intfiction.org

Has everyone bought their copy yet? It's AWESOME!

http://zarfhome.com/meanwhile/

Does it have a purely branching structure or does it rejoin? I'm assuming that if it was first published in hardcopy it doesn't have any state-tracking...

Going off the hardcover (to which I believe the app is extremely faithful), there are some puzzles where you need to have found codes, and there may be a loop or two. Also going off the hardcover, it's awesome and if you're thinking you might want it, you do.

Doesn't run on any hardware I own.

It has state-rejoining, yes.

It has state-tracking in a couple of senses -- information-based, but still significant. There are a couple of security codes that you have to discover. And, more generally, the story only really makes sense once you understand the full sequence of events, which takes a couple of go-rounds.

All of this was in the original book, of course. Deciding how to render it in the app was an interesting question. I could have locked in the puzzles -- forcing you to go "discover" the security codes before making use of them, in a single run-through. But t seemed like a terrible idea. The way I set it up, you can "cheat" by flipping around randomly (as you can in the book). I figure people can approach the understanding of the story from that direction or not, as suits them.

I bought the hardcover not long ago at my local comics-shop through Diamond Previews catalog. In fact It was Shiga's latest work which catched my attention in it. It was Empire State, A Love Story (Or Not). Meanwhile was offered as well and just out of curiosity I ordered both.

I just loved Empire State, and for pure chance I read it almost simultaneously with Adrian Tomime's Shortcomings, which offered a radically different view on a somehow similar subject (asian-american nerd makes all the travel from nowhere to New York City in an attempt to get back in touch with a lost love and finds...). Hey! if I had the time I would talk about it all in an hipotetical comics category at my blog thing!

Back on Meanwhile. It's cheerfully fun and worth every second you spend taking a walk through its panels. If there ever is an Android version I would happily buy it and make the tour again!

Some pics with a page of the book and some blatant subliminal propaganda of my work in prog... eer, no, no, the three aforementioned books!

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English posts in my blog!

Odd presumption, considering how common state-tracking is among the hardcopy CYOAs on my bookshelf

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Games, Fonts, and Font-Toys For Gamers - http://www.cumberlandgames.com

Any plans for a PC version?

No, sorry.

what about android?

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IF without puzzles is simply like a novel where you turn pages by typing "go north" or other silly and useless nonsense.