Textfyre

Textfyre, Inc. was a commercial publisher of interactive fiction, founded by David A. Cornelson in 2007. It produced two games before pivoting to an education technology platform. After several discussions with various angel investors, VCs, and the Gates Foundation, Texfyre closed due to lack of funding and support.

Games

The Miradania Series, co-designed by David A. Cornelson and Michael Gentry and written by Michael Gentry, is:

• Jack Toresal and The Secret Letter (26-Jun-2009).
• Jack Toresal and The Trial of the Vedd. This was planned, had a rough outline, but never progressed beyond that point.
• Untitled (episode III).

The Klockwerk series, designed by Ian Finley and written by Jon Ingold, is:

• Klockwerk: The Shadow in the Cathedral (06-Nov-2009).
• Klockwerk: The Castle by the Sea. This was planned, but never moved passed that stage.
• Klockwerk: untitled (episode III).

The Giant Leaps series, designed by Paul O'Brian and written by Christopher Huang, will have the following titles:

• Empath's Gift. Jason Dyer has taken it upon himself to help complete this game with the help of Paul and Chris. It will eventually be released for free to the public.
• Untitled (episode II).
• Untitled (episode III).

The Anna Chronicles series, designed and written by Sarah Morayati

• Poets in Peril. Never made it passed planning stage.
• Untitled (episode II).
• Untitled (episode III).

Links

• Textfyre homepage.
• The Textfyre Times (David Cornelson's blog about Textfyre - closed).
• FyreVM Open Source - Textfyre's implementation of a Glulx Virtual Machine written in C# 2.0.

News

• • Westfield Chandler Publishing - December 2006 announcement.
  • Westfield Chandler Publishing Status - February 15, 2007.
  • Textfyre - March Update - March 13, 2007.
  • Textfyre - Ownership - April 9, 2007.
  • Textfyre - April Update - April 9, 2007.
  • May Update - May 13, 2007.
  • Textfyre - Undesigner - May 15, 2007.
  • Textfyre June Update - June 5, 2007.
  • Textfyre Announcement - June 24, 2007.
  • Third Design/Writing Team - July 26, 2007. (Also in the blog.)
  • Textfyre article on Gamasutra - September 17, 2007.
  • Textfyre and Infocom - September 20, 2007. (Also in the blog.)
  • Textfyre - The Time Nears - January 9, 2008.
  • Textfyre - Comic/Chapter Book Writer - March 12, 2008.
  • Announcement: FyreVM released as Shared Source - May 1, 2008.
  • Textfyre and Dictionaries - May 6, 2008.
  • FyreVM Shared Source - May 9, 2008. (Also blog post.)
  • Textfyre - Jack Toresal and The Secret Letter Go On Sale This Month - June 5, 2009. (Also blog post.)
  • Textfyre Launch - June 10, 2009. (Also blog post.)
• David Cornelson: Build A Business For Interactive Fiction - article from SPAG #38, September 28, 2004.
• Q&A: Textfyre's Cornelson On An IF Resurgence - September 17, 2007.
• The SPAG Interview (joint interview with David Cornelson, Michael Gentry) - SPAG #50, December 3, 2007.

Reactions

• The Return Of Text? - Scorpia's Gaming Lair blog posting by Scorpia, September 19, 2007.
• Textfyre - The second craziest thing I've heard today! - TIGSource blog posting by Xander, September 24, 2007.