A Change in the Weather
Encyclopedia
A Change in the Weather is a 1995 work of interactive fiction
by Andrew Plotkin
, in which the player-character is caught in a rainstorm while out in the countryside. It won the Inform
category at the inaugural 1995 Interactive Fiction Competition
. The game was included on Activision
's 1996 commercial release of Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom
.
The game is unusual in that its objective - to prevent a bridge, that the hero crosses early in the game, from being destroyed by the storm - is not apparent from the outset. The player has the option of simply walking away at the start of the game and never crossing the bridge, which ends the game immediately. Once the bridge has been crossed, the game ends immediately if the bridge is destroyed - although the ending states that the player character was able to safely return by other means, regardless. Likewise, if the player manages to save the bridge, they are simply returned to the start location, where all they can do is to leave by the same means that was available at the very start of the game, yielding the same ending message, but with an additional quote at the end. The game is thus taken to represent a literary message about the intrinsic value of personal experiences.
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
by Andrew Plotkin
Andrew Plotkin
Andrew Plotkin , also known as Zarf, is a central figure in the modern interactive fiction community. Having both written a number of award-winning games and developed a range of new file formats, interpreters, and other utilities for the design, production, and running of IF games, Plotkin is...
, in which the player-character is caught in a rainstorm while out in the countryside. It won the Inform
Inform
Over the following decade, version 6 became reasonably stable and a popular language for writing interactive fiction. In 2006, Nelson released Inform 7 , a completely new language based on principles of natural language and a new set of tools based around a book-publishing metaphor.- Z-Machine and...
category at the inaugural 1995 Interactive Fiction Competition
Interactive Fiction Competition
The Interactive Fiction Competition is one of the best known of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours playing a game before deciding how many points to award it...
. The game was included on Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
's 1996 commercial release of Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom
Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom
Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom is a collection of 33 computer games from interactive fiction pioneer Infocom, and the top 6 winners of the 1995 Interactive Fiction Competition, released in 1996...
.
The game is unusual in that its objective - to prevent a bridge, that the hero crosses early in the game, from being destroyed by the storm - is not apparent from the outset. The player has the option of simply walking away at the start of the game and never crossing the bridge, which ends the game immediately. Once the bridge has been crossed, the game ends immediately if the bridge is destroyed - although the ending states that the player character was able to safely return by other means, regardless. Likewise, if the player manages to save the bridge, they are simply returned to the start location, where all they can do is to leave by the same means that was available at the very start of the game, yielding the same ending message, but with an additional quote at the end. The game is thus taken to represent a literary message about the intrinsic value of personal experiences.