Emily Short
{{Short description|Interactive fiction writer}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Emily Short
| image = Emily Short.jpg
| image_size = 220px
| caption = Emily Short in 2010
| spouse = Graham Nelson
| known_for = Galatea
| website = {{URL|https://emshort.blog}}
}}
Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer. From 2020 to 2023, she was creative director of Failbetter Games, the studio behind Fallen London and its spinoffs.{{Cite web |title=Emily Short {{!}} LinkedIn |url=https://uk.linkedin.com/in/emily-short-0b515614 |access-date=2024-05-16 |website=uk.linkedin.com |language=en}}
She is known for her debut game Galatea (2000){{cite book|last=Ryan |first=Marie-Laure.| title=Avatars of story|publisher= U of Minnesota Press| year =2006}} and her use of psychologically complex non-player characters (NPCs).{{cite news|date=5 Jun 2015|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/05/lonely-planet-the-solitude-of-open-world-games-when-the-story-is-over|title=Lonely planet: the solitude of open-world games when the story is over|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Keith|last=Stuart}}
Short has been called "a visionary in the world of text-based games for years,"{{cite news|title=The magic of words opens a whole new world of fun|newspaper=The Guardian|date=22 Sep 2014|first=Naomi|last=Alderman|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/22/interactive-stories-computer-games-80-days}} and is the author of over forty works of IF.{{cite web|url=https://ifdb.org/showuser?id=4onqcn9pq2wtd3vb|title=Emily Short Member Profile|website=Interactive Fiction Database}} 2022 She wrote the chapters "Challenges of a Broad Geography" and "NPC Conversation Systems" for the 2011 The IF Theory Reader.Kevin Jackson-Mead, J. Robinson Wheeler. "[https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/books/IFTheoryBook.pdf IF Theory Reader]", ifarchive.org, March 2011.
She wrote a regular column on IF for Rock Paper Shotgun.{{cite web
| url = https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/06/15/if-only-text-adventures-for-people-who-hate-guessing-the-verb/
| title = Text Adventures For People Who Hate Guessing The Verb
| last = Short
| first = Emily
| date = 15 June 2016
| website = Rock Paper Shotgun
| access-date = 2016-09-06
}}
Career
In June 2011, Emily Short, with Richard Evans, co-founded Little TextPeople, which explored the emotional possibilities of interactive fiction. It was acquired in early 2012 by Linden Lab.{{cite web|title=Second Life developer acquires experimental game studio LittleTextPeople|date=16 February 2012 |url=https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/129703/Second_Life_developer_acquires_experimental_game_studio_LittleTextPeople.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511085901/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/129703/Second_Life_developer_acquires_experimental_game_studio_LittleTextPeople.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 11, 2012}} In 2014, Short was let go by Linden Lab, ending the project she was working on, Versu.{{cite web|title=The end of Versu: Emily Short looks back|date=14 March 2014 |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-end-of-versu-emily-short-looks-back}} Around that time, she started the Oxford and London Interactive Fiction Group.{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/features/gaming-features/boss-level-2023-emily-short-3455197 |website=NME |last1=Krol |first1=Charlotte |date=14 June 2023 |title=Emily Short Deserves Her Flowers |access-date=15 June 2023}}
In September 2016, Short was hired by Spirit AI, a roughly 15 person company working on machine learning and natural language processing. She joined its board of directors in 2018,{{cite web|title=Interactive fiction specialist Dr Emily Short joins the Spirit AI board|date=9 August 2018 |url=https://www.pocketgamer.biz/job-news/68752/interactive-fiction-specialist-dr-emily-short-joins-the-spirit-ai-board/}} and was later named Chief Product Officer.{{cite web|title=Jobs Roundup: Emily Short takes over as creative director at Failbetter Games|date=9 January 2020 |url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-01-08-emily-short-takes-over-as-creative-director-at-failbetter-games}}
In January 2020, Short joined the 12 person Failbetter Games as creative director. She announced her departure from the studio in January 2024.{{Cite web |date=2024-01-18 |title=The City in Silver |url=https://www.failbettergames.com/news/the-city-in-silver |access-date=2024-05-16 |website=Failbetter Games |language=en-GB}}
Short is one of the members of the advisory board for Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF).
Interactive fiction
= Works =
A number of Short's works have won acclaim at the XYZZY Awards, an annual popular-choice award for interactive fiction.{{cite web|year=2002|title=XYZZY Awards: Winning Games of 2002|url=http://www.xyzzynews.com/2002winners.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212002041/http://xyzzynews.com/2002winners.html|archive-date=12 February 2009|access-date=2009-01-19|work=XYZZY news}}{{cite web|title=XYZZY Awards: Winning Games of 2006|url=http://www.xyzzynews.com/2006winners.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070515062751/http://www.xyzzynews.com/2006winners.html|archive-date=15 May 2007|access-date=2007-05-12|df=mdy-all}} Her work has been described by reviewers in terms that range from "mesmerizing" to "frustrating". Her 2003 work City of Secrets was originally commissioned by a San Francisco synth-pop band, but after they left the project, she completed it on her own.{{cite web|title=City of Secrets|url=http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/CSUpcoming2.htm}}
Of over 11,000 games in the Interactive Fiction Database in July 2021, Short's game Counterfeit Monkey held the top spot in the IFDB Top 100. In addition to this, another five of Short's games, Savoir-Faire, City of Secrets, Bronze, Metamorphoses and Bee qualified into the top 100."[https://web.archive.org/web/20210708204313/https://ifdb.org/viewlist?id=k7rrytlz3wihmx2o IFDB Top 100]" (archived), ifdb.org, 5 July 2021.
= Tools =
While many of Short's early games were written in Inform, she later experimented with a variety of formats. One such format was Versu, an engine for plot-heavy and story-rich interactive fiction that Short helped develop, and which was later scrapped by Linden Lab, the company owning the engine.{{cite web|url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-end-of-versu-emily-short-looks-back|website=Gamasutra|title=The end of Versu:Emily Short Looks Back|date=14 Mar 2014|last=Nutt|first=Christian}} Other formats include Varytale, for which she developed the game Bee,{{cite web|url=https://danq.me/2012/07/16/bee/|website=Dan Q|title=Bee|date=16 July 2012 }} and a custom engine by Liza Daly (with help from the company inkle) for the game First Draft of the Revolution.{{cite web|website=Kotaku|title=Write (And Re-Write) Letters Of Intrigue In This Fantastic Free Game|url=http://kotaku.com/5945950/write-and-re-write-letters-of-intrigue-in-this-fantastic-free-game|date=24 Sep 2012|first=Kirk|last=Hamilton}} Both formats use an interactive fiction engine based on hyperlinks.
Short wrote most of the 300+ programming examples in the documentation and created two full-length demo games for release with Graham Nelson's interactive fiction development system, Inform 7.{{cite web|url=http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/05/09/inform-7-update/|website= Rock, Paper, Shotgun|title=Informing You: Text Adventure Tool Inform 7 Has Updated|date=9 May 2014|first=Graham|last=Smith}}{{cite web |last1=Short |first1=Emily |title=Private Games |url=https://emshort.blog/2015/09/06/private-games/ |website=Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling |access-date=13 April 2022 |language=en |date=6 September 2015 |quote=One of my larger on-going projects is providing support for the text adventure tool Inform 7. One of the things I do for that project is provide...example games...their first reader has always been my collaborator on the project, Graham Nelson. [...] And, full disclosure, partway through this project I married him}}
= Selected IF works =
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://emshort.blog/ Emily Short's interactive fiction blog]
- [https://emshort.blog/my-work/ Collection of Emily Short's work]
- [https://www.ifwiki.org/Emily_Short Short's entry in the Interactive Fiction Wiki]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Emily}}
Category:American emigrants to England
Category:American media critics
Category:American video game programmers
Category:Interactive fiction writers
Category:Women video game critics
Category:Women video game developers