Z-Machine Matter

David Cornelson of TextFyre (publisher of Shadow in the Cathedral, Jack Toresal and the Secret Letter) and longtime IF author has embarked on an ambitious plan to create a new virtual machine, FyreVM.  This new VM will run Glulx (e.g. Inform7) games on a dozen different devices including all the standbys (Windows, Mac, Linux, Web) and  also new mobile platforms such as Android, WinPhone 7, Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry.  The goal of FireVM is to take advantage of specific user interface capabilities on each platform, whether it's the touch screen of the iPad or the 5 way button on the Kindle.

To help with this project, TextFyre has started  a fundraising effort on Kickstarter with a goal of raising $5,000.  To make it interesting, Cornelson is offering several incentives for sponsors:

•  $10  -- A copy of Shadow of the Cathedral game and poster
•  $20  -- A copy of all TextFyre's current products
•  $50  -- A copy of all TextFyre's current products plus two in the works
• $100  -- Your IF game will be commercially published by TextFyre
• $500  -- A Kindle loaded with TextFyre games and a t-shirt
• $1000 --An iPad or Android tablet with TextFyre games and a t-shirt

The Kickstarter funding ends Saturday October 16. I hope you'll join me, Brian Moriarty, Dennis Jerz, Aaron Reed, Andrew Plotkin and others  in making a donation.  Personally, I don't know whether IF can be a commercially viable medium, but it's great to encourage the development of tools and platforms.  Note also that Cornelson is publishing TextFyre under an open source license.

I've sent some questions about what it means to publish a game with TextFyre and I'll update this post as I learn more.

• TextFyre: Main site, Games, Blog, Kickstarter page
• IFDB: The Shadow in the Cathedral, Jack Toresal and the Secret Letter