This was supposed to be an easy job to earn some money the summer before college, but Joe has an impossible list of chores for you every evening. He’s the owner and only he handles the truck rentals, but somehow you need to move a lot of boxes around for a ‘self’ storage business with no visible customers. For the record, nobody knows who Al is and you’re not actually sure what’s up with the psychic readings.Why couldn’t you have found a job at the mall like everyone else?
Anyhow, you walked in, and Joe handed you a list. He seemed in a hurry to leave, but whatever, the sooner you finish the sooner you can get away with a nap in the break room.
This is my third released project, created for the ParserComp 2022.
You awake. You are lonely, so lonely. It was a thousand days ago today. All alone these thousand days. Your parents were the last. No, your father was the last. He held on for nearly a hundred days longer. Now you are the last. Alone. Adrift.
But maybe it isn’t hopeless. There must still be other people in other worlds, and you think you know how to get there.
Today is the day.
Founder’s Mercy is my second released project, created for the 2019 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction.
“Don’t forget,” your mother said, “your Granny’s arthritis has been acting up since the weather last week. She’s been in bed since Thursday. I need you to take her this basket first thing. When you get back, you can play Nintendo or whatever until I get home from work.”
You grunted something like “ok,” and she drove off, leaving you standing there with a basket.
Red is my first released Inform project, a retelling of the classic fairy tale.
If you’re new to interactive fiction games, you may want to take a look at Welcome to Interactive Fiction or A Beginner’s Guide to Interactive Fiction by Stephen Granade and Emily Short.
Copyright © 1998–2023 Thomas Insel