txt adventure

Before 3D graphics and FPS took over, computer games were a little more literary.  

I've taken an old style text adventure, and attempted to make it playable for the text message generation.

The game was projected onto St John's Church in Cardiff. Passers by would text their commands to the number shown on the church. After a few seconds, they'd be shown the results of their actions as if they'd been typing them onto a keyboard in the old days.

Text adventures tended to be set in Lord of the Rings or Science Fiction type worlds. My game is set in the centre of Cardiff, all around St John's Church - the site of the projection. It was created for the May You Live In Interesting Times festival in 2005.

There's an online version of the game - which you can play by clicking here, or you can enjoy these pictures of the game in action.

me texting the game

and look how happy I am when it works

This is the Rev. Keith Kimber, who's the vicar of St John's Church, standing next to Gordon Dalton of the May You Live In Interesting Times festival.

Here's two things I couldn't be without. On the right is the laptop that runs the game, and on the left is Dean Woolford, who installed the whole thing in the O'Neill's pub.