Strange Cities

Strange Cities is a work-in-progress about the doomed voyage of the airship The Ink, and the cities she visits along the way. You are the scribe of The Ink, charged with recording the details of the voyage. Will this experiment end up as a game, interactive fiction, a generator, a solo tabletop roleplaying game, something else? I'm not sure. Maybe a bit of all of them?

MUSIC

The soundtrack right now is a mixture of specially-written music and some music sourced under open licenses. Hopefully the soundtrack will keep evolving. See also Soundcloud and YouTube.

• Holly Taymar - Lit by the Light of Ghosts
  
• Holly Taymar - Citizens
• Holly Taymar - The Dawn
• Zoe Wynns - The Departure
• Zoe Wynns - The 3rd Way to Spell Gr3y
• Audrey Weatherstone - The Departure II
• Ingrid Schwartz - The Departure III
• Chintya De - Shipped
  
• Alice the Candle (feat. Ursula K. Le Guin and Bill Moyers) - Any Human Power
  
• Sam Wedgwood - Airs and Graces
• David O'Brien - Cloud City
• Eugene Cam - Crystal Delight
• Ivor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd - Embarrassing Pleasures
• Jody Jenkins - Ephemeris
• Christopher Ashmore - Freedom
• Alice the Candle - Grumbledrums
• David O'Brien and Paul Clarvis - Maiden's Web
• James Brett - Old Ship II
• Angel Lam - Thunder Step
• Ben Parry and Ann de Renais - Triste Coeur
• Steven Sherrill - Truck Fump Subterfuge in Dm
• Real Clothes - What Strong Arms You Have (The Wolf)
• Costas Fotopoulos - Witches' Dance

IMAGES

The cities were painted using Midjourney. Eventually I'd really like to weave in more human artwork too. Related: Steven Zapata has a great video essay about the ethical and legal implications of AI art.

STORY

I think I'll start with the location generator aspects, and hopefully create adventures and storylines later.

GAME

This is my first real experiment with the narrative scripting language ink, from Inkle Studios.  I'd like eventually to add slightly more strategic depth. But I might also introduce an option that lets you bypass the numbers bits, and just experience the storyline.

TTRPG

If you like journalling-style solo tabletop roleplaying games, this could also be that. Use the places you visit as writing prompts, and fill out the stories of The Ink. See also The Shrike. 

INSPIRATIONS

Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and Ursula K. Le Guin's Changing Planes. The decolonising utopia reading list is also a great resource for thinking about some of the themes of whatever-this-is.

COLLABORATION

If you are a visual artist, musician, poet, animator, game designer, Ink or JavaScript expert, and interested in contributing, feel free to reach out.