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A Modern Text Adventure Game: Mansion Escape v2, in Your Browser!

February 8, 2021

javascript, patreon, programming, video games

Yes, I’ve got some really important news! As a name, Mansion Escape might be familiar to you, if you’ve played its first iteration on Android. But I decided to take this to a whole new level. Mansion Escape is dead, long live Mansion Escape! A modern text adventure game, in the style of the early computer-game era, but updated for modern audiences, with attractive visuals, immersing sounds, and enhanced playability.

More importantly, this is no longer just an Android app. This is a game you can play in any modern browser, be it on mobile, desktop, PC, Mac, or Linux. You can save on your mobile and continue from your PC. Is that cool or what?

But what does a modern text adventure videogame include? What is it about? And where can you try it?

Read on to find out!

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Review of Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami

February 1, 2021

Book Review, Criticism

book, fiction, imagination, Japan, literature, review, society

As you might have noticed from previous reviews, I’m a great fan of Japanese literature. I’m also a great fan of Haruki Murakami as well as Kafka (one of Murakami’s inspirations). And so, Kafka on the Shore felt like a great fit. Alas, it’s probably the most disappointing Murakami story I’ve read.

Why that is will be interesting to analyze, as there are important lessons to learn about how to write symbolism, among other things.

In a nutshell, it takes quite some… skill to alienate your readers from the perspective of symbolism in a context of magical realism.

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How to Write Your First Book

January 25, 2021

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

book, feedback, imagination, writing

Writing your first novel is a big deal. If you pardon the ridiculous metaphor, writing your first novel is not unlike the first time you slept with someone: It’s exciting, scary, fascinating, and – looking back – kind of special yet also pretty “meh”. The trick in learning how to write your first book lies in understanding what to expect.

But there’s more.

To continue the same symbolism, just as a new partner makes it feel like the very first time all over again, you might have written ten books, but you can still get the “writing my first book” experience all of a sudden. In other words, even if you have already written at least one book, this post applies to you too.

Drawing from my own long and sometimes painful experience, in this post I will give you some simple but useful tips on how to write your first book of fiction – whether it’s your literal first or the first book in a new beginning you want to be making.

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