Time Travel

After Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2024 was over, I just wanted to write a micro interactive fiction to test and learn basics in inform7 before starting to work to a bigger one with the given theme “Time Travel”.  So, I started writing “Home Party”. The first draft was a very small and messy game. When I let someone try for the first time they told me they really didn’t liked the game at all beacause of it was made so badly. 

So I started changing it, expanding and improving it as much as I could.  My profile description on itch is: “Hi, I’m here from my mobile phone. I’m looking for games to play and tools to make games that works on mobile.”  And I really wrote pieces of this game everywhere: in my bed, on a beach, on a plane, and even in a concert venue, waiting for the play to begin.

This game have a lot of flavor text, I enjoyed writing it a lot, even if a lot of it may be hard to be read. (I even had fun writing some error text you should not be able to read at all!).

After I implemented all the puzzles I decided to add also the tutorial, and I loved making it the smoothest introduction I could. So, I decided to let it be ready to be presented at the Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2025 after almost an year I was writing it in my spear time.

This game is inspired and full of memories of my 20s, so, even if I’m not offering players an authentic time travel experience, I had one as an author writing it.

Hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed writing it!🌞

Names

Every character here has a set of possible name (Two or three, not too many) and each of them it is defined random when game starts and will remain the same for the entire game. I think character are more defined by the second part of their name (as an example “the judoka”) so, having variable name, let their name became less important if someone will ever refer to them out of the game. 

Also I like the idea that every player may have a personal name and a personal combination of friends.

I know this may look as an useless detail, but it really metter to me.

Code

You can download the inform7 writing with my notes.

Notes are to let it be more readable (since it can look very much messy to an external eye).

I’m sharing both if someone wants to see how something is coded, and also for anyone who wants to read and discover hidden responses and texts!

Is reading source code like reading the script of a play?

Could this party have been an e-mail?

I could be referring that this hole game could have been an e-mail to some friends I’m not seeing from many years, to remind us when we used to be friends but honestly it is just a random catch phrase to spoiler this is not a serious game, and also to anticipate the mood and generation of the characters of the game.

If nobody likes it, this game could have been a thought I should have kept for myself.

Bye,

Zeno.