The continues adventure

Though Scott never fully left adventure game writing behind – since the demise of Adventure International in 1985, he has produced several text adventures, including a sequel to Pirate’s Island – in January

2018, together with his wife Roxanne, he launched Clopas LLC, which now has a dozen employees. Their first project is Escape The Gloomer, based on the book Mossflower, the second in the Redwall series. “It’s been an incredibly fun ride,” says Scott. “The game is a ‘Conversational Adventure ™’, which is a fusion of standard text adventures (puzzles), interactive fiction (heavily story-based) and some extra special bits we’ve added. It’s fully voice acted, music scored with sound effects and contains chapter illustrations like a book. It’s designed to be fun for the hardcore puzzle gamer and those who don’t really play games at all.” The game should be available on Steam for PC and Mac as you read this, and Scott adds that mobile versions are planned, plus they’ve been toying with the idea of producing a version for Amazon’s Alexa using voice controls. It’s an intriguing concept and one that shows how eager Clopas is to attract those new to the joys of text. “One of our playtesters said she never plays games and only watches others play,” he says. “She spent days at our office playing through it. She was hooked!” It’s good to have the Chief Adventurer back.