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Trading Punches

HUGO (Multi-platform) -- 2004

[Screenshot #1] [Screenshot #2] [Screenshot #3] [Screenshot #4]
Title Screenshot Prologue Screenshot From the Prologue From Chapter 1-1

     Five years after writing The Insanity Circle for the 1999 Interactive Fiction Competition, I decided to give it another go with a game in the 2004 Competition. The chief complaint about my prior work was that it wasn't on par with modern parser expectations. That wasn't the only complaint by any means (some others included: cross-platform needs, the dislike of arbitrary puzzles, the funky screen display, etc), and I tried to learn from this when developing Trading Punches. I have plenty of programming languages to try to keep straight already, but I dug in to learn Hugo this time around.

     The result is Trading Punches, the first of a planned five-part epic called The Convergence Saga. While judges were still busy playing and voting on each game, I wrote a sort of pseudo-essay as a self-review, here. I have also updated the game, and the full download for version 1.9 is available. Release notes are available outlining all the changes since the competition version, but the list may contain spoilers unless you have already played through the previous version.

     The game ranked 10th in the 2004 Interactive Fiction Competition. With the third highest standard deviation in votes, it is a game some liked and some strongly disliked. It also received fewer total votes than all but one other game (either it was frequently skipped, or Hugo was inaccessible for a larger number of judges). To play Trading Punches (or any other Hugo game), you must also download and install a free interpreter program for your platform of choice. Hugo is available for DOS, Windows, MacIntosh, Amiga, Linux, PocketPC, and several others. Hugo Authors: The source code to Trading Punches is now available for download here. Feel free to check it out for learning purposes only.

     Download Trading Punches: Part 1 of The Convergence Saga  HERE.
     Or without graphics and music (which is a much smaller .zip file) HERE.