Clash Of The Type-ins

Dan Schmidt, yes THAT Dan Schmidt, presents his 1999 game all about how the sun is gone and you have a rock. Its surreal landscape and mind-curling puzzles succeed in puzzling the heck out of Ryan and Jenni to the point where you can actually hear them thinking (it sounds like long periods of silence). Also in this episode: Keyboard Settings of the Podcast Stars, GIRP Bird, and Jenni Explains ASMR.

Ryan relates the spooky tale of ill-fated archaeologist Anne Chambers, and then he and Jenni spend about an hour trying to decide what it "means." You might want to turn that Podcast Dead Air Eliminator option back on. AND: Kickstarter backers' custom commands, Part 2 of 2!

A playthrough of Andrew Plotkin's text parser tutorial game serves as a focus for many interesting discussions, such as, did you know Ryan also wrote a tutorial game? He will mention it as many times as it takes. PLUS: Kickstarter backers' custom commands, Part 1 of 2!

Former author of all interactive fiction Andrew Plotkin discusses the MIT Mystery Hunt, reveals the merest glimpse of the eldritch realm of institutionalized Doctor Who fanfiction, and somewhere in the middle manages to present to us a game that is based on an XKCD strip as well as other things.

Harried by understandably upset crows, Jason and Jenni trudge cromulently through Ryan's interactive documentary. Jason explains why we type "take inventory" instead of something else. Ryan says "omniscient" when he means "omnipresent." Jenni throws her chips across the room.

Jason McIntosh is the author of one of IF's most famous and influential works, and he is also the author of the game Calliope, which Ryan and Jenni play for about 20 of this episode's 112 minutes before returning to their familiar situations, having changed.

Doug and Jenni play through a tale of intrigue and mystery featuring the kindly Doctor Langridge and the Doctor's evil twin Sid. In Craverly Heights, very little is as it seems, in those cases where anything even seems in the first place.

This episode is not for the faint of stomach! Doug Egan brings us his 2008 game about a right-handed health inspector, forcing his right-handed worldview down Jenni and Ryan's throats. We're never going to reach a solution if we don't start a dialog.

Carl and Jenni try their best to play another TMBG game that Ryan wrote, but Fate has other plans in hand. The upshot is that this episode is shorter than most other episodes. Because of a problem.

Carl Muckenhoupt's game about a They Might Be Giants song provides opportunities for everyone to thank everyone else, and then apologize to everyone else, and then Jenni almost gaslights Ryan into thinking he gaslighted her into thinking she had a catchphrase. Then everyone thanks everyone else again.

Dan and Jenni navigate dank steam tunnels and windy towers, following the gossamer wisp of Ariadne-thread which we call 'game design.' Other vocabulary items: 'Catharsis.' 'Linearity.' 'Environmental storytelling.' 'Escutcheon.'

It is incumbent on Dan and Jenni to play a game that Ryan wrote, and so we three treat you to a game that Ryan wrote, all about how tortured and brooding he is. It is some surprise that Ryan has never swooshed around in a cape while pretending to be a vampire! Well, not in any structured ludic context, anyway.

As the protagonist of Slouching Towards Bedlam struggles to decipher a mystery of supracosmic proportions, Dan Ravipinto struggles arguably more valiantly to showcase this selfsame game to Ryan and Jenni, who, it seems, at times, would rather be watching 'The Secret World of Alex Mack.'

Dan Ravipinto brings us a supremely creepy IF Comp winner, and Ryan and Jenni proceed to goof on it incessantly. Dan says this game won 'a couple' of XYZZYs, but what really happened was, it was nominated in eight out of ten categories and won in four of them. None of those numbers qualify as 'a couple.'

In the thrillbinding conclusion of Jenni and Hamish playing Dial C for Cupcakes, a corpse is investigated, a hallucination is not interactive, and a ghost appears! Pretty scary, boys and girls!

This episode starts out with Ryan asking if GDC has 'terrible live shows,' but he wasn't implying that any live shows at GDC would be terrible! He was saying that if Clash of the Type-Ins did a live show at GDC, it would be terrible. Only self-deprecation was intended. No other kinds of deprecation. Anyway in this episode Hamish and Jenni play a game about cupcakes.

Hamish McIntyre brings us a spooky story about a vampire in the desert. Surrounded by dunes, Jenni and Ryan struggle to find shelter before the sun rises. PLUS: Game Design Tips And Tricks; A Dog That Is Also A Gun; Graham Nelson's Voice.

In the scant minutes left before he has to leave for dinner, Jim Crawford plays Ryan's game about a sinking ship. Will he survive to see the high score table? PLUS: Jenni explains the etymology of 'abaft.' Ryan explains why he thought the dagger stuck in the mast was a remotely good idea. Jim explains why Inform 7 is stupid.

Jim Crawford shares with us the text adventure part of Frog Fractions, after we discuss linguistics and Animal Crossing for about fifteen minutes. Certain people take fractions far more seriously than Jim could ever have predicted.

Crazed with power, Ryan demands that Emily Short and Jenni play a game he wrote about a person who keeps yakking about being in a coma. The person in the game does not necessarily depict Ryan. I want to make that clear.