to know how I endeavour to evoke different eras and settings using words alone (and a minimal number at that) they why not come along next Saturday?

Maybe I'll see you there.