Varicella (computer game)

Infobox VG
title= Varicella


developer=Adam Cadre
publisher=Self published
designer=Adam Cadre
engine=Z-machine
released= 1999
genre= Interactive Fiction
platforms= Z-machine
modes=Single player
media= download
input= Keyboard

Varicella is a 1999 work of interactive fiction by Adam Cadre, distributed in z-code format as freeware. It is set in an alternate history which features roughly modern technology mixed with Renaissance-style principalities and court politics. The player character is Primo Varicella, palace minister in Piedmont, who has to get rid of several rivals for the regency following the death of the king. The international situation in the game is described in passing: Piedmont is part of a loose confederation of kingdoms that make up a Carolingian League and is engaged in a war against the Republic of Venice.

It won four XYZZY Awards in 1999 including the XYZZY Award for Best Game, and was nominated in four successive instances. [http://wurb.com/if/game/429 Baf's Guide game entry] ] The game was discussed academically by Nick Montfort and Stuart Moulthrop in their 2003 paper "Face It, Tiger, You Just Hit the Jackpot: Reading and Playing Cadre's Varicella". [http://www.msstate.edu/Fineart_Online/Backissues/Vol_17/faf_v17_n08/reviews/montfort.html Fine Art Online: Vol. 17 No. 8] ] Cadre himself claimed in a January 2002 interview that it was the best game he had ever written::"Photopia" has made more of a mark, I suppose, but "Photopia" is a short story; "Varicella" is a world. There are so many things to see and do… it's definitely the game of mine that I'm hoping that future pieces I might create will most resemble, in structure if not in content." [http://www.avventuretestuali.com/interviste/cadre-eng Avventure Testuali interview with Adam Cadre, January 2002] ]

References

All external URLs last accessed 17 December 2006 unless otherwise stated.

External links

* [http://adamcadre.ac/if.html Adam Cadre Interactive Fiction] - download page