Jim Nelson's Blog, page 9

SPSFC: New Worlds Await

I’ve teamed up with my fellow writers in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) to put together a special deal. We’re offering for a limited time downloading our books or selections from them. Here’s your chance to download over twenty books from work under consideration in the competition.

Included is my cyber-noir thriller In My Memory Locked, as well as plenty of other selections from all over the sci-fi gamut.

Published 31 October 2021.

IFComp 2021: Closure

See here for my IFComp 2021 scoring and reviewing rubrics.

The headline for Closure by Sarah Wilson is “An ill-advised sad teen heist.” That truly is an appropriate summation for this quick and tidy parser game.

Closure opens with a Mad Libs series of questions (“What’s an activity you like doing around the house on a day off?” and so forth) before launching straight into the situation at hand. You receive a text message from your friend Kira:

i did something totally cool and norm...

IFComp 2021: What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed

See here for my IFComp 2021 scoring and reviewing rubrics.

Amanda Walker’s What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed opens with a scene that could have been cut-and-pasted out of any number of text adventures from the days of yore: A bare room, a closed door, and a locked wooden chest. However, before this comes an introduction suggesting all is not as it seems:

…as you try to bring your hand to your eyes, you have no sense of your hand. No sense of your eyes. It is a strange sort of seeing....

IFComp 2021: Unfortunate

See here for my IFComp 2021 scoring and reviewing rubrics.

Unfortunate by Jess Elizabeth Reed opens with a straightforward yet unusual premise: You and your frenemy Lux, both amateur fortune tellers, agree to a bet:

If you could give accurate readings to everyone at the party, then they would teach you what they know. But it [sic] you couldn’t, then you’d be banned from doing readings at their house ever again. Somewhat stupidly perhaps, you accepted the challenge.

This isn’t fortun...

IFComp 2021: The Song of the Mockingbird

See here for my IFComp 2021 scoring and reviewing rubrics.

The Song of the Mockingbird by Mike Carletta is an Old West tale with a heart of gold and a country-style sense of humor. You are a singing cowboy known as the Texas Mockingbird, although you prefer folks called you “Boots” Taylor. Your sweetie has been kidnapped by the Black Blade and his gang of outlaws. Black Blade also saw fit to relieve you of your sidearm, so it’s only you, your wits, and your guitar (nicknamed “Lulabelle...

IFComp 2021: And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One

See here for my IFComp 2021 scoring and reviewing rubrics.

And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One is a lighthearted and inventive game about growing up in the 1980s. It’s chock-full of nostalgia for members of Generation X (raises hand): Its copious use of ASCII art, the righteous mix tape, awesome BBS’, and the totally bogus INSERT DISK #2 when your pirated copy only has disk one. I don’t know how well this all translates for younger players, but I bet most will be sa...

IFComp 2021: Plane Walker

See here for my IFComp 2021 scoring and reviewing rubrics.

Plane Walker is an intriguing thriller that starts aboard an empty plane. Not just any plane—you wake up mid-flight to discover you’re a passenger aboard a jumbo jetliner devoid of travelers or crew. Your destination on your ticket has been mysteriously defaced. While this rings out like the set-up for a Twilight Zone episode or a Hollywood action movie, the opening lines hint at something more thoughtful:

You awaken to the ...

IFComp 2021: Ghosts Within

See here for my IFComp 2021 scoring and reviewing rubrics.

Ghosts Within is a game of mystery and suspense set in and around the quiet fishing village of Foghelm. The game’s ABOUT command reveals author Kyriakos Athanasopoulos wrote it

as part of his Diploma thesis on Interactive Fiction, for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Patras, Greece! It is the first-ever attempt of the author to create such a game.

Ghosts Within opens with a combinat...

IFComp 2021: Scoring and review rubrics

This year I’m judging entries in the 2021 Interactive Fiction Competition (“IFComp 2021”). Over the next month or so, I’ll play as many of the entries I can manage and post mini-reviews here and at intfiction.org.

If you want to join in, all are welcome to judge! Go to ifcomp.org/ballot to get started.

Scoring rubric

IFComp suggests judges devise a scoring rubric before starting. Here’s mine, which borrows liberally from their example rubric:

Rating of 10: Mind-blowing. A gam...

“Man in the Middle” reviewed by Salty Air Publishing

Over at Salty Air Publishing, Paul Raymer reviews my COVID-19 novel Man in the Middle:

It is interesting that both Nelson and his character are unsure of what to do—how to react to the pandemic. Back in March of 2020 it was all new in terms of how to confront the disease, whether it was going to be short term and over in six months or long term and be with us for a long time. Some of the characters don’t seem to care—and that’s still true. …

The world is portrayed as gray, as a world after...