sleepdeathpayanythingE-books aren’t the only way to tell stories on the Internet. On-line role-playing has been going on for as long as one person has been able to type words that are then seen by another person elsewhere in the world.

Of course, there are all sorts of constantly-evolving tools for doing on-line role-play. Ironically, one of the most recent such tools actually looks fairly old. Called “Sleep is Death” (or “Geisterfahrer”—”Ghost Driver,” a German slang term for a driver who does something really stupid), this two-player game uses sprites, a very old computer graphic technique.

The game features a gamemaster (called the “controller”) and a player. The player controls one set character, and the controller controls everything else. Taking 30-second turns, they move sprites around and enter speech and actions to play out a story on the screen. After a game is completed, it can then be published as a set of slides bound together in a flipbook.

The game is currently available in a “pay-what-you-want” model, though the minimum payment is $1.75 to cover bandwidth and hosting costs. The purchase includes the right for two people to download the game, which is available for Windows, Linux, and OS X on PPC or Intel.

I went ahead and purchased the game, and would like to try it out, but I have the slight problem that I am lousy at designing sprites. Still, in terms of the storytelling model, I find the game very innovative, and certainly worth a purchase at the inexpensive asking price.

(Found via BoingBoing. )

2 COMMENTS

  1. Chris, “Geisterfahrer” (Ghost Driver) is what we call a confused driver who ends up on the wrong side of traffic driving in the opposite direction. They anounce them on the radio in Germany. Very scary.

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