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by adamhi 1401 days ago
Over COVID I wrote a novel-length... thing. I hesitate to call it a text adventure, or a game, even though that's what it looks like on the surface. I'm not sure what to call it.

The joke at the beginning was that it's a "travel simulator" for a period in time when you couldn't travel. I worked on it every day for about eight months, and I think I showed it to maybe six people. It was mostly a writing exercise, and an excuse to do research.

It's "abandoned" in the sense that I'm not driven to do more work on it, but it is "content complete" at about 300 pages, and it can be played.
2 comments
graboid 1401 days ago
I would be super interested to see it.

The aspect of text adventures or MUDs [0] that attracts me the most is the fact that you can actually move through a "textual landscape". Sorry, I have no better words to express it. Ditch all the quests and puzzles and fighting. Just immerse myself in a landscape evoked by words, that maybe adds some surreal elements, or other stuff that you couldn't express in a graphical way.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

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adamhi 1401 days ago
Some of the very first scripting I did was for a MUD, back in the day! I really like that feeling of painting a very subjective map of a place in my head, just based on text.

Part of the joke of this project, for me, was treating an entire country like a room in a MUD (e.g. "You are in the United States. Exits are Canada, Mexico...")

You can see the game here: https://travelsimulator.rodeo/

`/help` shows commands, but the important ones are `go` and `look`.

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graboid 1401 days ago
Nicely done! I love the design. And now I learned about the Tenkile in Papua New Guinea :-).
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tokinonagare 1401 days ago
That's intriguing to say the least. Any plan on published it somehow?
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