The Great Epic

To all IF enthusiasts,

I'm getting close to the half century mark and since the zx81 I have had a passion for computers and computer gaming - almost 35 years worth!

In those 35 years, the games that are most memorable to me are the ones that held the suspension of disbelief, enveloped my mind in worlds fantastic, whose fidelity superseded the fanciest graphics card, whose vibrancy went beyond the latest color depth. This, of course, is the realm of Interactive Fiction and my own imagination. You need words to tell a good story, and you need logic to provide a good game. Bring the two together and you have a volatile mix of entertainment. So, following my passion, I would like to announce the launch of Interactive Story - an ALL screen size friendly web portal for Interactive Literature.

The Interactive Story portal has four sections, the Editor, the Library, the Reader and the Collaboration.

The Editor:

- is designed to be used on any device regardless of screen size.
- uses a writers approach to Interactive Fiction. Think in terms of scenes with events with actions, where objects and items facilitate the the story progression.
- is tightly integrated with the full development life-cycle (write, test, review, publish and sell).
- is completely free form, there is no special syntax or style to learn.
- prompts you at each stage of the story development, just like playing a game.
- provides bookmarks that let you to test immediately from any scene.
- supports offline editing within your browser.
- allows export and import of story data as XML files.
- lets you publish to your own private online library, which you can download and edit from any other device.

The Library:

- has a children's, teenager's, and mature section.
- lets you develop, collaborate and test your stories in your own private library.
- lets you publish and optionally sell in the public library.
- automatically organizes your collection into published, purchased and currently reading.
- automatically bookmarks your stories in the cloud - continue reading from one device to another.
- supports direct hyperlinks to any story, both public or private.

The Reader:

- automatically provides three levels of story interaction - normal, easy and casual.
- provides an automatic hint system built into each story.
- easily creates and stores bookmarks in the cloud.
- allows preview of the first 'n' scenes (if selling).
- optimized for use on all screen formats.
- optionally lets other readers export to the editor.
- provides a built in rating system for stories and individual scenes.

The Collaboration

Let's get social with Interactive Fiction :)
For fun or for education, the Interactive Story collaborative mode allows any number of individuals to add and modify their own actions, events and scenes to a story. The story development is automatically coordinated within the cloud. Each action/scene acknowledges the author and can be individually rated by the readership. If you want to pioneer this mode of story writing then start with the first public collaboration - The Great Epic. Alternatively, publish a collaborative story privately and get your friends or school group to contribute. Stories of 3000 words or more can be published in the public library.

I look forward to developing and taking IF to new levels of interaction through the Interactive Story portal. Please don't hesitate to offer any comments or suggestions in this forum, or in the official forum at:
http://www.interactive-story.com/forum

Yours sincerely,
Aaron Balint
http://www.interactive-story.com