Saturday, April 09, 2011

Announcing Leadlight

In case you didn't hear the news, there's a new Eamon game out there. Written by Wade Clarke, Leadlight is the first Eamon game to have ever made it into the annual Interactive Fiction Competition. While Leadlight didn't win, it came in 14th place out of 26 entrants, it really offered an opportunity for the IF community as a whole to be exposed to Eamon, perhaps for the first time.

I honestly think that it would have scored better had it not been on the Eamon system. As much as I love Eamon, I think we can all recognize that it is archaic in comparison to modern IF systems. When reading some of the IFcomp reviews, complaints about the game ranged from the lack of modern IF shortcuts to inability to UNDO a death in combat to the chunky lettering on an emulated Apple screen to the random nature of the combat to just the fact that it's on an emulated system.




But there were some good things too! One reviewer called it "the perfect Halloween treat--perfect for a night when you want some creepy thrills" while another states "this game is highly recommended to all those who believe they might like a game with random combat and unfair death traps, for it is surely among the best games of that type." I was surprised by the number of people who weren't completely put off by Eamon! Then again, there were mixed emotions. "I am fascinated to say that I simultaneously got really into this game and also have almost nothing good to say about it."


This snippet of a review may sum it up best:
This would have been a pretty damn good game twentysomething years ago. It has a coherent setting, it's good at gestural, tell-you-as-you-need-it information-delivery, it has hints of a plot that is, if not particularly striking, at least somewhat considered. (It seems highly likely that we're either hallucinating or caused all the horrors with our BRAIN.) The trouble is that IF has improved rather a lot over the past twentysomething years.
Since you're here, reading this blog, I can only imagine that you've played Eamon and are familiar with it. In a way, these complaints are similar to the old complaints about the older v4 Eamons when v7 was widely available.

So what do you think? Have you played it? Are these accusations fair? Should Leadlight be judged compared to modern IF standards or should it be judged in the Apple II/Eamon context which was the basis of its creation?

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Mapping Eamon

I've made many maps during my days of Eamon but have always wanted an easy way to make clean crisp maps. I recently came across Trizbort, a free tool designed for "interactive fiction" uses such as Inform and TADS. That didn't stop me from trying it out on Eamon!

Here's an example map (click for more detail):
The Beginners Cave


Check out http://trizbort.genstein.net/index.php to give it a try.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Eamon on Facebook

Interested in talking to others about Eamon? Want to show your support for the website? Go to the Eamon Adventurer's Guild facebook group and click on the "Like" button!

I want to "advertise" the website, so to speak, but also have a community wall available which would allow discussions to take place. Let me know what you think!

Announcing the Eamon Museum

After eight years, I've decided that development in Eamon is essentially finished, probably forever. As such, I'm converting the website to a type of museum. I'll still maintain some Eamon news via this blog, but formal work on the website will be mostly stopped after I wrap up a few loose ends here and there.

I don't want to say that Eamon is completely dead. This website will continue to stay open as a tribute to the Eamon that was! I simply can't justify spending lots of time on the Eamon website for so relatively little reward.

Keep in touch! I'll still be here...