Incanus

Juan Sebastián Armas is better known as Incanus.

History: Me and IF

It all began, back to the very begining, on an old school's friends project; it was conceived among friends, never really developed, then abandoned for university pursuits, and finally brought back on my own first professional years (computing and such, not quite original, I know). And so it was that, still way back (July 1998), I coded my first adventure game.

Well... such as it was. I didn't had many resources, back then: no Internet access, hardly a PC to work on... so (knowing zilch about parser languages) I dusted off an old 80's game programming theory book (..!..) and made up a little program on QBasic 1.1 (God, was it all precarious) with the bones of an IF: parser, places, objects, vocabulary and a few NPCs (actually, objects + vocabulary).

The resulting mongrel of a game was played and criticiced by a few close friends and relations... but I never persued it any further.

Cut to 6 years later, on or about mid 2004, my interest on IF revives... so I resurrected said adventure, using InformATE (spanish library for Inform 6.30).

As for what happened since then, read on...

Author Credits

So far, I've created the following Adventure Games:

• La Mansión (06-Jan-2005; Z-code; Spanish). Webpage.
  My first adventure game. It's a mystery and sci-fi (I hope) game that takes place on an old manor, with many rooms, many corners... and many a strange thing (suspense...). You can see the tech specs here.
• El Protector (20-Jul-2005; Z-code; Spanish). Webpage.
  A small ecologycal survival tale, sci-fi style, takes place on a strange world with vast savanas... and merciless Hunters prowling. You can see the tech specs here.
• Goteras (23-Jun-2006; Z-code; Spanish). Premios Hispanos 2006 winner: awarded Best Story (Mejor Argumento), Best Writing (Calidad Literaria) and Best Puzzle. Webpage.
  A "hard" sci-fi short tale; the "disaster in space" classic... with some humorous twists. You can see the tech specs here.
• Macetas (30-Aug-2007; Z-code; Spanish). FICOMP winner: awarded Best Adventure and Best Story. Webpage.
  A "hard" sci-fi long tale; you finally arrive at the mining asteroid... and a taxing company's assignment awaits you. Sequel to Goteras. You can see the tech specs here.
• Afuera (21-Dec-2007; Z-code; Spanish). III Mini Comp entry. Webpage.
  A sci-fi short tale; you're a prisoner, a convicted criminal, doing time in the higher levels of the Pyramid, and now you're getting ready to go... Outside. You can see the tech specs here.
• Ofrenda a la Pincoya (01-Oct-2008; Z-code; Spanish). La Comp Más Monstruosa winner: awarded Best Overall Score and Best Documentation. Webpage.
  A Chiloé's mythology tale; You're a young Chiloe's fisherman, trying to get your creek's favor back from la Pincoya. You can see the tech specs here.

Keep in mind: these games are in Spanish, and I won't be translating them to English any time soon.

Review and Article Credits

• SPAC #41 - A Testing Methodology. Generic methodology to perform an IF game testing. Article in Spanish.
• SPAC #49 - An Adventure Craft Methodology. Generic methodology to create an IF game. Article in Spanish.
• Adventure Genres, published on SPAC 2.0. Article in Spanish.

Organizational Credits

• Mantains InformATE! Inform's spanish translation library InformATE webpage.
• Mantains WikiCAAD - The Spanish IFWiki.
• Betatested CellarDoor, a Z-machine and Glulx interpreter for PalmOS.
• Maintains Almacén de la Aventura, a spanish website with Windows installers for individual adventures, since January ' 2008. Some of the installers are also of his making.
• Maintains Kit del Programador de InformATE, an InformATE programmer's Windows installer toolkit, and AventurATE, a spanish gamer's Windows installer toolkit, since June' 2008.

Links

• Author's page (Spanish)
• Author's page (English)
• Author's blog (Spanish)
• Baf's Guide listing for Incanus
• IFDB's listing for Incanus

Interviews

• SPAC #44 - Interview with Incanus by Antonia Visiedo about himself, his works and collaboration with the spanish IF Community. (Spanish)
• SPAC #51 - Interview with Incanus by Depresiv about himself, his works and collaboration with the spanish IF Community. (Spanish)
• SPAG #49 - Incanus is interviewed, along with several members of the Spanish IF community. (English)
• SPAC 2.0 - Incanus is interviewed on SPAC 2.0 by Mel Hython for La Comp Más Monstruosa, regarding Ofrenda a la Pincoya. (Spanish)