For the past few months, I've been working on a game that uses an experimental new interface. I recently finished the first draft and have enough confidence in it that I plan to enter it in this year's IFComp.

In Redstone you play a reservation deputy investigating a murder at a casino. You need to examine the crime scene, question the staff and guests, and gather enough evidence to arrest a suspect.

The game uses a new variation of a point-and-click interface I've been developing for a while. There's a parser in the background, but instead of typing, the user builds commands from a list of available words. In the example above, clicking "Go to..." would further suggest "the elevator," "the front desk," and "the game floor."

Gamefic simplifies the process of generating words by automatically including common commands. You'll always have options to "go to" exits and "examine" nearby things. Commands can also activate other commands. If you examine a box and see a key in it, you'll receive suggestions to examine or take the key.

Since it's a hybrid, the game can still be compiled to use a traditional parser interface without modifying the story code. The main difference would be in the HTML presented to the user.

If anyone is interested in playtesting Redstone, please see my announcement thread at intfiction.org or email admin@gamefic.com. I'd appreciate the help.