Emily Shortis aninteractive fiction(IF) writer. From 2020 to 2023, she was creative director ofFailbetter Games,the studio behindFallen Londonand its spinoffs.[3][4]
Emily Short | |
|---|---|
 Emily Short in 2010 | |
| Known for | Galatea Counterfeit Monkey |
| Spouse | Graham Nelson[1][2] |
| Website | emshort |
She is known for her debut gameGalatea(2000)[5]and her use of psychologically complexnon-player characters(NPCs).[6]
Short has been called "a visionary in the world of text-based games for years,"[7]and is the author of over forty works of IF.[8]She wrote the chapters "Challenges of a Broad Geography" and "NPC Conversation Systems" for the 2011The IF Theory Reader.[9]
She wrote a regular column on IF forRock Paper Shotgun.[10]
Career
editIn June 2011, Emily Short, withRichard Evans,co-founded Little TextPeople, which explored the emotional possibilities of interactive fiction. It was acquired in early 2012 byLinden Lab.[11]In 2014, Short was let go by Linden Lab, ending the project she was working on, Versu.[12]Around that time, she started the Oxford and London Interactive Fiction Group.[2]
In September 2016, Short was hired by Spirit AI, a roughly 15 person company working onmachine learningandnatural language processing.She joined its board of directors in 2018,[13]and was later named Chief Product Officer.[3]
In January 2020, Short joined the 12 personFailbetter Gamesas creative director.[3]She announced her departure from the studio in January 2024.[14]
Short is one of the members of the advisory board forInteractive Fiction Technology Foundation(IFTF).
Interactive fiction
editWorks
editA number of Short's works have won acclaim at theXYZZY Awards,an annual popular-choice award for interactive fiction.[15][16]Her work has been described by reviewers in terms that range from "mesmerizing" to "frustrating". Her 2003 workCity of Secretswas originally commissioned by a San Franciscosynth-popband, but after they left the project, she completed it on her own.[17]
Of over 11,000 games in theInteractive Fiction Databasein July 2021, Short's gameCounterfeit Monkeyheld the top spot in the IFDB Top 100. In addition to this, another five of Short's games,Savoir-Faire,City of Secrets,Bronze,MetamorphosesandBeequalified into the top 100.[18]
Tools
editWhile many of Short's early games were written inInform,she later experimented with a variety of formats. One such format was Versu, an engine for plot-heavy and story-rich interactive fiction that Short helped develop, and which was later scrapped by Linden Lab, the company owning the engine.[19]Other formats include Varytale, for which she developed the gameBee,[20]and a custom engine by Liza Daly (with help from the companyinkle) for the gameFirst Draft of the Revolution.[21]Both formats use an interactive fiction engine based onhyperlinks.
Short wrote most of the 300+ programming examples in the documentation and created two full-length demo games for release withGraham Nelson's interactive fiction development system,Inform 7.[22][1]
Selected IF works
edit| Association | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XYZZY Awards | 2000 | Best individual NPC | Galatea | Won | [23][24] |
| Best Writing | Metamorphoses | 2nd Place | [23] | ||
| 2002 | Best Game,Best Puzzles,Best Story,Best Individual PC | Savoir-Faire | Won | [15] | |
| 2003 | Best NPCs | City of Secrets | Won | [25] | |
| 2006 | Best Settings,Best NPCs | Floatpoint | Won | [16] | |
| 2012 | Best Game, Best Setting, Best Puzzles, Best Individual PC, Best Implementation | Counterfeit Monkey | Won | [26] | |
| IF Artshow | 2000 | Best of Show | Galatea | Won | [27] |
| Interactive Fiction Competition | 2000 | N/A | Metamorphoses | 2nd Place | [28] |
| 2006 | N/A | Floatpoint | Won | [29] | |
| Games Magazine | 2004 | Best RPG/Adventure | City of Secrets | 2nd Place | [30] |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abShort, Emily (6 September 2015)."Private Games".Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling.Retrieved13 April2022.
One of my larger on-going projects is providing support for the text adventure tool Inform 7. One of the things I do for that project is provide...example games...their first reader has always been my collaborator on the project, Graham Nelson. [...] And, full disclosure, partway through this project I married him
- ^abKrol, Charlotte (14 June 2023)."Emily Short Deserves Her Flowers".NME.Retrieved15 June2023.
- ^abc"Jobs Roundup: Emily Short takes over as creative director at Failbetter Games".9 January 2020.
- ^"Emily Short | LinkedIn".uk.linkedin.Retrieved2024-05-16.
- ^Ryan, Marie-Laure. (2006).Avatars of story.U of Minnesota Press.
- ^Stuart, Keith (5 Jun 2015)."Lonely planet: the solitude of open-world games when the story is over".The Guardian.
- ^Alderman, Naomi (22 Sep 2014)."The magic of words opens a whole new world of fun".The Guardian.
- ^"Emily Short Member Profile".Interactive Fiction Database.2022
- ^Kevin Jackson-Mead, J. Robinson Wheeler. "IF Theory Reader",ifarchive.org, March 2011.
- ^Short, Emily (15 June 2016)."Text Adventures For People Who Hate Guessing The Verb".Rock Paper Shotgun.Retrieved2016-09-06.
- ^"Second Life developer acquires experimental game studio LittleTextPeople".16 February 2012.
- ^"The end of Versu: Emily Short looks back".14 March 2014.
- ^"Interactive fiction specialist Dr Emily Short joins the Spirit AI board".9 August 2018.
- ^"The City in Silver".Failbetter Games.2024-01-18.Retrieved2024-05-16.
- ^ab"XYZZY Awards: Winning Games of 2002".XYZZY news.2002. Archived fromthe originalon 12 February 2009.Retrieved2009-01-19.
- ^ab"XYZZY Awards: Winning Games of 2006".Archived fromthe originalon May 15, 2007.RetrievedMay 12,2007.
- ^"City of Secrets".
- ^"IFDB Top 100"(archived), ifdb.org, 5 July 2021.
- ^Nutt, Christian (14 Mar 2014)."The end of Versu:Emily Short Looks Back".Gamasutra.
- ^"Bee".Dan Q.16 July 2012.
- ^Hamilton, Kirk (24 Sep 2012)."Write (And Re-Write) Letters Of Intrigue In This Fantastic Free Game".Kotaku.
- ^Smith, Graham (9 May 2014)."Informing You: Text Adventure Tool Inform 7 Has Updated".Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
- ^abMullin, Eileen (2000)."XYZZY Awards: Winning Games of 2000".XYZZY news.Eileen Mullin. Archived fromthe originalon 12 February 2009.Retrieved2009-01-19.
- ^"Emily Short: Galatea".Electronic Literature Collection Volume One.Electronic Literature Organization.Archivedfrom the original on 27 January 2009.Retrieved2009-01-19.
- ^"XYZZY Awards: Winning Games of 2003".XYZZY news.2003. Archived fromthe originalon 12 February 2009.Retrieved2009-01-19.
- ^"XYZZY Awards Historical Results".2013.Retrieved2016-01-05.
- ^Parker, Marnie."2000 IF Art Show".IF Art Show.Marnie Parker. Archived fromthe originalon 6 June 2007.Retrieved2009-01-19.
- ^Musante, Mark J. (2000)."6th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition Voting Results".Interactive Fiction Competition.Interactive Fiction Competition.Archivedfrom the original on 25 July 2008.Retrieved2009-01-19.
- ^"12th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition".2006.Retrieved2007-05-12.
- ^McDonald, Thomas L. and Bennett, Dan.The Electronic Games 100.Games.Issue 196 (Vol. 27, No. 10). Pg.58. December 2003.