The Warbler's Nest
Play this game. Or, read a little bit of (non-spoilery) information about it, below.
An interactive fiction by Jason McIntosh
The Warbler's Nest is a short story about a troubled soul, searching for answers among the reeds. I originally wrote it as an entry in the 2010 Interactive Fiction Competition.
It's too short to say much else about, other than the fact that I consider it a work of horror fiction, so do with that what you will.
The most recent version of this game is Release 18, published on November 29, 2010.
Playing it
You can play it right now, in your web browser, courtesy of Atul Varma's fantastic Parchment software. You can also download a copy to play on your favorite IF interpreter, such as Zoom for Mac or for Unix, or Frotz for Windows.
The game is quite short. While it contains several explorable paths, a thorough traversal should take less than half an hour. But if you find youself nonetheless stymied, you can consult a walkthrough.
After you play the game, you might like to read an afterword about the motivation and research that went into its creation.
Unfamiliar with interactive fiction? Please have a look at the wondrous IF guide-on-a-postcard, courtesy of Lea Albaugh and Andrew Plotkin. The game itself also contains some instructive text; type ABOUT at any prompt, then select "How to play" from the resulting menu.
Awards and Kind Words
The Warbler's Nest won the 2010 XYZZY Award for Best Story, and was nominated in two other award categories (Best Individual Puzzle and Best Game).
Judges of the 2010 IFComp ranked The Warbler's Nest among the ten best games that year. It tied for ninth place, in fact; a fine compliment, given the impressive quality of the other 25 games.
Some critical thoughts from around the web (click the names for the full reviews, but beware spoilers):
The Warbler's Nest uses the textual nature of the medium to full advantage.
Experience the truly creepy and realistic dark side of a story you may have idly passed over in your Brothers Grimm collection.
Brooks Reeves, The Quiet Sunday:
This is a nice solid piece of atmospheric dread!
Here’s “Down by the Water” by PJ Harvey. For best effect, redo the story and listen right after you finish.
Christopher Huang, The Breakfast Review:
Oatcakes and farmer's sausage and apple juice. But IS it apple juice?
Credits, Acknowledgments, and Copyright
This work was crafted with Inform 7, a programming language and development environment by Graham Nelson, Emily Short, Andrew Hunter, et al.
Initial playtesters include Ruth Alfasso, Jake Eakle, Kevin Jackson-Mead, Joe Johnston, Mark Musante, and Doug Orleans. Additional testing and critique came from Lise Brodzik, Michael Hilborn, M. Flourish Klink, Andrew Plotkin, Emily Short, and Jack Welch.
Special thanks to the People's Republic of Interactive Fiction and its Grue Street writers' workshop, and to the denizens of the #I7 chat channel on ifMUD.
The game's cover art is based on a photograph of a reed beach by Jan-Eric Nyström, shared under a Creative Commons BY-SA 2.5 license.
This game is copyright © 2010 by Jason McIntosh.
Elsewhere
Non-review pages about The Warbler's Nest, elsewhere on the web: