Look, we all have our vices. One of mine is working on my text adventure representation of the UCB Theatre in 2003.

You can go here to play it. Click “Play in-browser"

http://www.willhines.net/if/harold3/index.html

[You can also see the solution or look at the weird source code (game is written in the language Inform 7, a computer language which is grammatically correct!).]

This is a "text adventure” - a style of game first popular in the early 1980s when computers couldn’t support graphics. It is difficult and perhaps incredibly alienating to play! But I used to be a computer programmer and I like noodling with such things.

In this game, you must wander the rooms of the UCB Theatre in NYC, find improv teachers, and also find the items they wish to have. Give them the items in exchange for improv lessons. Once you have all the lessons, you go on stage and do an improv scene. Over the course of the game you meet all UCB4 as well as time-travel to Chicago and meet Del Close. The game has a target audience of about 200 people max.

This update does not fundamentally change that much BUT I DID ADD:

Neil Casey and Chad Carter working on a modem in the box office

an improv Superfan sitting on the bench by the stage giving advice

a few more rooms in the house just to make the world more complete

a more clear walkthrough if you just want to type in the commands needed to win

possible exits listed in the title of every room

an option to leave the theatre and have a normal life

everyone will do crazy 8s with you

you can “get people’s backs” throughout

a few more shows going on on the stage

Other releases which I have done in past months but did not announce:

boldfaced all important things, so you know what you need to focus on

better help screens

more dialogue that hints at what you should do next

I’ve probably introduced errors as well. But there are no mistakes in improv! So that’s good.

The included graphic is the map that is not available to the player. The room “Ar” is the stage (Ar stands for Arena – the word stage was being used elsewhere), the “BO” is the box office, the “GR” is the green room and “Cc” is couches.

oh god, this