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Just finished it, and I really dug the commentary. It's always fascinating reading the writer's insights into what went into his work, so kudos for that. It's curious to hear the backstory you had planned for Sam - in my mind, the rampant eye swirving thing was a possible to the fact that maybe he was just a guy in a tux operating under the delusion he was a secret agent after an all night bender of espresso and a Roger Moore boxset.

But yeah. Okayish game, awesome commentary. Looks like you've really come a long way as a writer too, if you can pick up on what really didn't work and why.

I felt that now would be a good time to take soundings on a two parter I've been brainstorming for some time. The Reality Underground has been an interesting concept that has sadly remained untouched for a while, outside of oblique references to it in Defender of RON and a full on (albeit sadly brief) exploration in Everything Begins with an M. As of now, we have a more or less blank canvas of tunnels, hidden rooms, passageways, caverns, chambers, tombs and crypts. I'd like to do a couple of shortish games that might ultimatly precipitate the Underground getting used more and more, and hopefully resulting in an ever expanding mapping out.

Anyway - the plot centres around Thakbor, who discovers a rather familiar looking house while lost in the middle of Reality Forest. Exploring the house, he comes across the entranceway to Reality's vast network of underground pasages, offering almost limtless possibilities for adventure and riches. But what starts out as one of his standard 'pick up anything shiny' jaunts soon becomes something far more noble as he and his companions find the house's occupier in the tunnels below - and learn of his exile from the Magical Inquisition of the Great Empire of Quendor...

The two parter (one on the surface, the other in the underground) will feature a number of Zork references with regards to spells, themes and story (the latter having links to certain events from Grand Inquisitor), but it's more a case of the classic Zork text adventure tone I'm trying to shoot for - that whole 'spirit of exploration' malarky that was so good about the original trilogy. It certainly won't be a case of dropping characters and locations from established games into RON, the focus will be solely on the RON underground as opposed to doing something hackneyed like taking characters and dumping them into the Zork universe. Plus I think it's about time that Thakbor had a good old fashioned quest type romp.

I've got a rough design doc for the first game, along with an outline of the backstory planned out. I'll probably be developing this idea a lot more in the coming days, so keep checking back. I leave with some artwork done by Mr Flibble of a landmark I'm sure we are all familiar with:

I love topic necrophilia. Don't you love topic necrophelia?

Hang a lampshade on it, and it will all be good.

Also, if you think it will help, we can send to you what RI and I have done of Virtual Reality so far, if you want to use the most recent backgrounds/map screens.

Celebrity: Go for it. Do it right and there will be much lulz to be had.

Scids Beach bar: Could be done, if you think George could be a Fangio-esque 'recurring barman'. Don't forget that Phil Nihilist is also a barman at Scids (or Dave? The Nilihist who isn't at Yahtzeebrand), so he remains a possibility.

I assume that The Spoons II is now going to be one of those 'missing' stories like Leisure Suit Larry IV or Red Dwarf Season 9?

Cool beans, I'm pretty sure a lot of us here would be happy to take a butchers. Brent Williams (aka Brentmous) in particular might be a good chap to swing your ideas by - he's currently working on a Max Griff mystery himself, 'Dial F for Fedora', so with anything relating to dialogue and story (outside of teh DaveG, of course), he's a good mind to pick.

Having said that, I haven't seen him about lately, not since the forum/website switchover. Hope we haven't lost him, a frood most hoopy he is.

Anyway, in the meantime, feel free to post a brief synopsis here if you want some prelim feedback. If the general idea is deemed kosher, then we'll be more than up for seeing the full design doc.

You went to see it? Sweet! Yeah, been posted before, but in a way it was one of the most biggest things recently to kickstart the whole reinterest in RON, so nothing but good can come from giving it as much exposure as possible. I'm thinking it might be a very good thing to have it embedded on the site somewhere.

I'm doing some work on VR tonight, I plan to link up as many of the rooms that RI has put into the build as possible. A quick question - would people be interested in seeing 'rough cuts' of it as more is added, or would it be better to wait until it's as complete as possible first (backgrounds, people AND dialogue)?

Yes. Yes I would recommend this.

I dunno Chief, Myst is doing rather well on the iPhone.

Glad you're having fun with it all, Hudders. Yeah, take that order they're referred with a pinch of salt - I added them in the order they were originally posted, not chronologically. There IS a rough timeline that RI threw together, but I can't remember if it's updated or not. I know it needs trimming to filter out the standalone/non-canon games, but it might be of use.

Ah, here we go. See, I have my uses. 

There are also video reviews for Vengeance of the Chicken and I Spy.

Hmm... Im wondering if any of these can be edited together to give interested parties some 'highlights' as to important stuff.

Good to have ye back in the fold, Richy. I did enjoy your games, and I still hold out hope that The Spoons trilogy ye had planned will continue. Have you played Brent's 'Rock: A True Story'? They've been used to great effect there.

Project Recap (or 'Virtual Reality' as it's come to be known now) has a pretty good foundation laid now. Around 150 odd rooms have been put together, and there's now a sense that the town is a cohesive entity as opposed to a collection of disjointed rooms. When my exams are over I'm going to be stringing them all together, so hopefully anyone playing will have a pretty good idea where every location is and how it all fits together. When that's done, we can start adding characters and dialogue that explains them, the locations and key events. I think your contributions would be most excellent, I've always wanted to see The Spoons and your other locations/characters get some more use.

Go for it, that man. Sounds interesting indeed.

(Is it me, or have a LOT of RON oldies been resurfacing as of late?)

I think Twitter is a pretty cool guy, eh spouts irrelevance and doesn't afraid of anything.

Also, get away from me James Joyce.

Hell, both DC and Marvel had to result to retcons on several occasions from having so many characters and story arcs get out of hand, so it's not surprising that RoN would benefit from a tweak here and there .

Crisis on Infiinte RONs! Now all we need is a nice picture of a grieving Michael Gower holding a limp Mika while everyone else looks on. It would be rebootalicious!

WANT WANT WANT DEAR GOD WANT

Here's Lunchtime of the Damned, Jet's done a couple of the older games too.

And don't worry, it's on the cards. Somewhere behind the primer (which has about 145 rooms and counting now).

A number of the older games have been given the recompiling treatment, including The Repossessor, Monty on the Norm, Paranormal Investigaton and The Underworld - I'd recommend checking those out as well.

There are talks of a remastered version of Lunchtime of the Damned, with improved graphics, extra puzzles and whatnot. I've got the resources sitting on my desktop, when my exams are over I'll be posting them.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure it would take the best part of a week to recompile a new version of the original.

He was playing the surreal card a lot. A LOT lot.

If he wants them removed, then I would respect his wishes. I know they become part of the RON community, but I think some element of property has to remain with the individual creators.

I like the part when he walked.

Don't worry Ghost... despite all the haters, your efforts were not wasted! 

despite all the haters

all the haters

haters

... Paul Fetch?