All 100 interactive fiction games from my Adventure Snack newsletter have a beautiful new home! The all-new Adventure Snack website collects every game in an easy-to-browse and search site. A big thank you to Mario Vellandi for lending your awesome web design skills to this project. (Mario was an OG Adventure Snack player. He reached out a few years ago to volunteer to make a mobile friendly version of the old site as a portfolio project.)
When I left Substack two years ago, I ended Adventure Snack to start Equip Story on WordPress. That felt like the right thing to do at the time and I’m still happy I did. After making two games a month for 4.5 years, I was feeling a little burn out. And I’m not hearing great things about Substack these days. Their recent data breach is worrying. Their partnership with Polymarket even more so IMO.
My shift from Adventure Snack to Equip Story did present me with a problem. I put all my energy into launching the Equip Story newsletter, but what about Adventure Snack? If people wanted to play those games, their only option was Substack, which I didn’t like. The games languished there for way too long while I figured out what to do.
Originally, I was going to port every game to Ink and put them on Itch.io individually. It would be novel to have Adventure Snack on a site where people are looking for games to play, as opposed to a site where people are looking for anti-vax conspiracy theories to absorb. I experimented with web game ports, but the process was laborious and required a lot of editorial decision making. In other words, I couldn’t hire someone to do it for me. (Though I did try. Sorry it didn’t work out, Matt!)
When I heard rumors that old Substacks were being deleted, I put the effort to preserve Adventure Snack into full gear. My first web designer struggled with the code. I had to wait for him to become available to look at it, and when he finally was free, he didn’t make much progress after several months. When I learned WordPress wasn’t his area of expertise, I realized I should’ve spared him the grief and ended the contract earlier. It all worked out okay with no hurt feelings on either side.
That’s when I reached out to Mario, who I had lost touch with. He succeeded on every level. I think it took us about a month from start to finish. The current site is much slicker and more sophisticated than I expected. I didn’t even ask for dark mode, but there’s a dark mode!
For the last two years, I felt bad that I had abandoned Adventure Snack. My intention was to put a bow on the series, not leave it behind. I wanted to honor all the time, effort, and creativity I poured into the project. This site does exactly that. So, if you haven’t solved your first space murder or reconciled with your moleman father, I invite you to snack on those game and many more.
🎲 Your Turn: Have you ever worked on a project that took way too long? Did you ever finish it? Did you subscribe to Adventure Snack? What’s your favorite Adventure Snack game? I’d love to hear from you! Reply to this email or leave a comment by hitting the orange button below.
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