Brent’s Computer Game – She’s Got a Thing for a Spring – Continues to Receive Acclaim

PRESS RELEASE
DATE: September 2003
SUBJECT: She’s Got a Thing for a Spring”, Interactive Fiction Game, Continues to Receive Acclaim

The Internet – “She’s Got a Thing for a Spring”, the award-winning computer software game designed and developed by Brent VanFossen, continues to receive high acclaim and notice around the world, especially on the Internet.

Dedicated to his wife, Lorelle, the interactive fiction (IF) game takes the player on an adventure/exploration of a wilderness area. The game features many highlights from their own adventures and travels as professional nature photographers. Using story-telling techniques, the player becomes Lorelle and explores the forest, fields and caves to help her accomplish her mission to meet up with her husband at a natural hot springs. The game won high praise and awards from the Interactive Fiction community and the online magazine, XYZZY, dedicated to this game genre, not only for its unique landscape and perspective in a world filled with science fiction adventure and war styled games, but also for its innovative use of a non-player character, Bob, an energetic and wise retired doctor living out the rest of his years in a log cabin deep in the forest.

Bob is unique because he is the genre’s first “self-sufficient” character, having a life of his own as he wanders around the game’s landscape on his own power and initiative. Bob has a vast vocabulary and interacts so extensively with the player, many go no further than their meeting with him. Brent and Bob won first place in the XYZZY Awards for the Best Character in an Interactive Fiction Game.

You can find more information about “She’s Got a Thing for a Spring” at the VanFossen’s web site at She’s Got a Thing for a Spring, and download your own copy of the game to play for free, and at the following web sites:

• Extensive review of “Spring”
• Reviewer gives “Spring” a 4-star rating
• Home of Verbose, Paul O’Brian’s Interactive Fiction Page. He gives “Spring” a score of 8.9 out of 10
• Baf’s Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive – lists awards, reviews and ratings
• Recommended Reading List and Game Playing List for those wanting to improve their game writing and programming skills. It gives high marks to “Spring” as an example.
• The Best Free Interactive Fiction of the Century collected by Michael Feir, Editor of Audyssey, lists “Spring” as one of the 50 best.
• Sparkynet’s SPAG game reviews featuring “Spring” (SPAG – Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games)
• Transcript of the XYZZY Awards Ceremony giving high accolades to “Bob” and Brent
• Announcement of the IF Competition Awards naming “Spring” as a winner
• Announcement of IF Competition Awards in XYZZY News online mag
• Another “Best of” mention for “Spring”
• Article about the writing and development of a Non-Player Character (NPC) highlight “Spring” as an example of a good NPC

To play the game yourself, visit “She’s Got a Thing for a Spring” or visit an interactive web page to play the game online at Ifiction.org.

For more information on who the VanFossens are and what are they doing as they take their camera on the road, visit their Doing Zone.