Lmst

Bubble Gumshoe has a beloved mentor who's just two days from retirement. This cannot possibly end badly.
#ScreenshotSaturday #BubbleGumshoe #WhoWhackedJimmyPiñata #InteractiveFiction #Inform

Factory Outskirts
A deeply depressing stretch of muddy industrial road dividing the abandoned taffy factory to the south from a row of abandoned stores to the north. The back door of one store in particular appears to have been kicked in: a burning trash can stands beside it. Just beyond that is the seedy part of town, which is to say the part that has any meaningful footfall.

You can see the Fudge Challenger, a Wine Gum Wino and Big Red here.

...wait. Big Red???

Your old mentor is standing by the car. He runs a finger along the bonnet, then tests the tackiness of the sugar-rain residue against his thumb.

"You ever think about getting this thing washed?" he asks.

"I thought you were retiring!" you say, too surprised to come up with a riposte to the dig about your ride.

"Still a couple of days left to go." Big Red shrugs. "I thought you might want to sit down and chat about this new case of yours." He tugs at the car door - locked, naturally. "Or we could just keep standing out here in the rain."

Smiling, you unlock the driver's side and squeeze inside. Reaching over, you pop the passenger door open for him.

‘Operational intelligence in logistics is Europe’s main driver in developing an AI strategy,’ says INFORM CEO http://dlvr.it/TKnD1X #AI #artificialintelligence #INFORM #RailNews

Can #AI Play Text Adventure Games? Turns out AI does perfectly well at playing text adventures. I hooked Google Gemini 2.5 into the famous #Inform text adventure Curses, it became obsessed with fiddling around with the torch, got a game over twice for trying to take the gloves from the potting room, then got fed up and quit. Entirely too relatable. But that was boring, and I really wanted a blog post out of this idea! stuff.interfree.ca/2025/05/11/textadventure.html

#inform : without regular form

- French: informe

- German: informiert

- Portuguese: informar

- Spanish: informar

------------

Fill in missing translations @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/translations

Another wet weekend, another #Vezza release! I was asked to adapt my #Infocom interpreter to another platform - this time the #SinclarQL. An interesting request as it uses a #Motorola 68008 CPU, however, it does have the ability to emulate a #z80 on #CP/M. I was given some pointers on which versions worked to some extent, along with some documentation. Fast forward a few days and I had adapted one of the VT52 versions crossed with other features, and now #Sinclair QL users can enjoy in CP/M mode their #Inform #ZMachine adventures. Yes, there's a native terp as well, however, this was only a few days worth of massaging to get it to work on the SUCCESS CP/M Emulator - the proof is in the screen shots. You can download the executable here https://gitlab.com/sijnstra1/vezza/ #retrocomputing #retrogaming

Screenshot of Stefan Vogt's Ghosts of Blackwood Manor running on the Sinclair QL emulator under SUCCESS CP/M 2.2 emulator.

Playing "Lock and Key"!
Dungeon was a fail: Guards were eaten by the Lion in A2 and the prisoner escaped!

#if #InteractiveFiction #glulx #LockAndKey #inform

A labyrinth from the game "Lock & Key". A 4x4 grid containing:

Stairs Lion Trap Door Bugs

Empty Gladiator Rock Dogs

Empty Maze Poison Quick-
Gas sand

Empty Dart Fire Trap Cell
Trap

AI at work: Real intelligence behind container moves http://dlvr.it/TK97L2 #AI #artificialintelligence #INFORM #IntermodalTerminals

Inform 7 source code for my IFComp game "Bad Beer" is now freely available in the IFArchive. It is also linked from Bad Beer's IFDB game web page. April 1 is Source Code Amnesty Day for interactive fiction games. More info about my release in my intfiction forum post https://intfiction.org/t/source-code-amnesty-day-2025/74279/19 #Inform #interactiveFiction #game #coding #GameDev #IndieGames #sourceCode #IFComp

Reminded of April 1 Source Code Amnesty Day for interactive fiction games, I've just uploaded Inform source code for my IFComp 2024 entry Bad Beer. Source uploaded to IFArchive, and will take some days to process. Maybe ready by April 1st or soon after? Fab initiative. https://www.ifwiki.org/Source_Code_Amnesty_Day #IFComp #interactiveFiction #coding #sourceCode #Inform #GameDev #IndieGame

@niptoronto: Watch the full episode on YouTube or you can also listen on all major podcast platforms. YouTube Link: https://t.co/52HKH4KZTo

#ThePostPodcast #Toronto #Downtown #Inform #Connect #Inspire #TPP #mindfulness #mindful #mindfulliving #meditation

Bridging tracks and technology: How INFORM is empowering the rail industry http://dlvr.it/TJK5Jh #artificialintelligence #INFORM #RailNews #software

@niptoronto: Our second episode is on its way! What do you think it’s about?

#thepostpodcast #tpp #community #inform #connect #inspire #niptoronto https://t.co/wrswsCPswi

Good bit of middle of the night #Inform 7/10 #interactiveFiction #coding, researching the "Hybrid Choices" extension, which will let me switch to CYOA choice format for a few key dialogue moments in my parser text adventure game. Looks like it should be perfect for my needs. https://github.com/i7/extensions/blob/10.1/AW%20Freyr/Hybrid%20Choices-v7.i7x #GameDev #IndieGame #TextAdventure

Possibly my favourite thing about writing these Bubble Gumshoe text adventures is coming up with the confectionery-based characters and little jokes about them.
#ScreenshotSaturday #gamedev #inform #inform7 #InteractiveFiction #BubbleGumshoe #WhoWhackedJimmyPiñata

A screenshot of a parser-based text adventure. It says:

Candy Kane's Club
This place is... "seedy" is probably a little charitable. It's got some definite strip club vibes, despite the chique branding outside. Jelly babes jiggle on a large stage at the back of the room, while Candy Kane herself works the bar. Various customers sit at tables nearby in various stages of intoxication. A crowd of dancers bobs up and down enthusiastically on a dance floor closer to the stage.

The exit to Demerara Street lies to the south, a door marked "VIP Lounge" is to the west, and the washroom is to the north (in case you need to go). There's a small emergency exit leading to the alley to the east.

>x kat
A jittery security guard, apparently disinterested in everything going on nearby.

>ask kit kat about breaktime
"Please don't bother me right now," says Kit Kat, rolling her eyes. "If I don't get a cigarette soon, I'm gonna snap!"

One of the things I'm hoping to do with my latest Bubble Gumshoe mystery is to expand Sugar City and unite the environments from the previous games. Who Whacked Jimmy Piñata? will feature the crime scenes from both Who Shot Gum E. Bear? and Who Iced Mayor McFreeze? Also, as with those previous instalments, you'll be able to taste and smell way more of the setting than is probably sensible.
#ScreenshotSaturday #InteractiveFiction #Inform #IFComp #BubbleGumshoe #WhoWhackedJimmyPiñata

A screenshot from Who Whacked Jimmy Piñata?, a parser-based text adventure written in Inform. It reads:

Alley
A dim, dank, narrow pathway between the adult bookstore and Candy Kane's Club. Some dumpsters stand against a wall. There is a distinctive sticky stain on the concrete here.

The alley is a dead end to the north, opening onto the street to the south: to the southwest is Demerara Street, and to the southeast is Demerara and Caster. Emergency exits from the club and bookstore open onto the alley from the west and east respectively.

>taste stain
You prostrate yourself on the filthy tarmac in the alley and lick at the stain on the ground with your tongue like a dog. Strawberry flavour - but you already knew that. Rest in peace, Gum E. Bear.

Not exactly a New Year's Resolution because I started at the tail end of 2024 and I'm definitely not going to keep it going all year, but I'm currently setting aside every Saturday to work on my IFComp entry for 2025: "Who Whacked Jimmy Piñata?"
#NewYearsResolution #IFComp #Inform #WhoWhackedJimmyPiñata

#inform : without regular form

- French: informe

- German: informiert

- Portuguese: informar

- Spanish: informar

------------

Fill in missing translations @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/translations

And several minutes later after updating my #Twine version I've made a good start. The Twine plot/puzzle diagram for just part of my new parser #interactiveFiction #game is already vastly more complex than the example in the picture above. I've lots more to figure out before I can start #coding it properly in #Inform 7/10.

Firing up #Twine to figure out a plot/geography puzzle/state transition diagram for my current #interactiveFiction parser #game. I don't usually do this but since this portion of my game will require #coding a lot of mini scenes and timed actions in #Inform 7/10 I want to design first. Sort of like in pic (not this game). #GameDev #IndieGame #GameDesign

Screenshot from time showing a series of linked nodes and connecting arrows between them. Each node shows a location and description, or an action and the result of doing that action. This is a very rough incomplete game design, with nodes including "barrier", "touch the barrier", "into the woods" and more.

@niptoronto: Welcome to the Neighbourhood! Something’s
coming up. Stay tuned!

#community #toronto #inform #thepost #podcast https://t.co/nx5ysQ6wb8

#Inform

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