Feb 17, 2011

The Interactive Fiction of Wikileaks Stories

Uhm, no, I wont be doing anything this elaborate.
I am fully aware of the fact that you, yes, you oh treacherous reader, believe that I have forgotten all about that, excellent if I may so myself, Wikileaks Stories project. Well, I haven't. I've been working on that text adventure (interactive fiction) game pretty much non-stop, though not necessarily as intensively I should have. The main problem has so far been that I'm neither an experienced designer of digital ludic pleasures, nor a particularly competent programmer. The relative lack of time is thus only a minor drawback.

Thing is, I may have more or less gotten to understand how Inform 7 works and have even managed to build some rudimentary example games, but I have so far miserably failed to come up with a basic design for the adventure. Actually, I've come up with four of the things, each one fixing on the previous ones problems and radically changing the game's structure. Apparently making a playable story about a real event isn't the easiest thing, though I do believe I've found a way to subtly integrate the necessary plot bits, while making for a hopefully enjoyable adventure. Provided things work out fine, this still unnamed project should be ready within a month or too. Expect further updates here.

On the wider Wikileaks Stories front, things are going rather well. Molleindustria has already released the pretty excellent Leaky World, Jonas Kyratzes' You Shall Know the Truth is almost ready and quite a few still-unannounced contributions are steadily progressing. Oh, and being totally unrealistic, I think I'll have a second, rather more humorous and already -roughly- designed, Wikileaks Story ready within the year too.

Frankly, reader, you should give us a hand too. Spread the word or, better yet, try coming up with something yourself. There really is no rush. Wikileaks keeps fighting for democracy, while revealing new and important stories that have to be made widely known. To help you out and further motivate you, we have already compiled lists of both Game Making and Wikileaks resources.  

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5 comments:

  1. In the meantime, be sure to check:
    http://www.bradleymanning.org/

    I think Assange will take care of himself, but Bradley is in much worse position... He is being a scapegoat for Wikileaks right now.

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  2. Absolutely correct on this one dear BArts. Saving Bradley from his torture is of paramount importance.

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  3. It's good to hear you're making progress. I look forward to playing it when it's finished.

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  4. You can do it, Gnome!

    :-)

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  5. @ Ithmeer: Why, thanks! Hope it doesn't take to long.

    @ Pacian: Yes? Good! :)

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