In May 2021, the winner of a small competition for self-created text adventures was voted. The PunyJam participants had the task of starting the game in a room called Broom Closet. The description of the room was also precisely specified. The rest of the game was left to the imagination and creativity of the author. This resulted in 8 different text adventures which were evaluated by a jury. The decision was very close. The difference between first place and second place was only a tenth of a point.
It is time again: Equipped with the classic fedora and the good old whip in your hand, you are standing in front of an ancient temple to figure out one of mankind's best kept secrets. If you are now thinking about a well-known leather jacket salesman, I am afraid that you are mistaken: We are not talking about the escapades of Indiana Jones, but about Tex Bonaventure on the search for the water of life.
Though honestly, if the licence could have been financed, we certainly would have met Indiana Jones here. 'Tex Bonaventure', on the other hand, is a wordplay on 'Text Adventure', of course, which already gives us an idea of what's to come.
There are some themes which will always belong to the staples of fiction. Exploring a haunted house is one of such mainstays. Look around on this very website and you'll find numerous examples, ranging from good to bad. Today, I will discuss Transparent, a game whose protagonist arrives at such a house as part of a film crew, ready to take some preparatory photos. I guess – player motivation and backstory are largely absent, but this is really not much of an issue as you'll be drawn in soon enough and natural curiosity takes over.