J. J. Guest has released Escape from the Crazy Place, an HTML TADS 2 game written over some 22 years. Huh? you are asking. Let me keep you in suspense no longer:
Previously released as a collection of tatty manuscripts, and later in HTML form, it has now been revised and expanded into an HTML TADS 2 game with more than 70 illustrations. The game was described recently as "the best damn thing I've ever seen ever." Despite being disqualified from the recent LOTECH COMP on a technicality, it left the comp judges completely speechless.
I have described the game as a collaborative work. Although the bulk of the writing in the game is mine, a substantial portion was written by friends and siblings. There are three or four pages whose authorship is completely unknown to me, and one was, by my own admission, copied off the back of a packet of Shreddies.
I began writing "Escape from the Crazy Place" when I was thirteen years old, and have now finally finished it, aged thirty-six. In spite of this I still haven't the slightest idea of what it's about.
Greg Boettcher has updated Nothing But Mazes, his entry in the 2006 Introcomp. By downgrading the version of TADS 3 he was using, he was able to create a version that is playable using HyperTADS on a Mac. You can download the new version from Greg's website.
Greg Boettcher has opened the Spring Thing 2007 website. The annual Spring Thing is an interactive fiction competition that is offered as an alternative to the other main annual competition.
Among adventure game fans, Jane Jensen is probably best known for the Gabriel Knight series of graphic adventures. A while back she was scheduled to release a then-untitled adventure game through The Adventure Company, but back in 2004 it effectively vanished. Now the game has reappeared. Now called Gray Matter, the game is scheduled to be published by ANACONDA, a German publisher, in late 2007. What's more, if you're going to be at the Leipzig Games Convention on August 23rd through the 27th, stop by Hall 5, booth G02 to meet Jane Jensen.