Interactive fiction · in the workshop

Sixteen years. One cave.
Now it thinks back.

iVenture is a Zork-style text adventure a father started with his two sons in 2009. Three rewrites and three platforms later, it's still the same cave, except the keeper you meet in the dark now has a mind of his own.

Get in touch See it play
iventure · Don't Forget the Power Plant
The Cave Core. A withered plant droops over dry stone. Something here is dying of thirst. A keeper watches you. > talk keeper The keeper's eyes catch the torchlight. "You were left in charge," he says. "Don't forget the power plant." > get the bucket Taken. > go south The Underground Spring. Water pools black and cold. > fill bucket The bucket brims. > go north > water the plant The plant drinks. Color returns to its leaves. The core holds. You did not forget.
The game today

A small cave you can actually finish.

The first playable slice is Don't Forget the Power Plant. The cave's keeper leaves you in charge with one instruction. At the core, a plant is dying of thirst, and a clock is running. Carry water to it before the core fails, and you win. Dawdle too long and it all goes dark, and you start again.

It grows out of an older, larger dream: an Alchemists' Society and a laboratory hidden in the caves beneath Istanbul, a Pandora backpack of magic items washed downstream, a Magic 8-Ball, a Staff of Infinite Possibilities, a Tome of Endless Knowledge. That world is the horizon. The power plant is the honest first step toward it, something real you can play from start to finish, right now.

The idea that makes it new

It isn't "an AI writes the game."
It's the game's characters can finally answer you.

Hand the whole game to an AI and it drifts, forgets the locks, hands you the ending by accident. So in iVenture the characters can say anything, but they can't do anything the story doesn't allow. The scripts still own every door, key, and clock, which is what keeps the game winnable. The characters just get a voice on top: they speak in character, improvise, and remember, but they can't change what's true. The world stays solid. The people in it come alive.

Under the torchlight

The world plays fair. The characters came alive.

iVenture is a solid, replayable game with an optional mind on top. The world behaves the same way every time; the characters are the only part that improvises, and even they can't rewrite the rules.

The world the rules

Rooms, objects, and actions that behave the same way every time.

  • It reads what you mean, not just keywords: take the sack, examine the 8-ball, go left. Nicknames like ball and keeper just work.
  • Offline by default: no network needed, and it always plays by the same rules.
  • Every turn is saved, so a whole game can be replayed move for move, exactly.
  • The scripts hold everything that's true: what's locked, what's carried, how much time is left.

The minds optional

Give a character a mind and it stops reciting lines and starts answering.

  • Any character can be given a mind. talk keeper, and he replies in character, in his own voice.
  • Just talk: ask keeper about the cave, then a plain follow-up, and he remembers the thread.
  • He comes alive when it's connected; when it isn't, he falls back to his written lines.
  • The rule that keeps it a game: talk never changes what's true. The characters have a voice, not the keys.
Say it your way

Type like a person, not a parser.

Old text adventures made you guess the magic word. iVenture meets you where you type.

> take the sack

Articles, synonyms, and loose phrasing all resolve to the same object.

> examine the 8-ball

Nicknames and shorthand still find the real thing: ball is the 8-ball.

> go left, then down

Directions in plain words, chained the way you'd actually say them.

> talk to the keeper

Start a conversation. If he has a mind, he answers; if not, he recites.

> ask keeper about the cave

Free-form questions route to the right character, who remembers the thread.

> water the plant

And the world quietly checks the clock, the bucket, and whether you win.

Sixteen years, four rebuilds

The same cave, kept alive across a decade.

iVenture is a project a father keeps returning to with his two sons. Every few years the technology changes; the cave doesn't.

2009

An iPhone dungeon, built by hand

The first iVenture: a Zork-style adventure built for the iPhone. Dad wrote the engine; a teenage son drew the title screens and dreamed up the puzzles.

2018

A rewrite, and a language of its own

A ground-up rebuild, this time with a little language of its own, so a cave could be described instead of coded.

2021

Online, and dreaming of a voice

The cave moved online, playable in a browser, with dreams of an Alexa skill, a build-your-own-cave tool, and a Magic 8-Ball that hands out hints.

2026

The characters wake up

The same cave, but now you type like a person and the characters answer in their own voices, with a graphical version and a living, self-running world on the way. Sixteen years on, the cave thinks back.

Straight talk

Where it really stands.

No trailer voice. Here is the honest edge of it today.

True right now

  • A working game you can play in a terminal today
  • One small, winnable adventure, start to finish
  • Plain-English typing that works offline and replays exactly
  • Characters that speak in their own voice once they're connected

Not yet

  • Released or for sale. It's in the workshop.
  • The full Alchemists' Society epic, that's the horizon, not the build
  • A finished graphical version, still in progress
  • The living, self-running world, still on the design table
Get in touch

The cave is still open.
Come see what's down there.

If you like text adventures, interactive fiction, or the idea of a game world whose characters can actually answer you, say hello. Early looks and playtests go out to the people who ask.

$ email hbray@iventure.me

In active development · the engine runs, the game is winnable.