itch.io

Thanks. That would be appreciated.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there's no third part in the original Bonaventura Di Bello series. The way Gianluca extended the ending on this one, it's really screaming out for a sequel. Let us think about it. We're open to suggestions.

Thank you. There's more to come.

Thanks for playing it.

Wow, you're really ripping through these games. We'll have to pick up the pace.

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

With all these games, it's always fun to explore, examine everything, try unusual things and maybe find a few Easter eggs along the way. When you're finished, there's always the extra challenge of trying to complete it in the minimum number of moves.

Thanks. I never thought about the spelling aspect, but I see what you mean. "Pete" is certainly easier to type than "platypus". When playing, I think I referred to all the animals by name.

Indeed. It was also fun to write.

Thank you. It's kind words like this that make it all worthwhile.

Thanks. I hope you enjoy the others just as much.

Things like name generators are quite acceptable, as they invent something from nothing using simple algorithms based on rules and patterns. I've never seen one that uses generative AI. (I'm not saying they don't exist, I just haven't seen one.)

Re LLMs, that's correct. The competition is about human creativity, not machine-generated slop.

Thank you. It's nice to know that these little touches get noticed.

Oh, no! We'll miss you. Your game last year was fun.

The email address is up to you. You might feel more secure if you offer testing on the Discord server (there's a channel for that), then people can send you a personal message.

Thank you. If you find any bugs or have any suggestions, please let me know, as I'll probably do a post-comp version.

It's not just a translation, but a complete rewrite with lots of extensions. The aim was not just to bring it to an English audience, but to bring it up-to-date for a modern audience. That means no sudden death, no (or very minimal) guess-the-verb, no moon logic, no unwinnable situations, richer descriptions and so on. You can still get killed if you ignore the in-game clues (which you may want to do just to see what happens), but you can always undo.

Your new release is release 1, so there are now two versions of release 1 dated 13-Jun-2025 and 04-Jul-2025. This is confusing and causes complications for database entry at CASA, IFDB, IFWiki et al.

Oops. Thanks for that. Another fix for the post-comp release.

For anyone that's really stuck, if you can't wait for me to respond, don't forget that there's a HINT command that's very helpful, sometimes too helpful.

I've sent you a step-by-step solution for the last few moves in a private message on intfiction.org.

Would anyone like to see the map and solution? I normally don't publish these until after the comp.

I think you've missed something. I can't say too much for fear of spoiling it for someone else. Just remember that you're trying to resurrect two people, not one.

You can only write the correct spell on the parchment. Anything else fades away. Remember what it said in the spell book about the spell you're trying to use.

You can only TALK TO ESMERALDA or ASK HER ABOUT <something>.  I think you meant the latter. There's currently no response for the crystal ball, but I can add that in a post-comp release. You can ask her about a lot of things. As an example, EXAMINE CRYSTAL BALL mentions the future, so ASK ESMERALDA ABOUT FUTURE is a good one to try.

Thanks for the bug reports. I'll fix those in a post-comp release.

You won't find a key for the drawer, so you'll need to pick the lock. Have you been to your aunt's bedroom yet? If not, that should be your next goal. (Hint: You can't get in through the bedroom door.) 

After talking to him, I did: I, STATS, W, W, W, W and he wasn't there. Would you like me to send my transcripts?

If you're a Discord user, there's some interesting  servers for text adventures and interactive fiction, including Adventuron and PunyInform, and some of the competitions, such as SeedComp, ParserComp and this one. The Text Adventure Literacy Jam server has announcements (of course) and some interesting discussion on game development, testing requests, help with puzzles, and so on. The traffic isn't heavy, but it's nice to be part of the community. Much better than Facebook.

I kept a transcript. When we got back, I talked to Andy and he rushed off in the direction of the Hackspace exit. I then checked every location and he was nowhere to be found. I talked to Julie, Stephan and Carl and they all congratulated me on finding Andy, but that's it. (I also checked the other time periods, but no sign of Andy.)

I've rescued Andy and he's gone back to his wife. The other characters in the hackspace have congratulated me for rescuing Andy, but the game doesn't end. What now? How do I get it to end?

The invite link is on the home page: Text Adventure Literacy Jam Discord server.

If you do an update, any update, no matter how minor, update the version number. This aids historians/biblographers and players. For example, if I'm look for a game on IFDB, IF Archive or IFWiki and it says the latest version is version 1.0.0 and I've already got version 1.0.0, then I'm not to know that theres' a different version 1.0.0. Use semantic versioning: a.b.c, where a is a major release, b is a minor release and c is a bug fix. So, in your case, it should have been 1.0.1.

You are lucky that Adventuron allows, even promotes, semantic versioning, whereas the stupid Z-code file format only allows a single release number and the serial number is the date in yymmdd format.

For those not paying attention, you may not have noticed that the submission period has closed and judging has started. There were 7 submissions and there's quite a variety in game styles and authoring tools used. It looks like three of the games opted to use the time travel theme, the others didn't. And that's okay, as the theme was optional.

Now's the time to start playing and rating the games. I'd suggest playing all the games before submitting your ratings to make sure that your scoring is fair. If one game is clearly better in one category than the others, then make sure it has a higher score in that category. Similarly, if one game is clearly worse in one category than the others, then make sure it has a lower score in that category. If two or more games are equal in one category, then make sure you give them the same score. You might like to consider using a sliding scale where the worst game in one category gets one star, the best gets 5 stars and the others are distributed accordingly.

Keep a piece of paper with your scores in a table. Write the titles of the games in the rows and the scoring categories in the columns. Fill in the scores for each game when you complete the game, while it's fresh in your memory. Try to complete each game before you score it. If it's a large game (and many of them are), make sure you play it for at least two hours before you rate it.

There are some interesting discussions on the games on the Discord server, so join in the fun or ask for hints there, but please use spoiler tags when necessary so that you don't spoil the game for anyone that hasn't played it yet.

Finally, if you didn't submit a game, consider writing reviews of the games in the Competitions category on intiction.org and tag your reviews with 'TALP'.

Andrew's game is the most recent in a series of games he's written that rely on word play. You can use conventional two-word input consisting of a verb and a noun, but most of the "puzzles" rely on you recognising Spoonerisms and entering them in place of a normal command. In case you're not familiar with Spoonerisms, this is where the morphemes of two words are switched to create two new words. The first few locations provide plenty of hints that lead to this idea. For example:

* name less -> lame ness

* ooh task -> to ask

* rare thing -> there ring

* veering choice -> cheering voice

* whoa guest -> go west

All you have to do is type the new words to gain points. Some of the Spoonerisms require you to have solved previous ones before they are accepted. So, if a Spoonerism doesn't work in one location, come back and try it later after solving some of the others. The hints are there, but they may be quite subtle. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite fun.

Thanks.

The screen scrolling rather than refresh is bog standard in all modern adventure authoring systems. You'll find that it's invaluable, as you can scroll back to see past responses. One of the things I hate about Adventuron is that it doesn't do this, so your history is gone every time you move to a new location.

If you're up for a challenge, try to solve the game in the minimum number of moves. You'll need to visit London and the Hindenburg at least once and the other time periods at least twice. If you're interested, you can also find a map and solution on my GitHub page for the game. You might like to compare your map with mine.

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for picking up that hint bug, too. I've fixed it for a post-comp release.

It sounds like you missed something earlier. When on the beach at Krakatoa, go north to the rock platform. There's a cave to the west. Go there.

You've found what you need in London. There's nothing more to do there.

Make sure you've taken something out of the crate at San Francisco, then return to the ship and climb the mast. While you're on the ship, examine the table in the cabin and do what is suggested. You can also examine the thing that was revealed when you examined the table and follow that clue.

Text Adventure Literacy Jam is an annual event that encourages authors to write text adventures (or parser-based interactive fiction) suitable for beginners to the genre. The games must include a tutorial at the start of the game. This is one of the aspects that makes this competition unique. This is the 5th year that the competition has been running and the winning submissions are elligible for some very generous prizes.

The games submitted to Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2025 are now available for playing and judging. All games are free to play for the duration of the judging period, which started yesterday and finishes on 31 May 2025.

7 games were submitted this year. There are some top quality games amongst them, so join in the fun! Everyone that likes text adventures should play and rate these games. If you've never heard of text adventures or never played a text adventure, then these games were designed for you. Give them a go!

Looking good. Love the cover art.

Thank you for the kind words. It was a lot of fun to write, so I'm glad you liked it.

You entry has been received. I can see the submission because I'm the host, but I don't think anyone else can see it. You've got a password on it, so that's good, and not even I can see the game page. Good luck in the comp.

Correct. In your itch.io project page, under Visibility & access make sure you have selected Restricted . This will prevent it appearing in itch.io searches and what have you, which would be a public release. You can set it to Public about 24 hours before submissions close. Perhaps set a reminder in your calendar.

I'll send an email reminder to all participants about 24 hours beforehand. If you forget, it doesn't matter. You'll know, because your game won't appear on the Submissions page after submissions close. If there is a mismatch between the number of entries and the number of games that appear, this is usually the reason why. You can then change it to Public and it will appear. So long as it's submitted before the deadline, you're safe.

You must not give out the link that allows you to play or download the game in a public forum, as this is then a public release. You can exchange details with your testers in private.

Itch.io doesn't allow person-to-person communications, so use one of the resources I suggested and ask for playtesters. They can then send you a personal message and you can send them the download details or email it to them. You can upload your game to itch.io, but make it restricted and add a password. You can then give the link and password to your testers in a personal message.

For anyone else reading this, make sure you get your game tested well before the submission window closes at the end of April. Get as many testers as you can and try to get at least one beginner to play the game as part of your testing. Games that have not been tested always rate badly, so do not skip this advice.

If you don't get any offers, I can playtest it. See the section on Testing on the Overview page. I'd suggest requesting testers on the Discord server or in the beta testing category at intfiction.org so that you can provide download details in a private message. Don't give these details out publically.