Bard Jam

It looks like there is a Shakespeare-themed IF jam beginning in a few days: itch.io/jam/bard-jam

Looks awesome! I might do this - gives me an excuse to bone up on my Shakespeare, if nothing else.

Shakespeare - dead 400 years (exactly 400 years in a couple of weeks) and still causing people to bone up.

Ryan North’s Romeo And/Or Juliet will be released just outside the running of the jam! (well by a month)

That was your first thought when you saw this thread too?!

Well, actually, my first though was Robin Johnson’s Hamlet. My SECOND thought was Romeo And/Or Juliet.

When I saw the jam I thought of The Tempest. Only what, 19 years early?

I see what you did there.

I’m curious to see what directions the extended theme to be unveiled on the 31st will suggest. My first thought was something like Die Hamletmaschine as IF, which tells you something about where my brain is most of the time.

Clearly not subtle enough. I’ll have to work on my subtletly.

Let me see… Which Shakesperean play would be best to teach me subtlety, restraint… Hmmm… What’s this one, “Titus Andronicus”? I’ll give it a whirl!

You should watch the movie, it really emphasizes that subtlety and restraint.

I might enter this one. Just one question: Does the game need to be written in Early Modern English (the dialect of Shakespeare)? If not, I’ll start reading Shakespeare now.

I can’t speak for the organizer, but I don’t see any rules about dialect on the web site, so I would tend to think however you want to do it is fine.

Looks like the additional theme doesn’t add much to think about: you just have to incorporate one of three Shakespearean phrases.

And yeah, it looks like the guidelines are (I assume intentionally) pretty vague. It would seem to cover everything from a straight-up adaptation of one of his plays, to a modern reworking of one, to an entirely new story in a “Shakespearean style,” and more. I’m taking that as more or less carte blanche, but if you’re worried about it there’s a discussion forum on the jam site itself where I’m sure the organizers would be happy to answer questions.

It’s easy, ya just talk like this

“Zounds! Thou art thine own worst enemy. Thou wouldst give me 10 of thy finest Earthe dollares for such a broawrdsword as THIS one? Prithee, say ‘Yea’ if ye truly thinkest ye should.”

That’s totally how Shakespeare – or Anonymous, as I like to think of him – OR HER – tin-eared all the dialogue.

In truth, when I read the topic title, I hoped it would be about ‘The Bard’s Tale’.

-Wade

For some reason I thought it was going to turn out to be something sponsored by that college in upstate New York.

Hi. I organised the jam. I hadn’t realised a discussion about it was going on here - I’d have replied sooner. I decided to keep the rules vague to encourage a variety of styles of game and interactive fiction, just as long as text and Shakespeare are the key features of the game. I’m not sure if keeping it vague was the right thing to do, but I’ll find out in a few days time when all the entries are submitted. Hopefully some of you will have taken part. Thanks. [emote]:-)[/emote]

It’s a neat jam idea. Unfortuately I didn’t come up with any good ideas for an entry. But feel free to advertise future IF jams here if you’d like. [emote]:)[/emote]

Thanks bg, I’ll remember to mention any other interactive fiction jams I organise on the forum in future. In the end there were 6 entries. I enjoyed playing through all of them. itch.io/jam/bard-jam/entries [emote]:-)[/emote]

  • Gary