Space Detective [AI Text Adventures part 1]

This article is part of a series of posts about AI. It’s written by a human being (me) but future posts may include examples of identifiable AI-generated response text and imagery.

I have very mixed feelings about Artificial Intelligence. I’ve previously posted about my reasons for avoiding its use altogether when making my stop-motion short “In Nature.” At the same time I’m still curious about AI, exactly what it is, and what it can and can’t do. I’ve posted some AI writing and image experiments on this blog in the past. More recently I’ve set off down a very well-trodden twisty passage: using AI to play text adventures.

My first encounters with text adventures or Interactive Fiction were classic BBC micro games: Sphinx Adventure and Philosopher’s Quest, The Hobbit and Erik The Viking. These games were creative, original, challenging, full of joy, and also limited and frustrating, as anyone who has ever asked Gandalf to give them the map will testify. I later played Infocom and other games on PC, and discovered the IF online community and IF Archive. I admit to knowing what AIF is as well.

As a teenager I also wrote a really basic BASIC text adventure for the Beeb, which you can play on the Complete BBC Games Archive here: Space Detective . I’m not saying that you should, only that you can. It’s a pre-AI experiment in autogeneration, in which you explore a randomly-generated space station, interrogating suspects and hoping to catch one of them in a lie. I saw autogeneration as a way of making games that might one day be able to surprise the programmer. I later experimented with writing autogenerative games in Inform but never created anything I would call complete or playable.

With the coming Singularity and the rise of the AI chatbot, it seems a lot of people before me have noticed the similarity between interacting with chatbots and IF games, or have wondered if IF, CYOAs or RPGs might be created and played this way.

In this series I’ll discuss trying to get ChatGPT to run text adventures, and the resulting successes, failures, and surprises. The real treasures were the lessons I learned about AI psychology along the way.

I’ll include examples of prompts or parts of prompts as we go. However if you are planning to play your own games you probably won’t need my prompts because:

• There are plenty of text adventure prompts to be found elsewhere online
• ChatGPT knows what a text adventure is so you may not need to prompt very hard
• ChatGPT can also suggest prompts itself

My first foray into AI IF (not AIF) involved a question rather than a prompt:

+ Can you simulate a text adventure?

To be continued…

Poster for In Nature [WIP: In Nature]

Here's a first attempt at a poster for In Nature, really just for reference. I am trying out some other composition ideas  - I was trying to give away as little as possible about the movie, but this actually gives away too little. I will need the final version to indicate that this is a horror movie. I also haven't finalized my tagline - this may also help.
 

The Only Winning Move [WIP: In Nature]

When I started writing and planning my stop-motion short In Nature, I made a decision not to use AI anywhere in the production, for several reasons:

• I want to enjoy the physical processes of model-building and stop-motion.
• While I want to make the best film I can, I also enjoy the process of trying things, making mistakes and learning from them.
• The flaws that do still appear in the film are the scars from this trial and error process. They mean something, and it's OK for them to be there.
• I have friends in different artistic or creative fields and I know that the increasing use of generative AI is a real anxiety and a genuine threat to livelihood for many people.
• I am aware of the use of AI-generated Lego-style animations for the purposes of propaganda in certain global conflicts and don't particularly want my short horror film to be accidentally mistaken for propaganda.

I think my main point is that there is a creative journey that can be just as important, and just as enjoyable, as the destination, and using AI robs me of that journey.

I'm not criticising people for using AI in films. It's inevitable that it will be, and I might do so in future. While I think I have succeeded in my goal for In Nature, I'm aware that it's becoming harder to avoid it, not least as AI tools are being gradually integrated into art, design and editing software - over time this may well take the place of processes such as bluescreen. It would be a shame if past skills and techniques were completely lost. In a slightly different context I remember being impressed by Disney's decision to make The Princess And The Frog using traditional animation techniques rather than relying on the CGI that has been used (admittedly very well) in their other films.

I'm also not saying I never use AI. I'm definitely ai-curious and enjoy playing with AI and discovering what it can and can't do - I've blogged about these experiments before and there's another one to come shortly.

Living through the Singularity is turning out to be an interesting experience - even more interesting than living through the dawn of home computing or the Internet. And yes, I am that old. I'm still fascinated to find that we have created flawed AI that can hallucinate, miscount, behave emotionally, irrationally or criminally, rather than something with superhuman intelligence, 100% accuracy and a sense of ethics - we are, quite tragically, building Samaritan rather than The Machine.

Shut Up And Drive [Review: Hope]

Some completely regular hunters, with guns that definitely aren't unlicensed in any way, come across some mutilated animals in a field outside Hope Harbour, a village near the DMZ. They suspect a bear or tiger might be responsible and the hunt is on for the local, understaffed police team to catch the animal before it can harm anyone or wreak havoc in the town. 

Hope (호프) is a 2½ hour epic South Korean monster movie directed by Na Hong-jin, starring Hwang Jun-min and Jung Ho-yeon as police chief Bum-seok and rookie cop Sung-ae, and also featuring the voices of Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. Spoiler alert: people are harmed and havoc is wreaked.

One joy of this movie is the sheer energy. I felt dizzy and exhausted after watching it. There's a sense of mystery at the start as the hunters and police start searching for the creature. This quickly builds to a frenzy of running, driving and violent confrontation that persists for most of the film - the constant driving-and-combat scenes are reminiscent of Mad Max: Fury Road, and the driving is equally bad. The creature is not seen for the first 45 minutes but makes itself known indirectly - this allows characters to establish themselves while still providing plenty of tension and action. Once the creature shows itself the movie switches to an even higher action gear. 

The energy also comes from the characters who, as you would expect in real life, are not in the least bit calm, cool or collected but are driven to emotional extremes when they come under pressure. Bum-seok becomes almost paralysed by fear as soon as he realises what he is dealing with, and then has to fight his fear every time he has to enter a building. Sung-ae is impressive when she first appears, facing the creature head-on as it rushes down the street towards her but is driven into a persistent state of rage. A lot of the film involves scared, angry people shouting at each other.

There's no interval, at least where I saw it. However there is a lull in the action about halfway through allowing two very funny sequences, one where a police pathologist tries to dissect the creature with a series of increasingly large saws, the other where an elderly resident tells Sung-ae in great detail about seeing the creature while he was incovenienced in the woods. However it isn't long before the hunt is on again. There are some further discoveries and twists relating to the creature and the reason for the attack, and another, quite surprising change of tone towards the end.

Hope is an extremely enjoyable film and well worth the watch. It scores a hopeful 3 stars out of 5.

All movies reviewed on The Sci-Fi Gene receive a score of 3 stars out of 5.

Tile M For Murder [WIP: In Nature]

So the first cut of In Nature is complete - models, animation, voice-acting, music and editing all done, and I now have something I can submit to festivals or screening events - watch this space. I'm happy with most aspects of the film but may re-record some of the music.

A Rockwork Orange [WIP: In Nature]

Timelapse for building the first set

The Brick And The Dead [WIP: In Nature]

NEW FILM PROJECT

It's been about a decade since my last foray into filmmaking. In the past few weeks I've started work on a new project: "In Nature" a short horror film using LEGO stopmotion.

I have ambitious goals for this project: including zero use of generative AI, and creating a theremin-based score. At the same time I've learned from my previous experience with LEGO filmmaking and have written the script more carefully, using a smaller cast and fewer locations.

Sets were designed in Bricklink Studio...

...and arrived looking like this

Colour-sorted and ready to build

They're Justified, And They're Ancient [Podcast Review: The Harbingers]

While investigating the relics of an ancient civilization, ambitious anthropologists and rivals Adam Blackwell (Andrés Enriquez) and Amy Stirling (Lauren Grace Thompson) make discoveries that bring magical powers back into the world. But when magical power collides with political and financial power, the results can be dangerous.

The Harbingers is a fictional podcast produced by Audacious Machine Creative. As of this month the first season is now complete, with all episodes available on Spotify or other services, and a second season in production for release later this year. 

There is a lot of Harbingers to enjoy. The first season is 16 episodes long, with episodes varying from 30 to 60 minutes in length. Production quality is excellent, as is the writing - the story is structured around a catastrophic event, with both protagonists telling their stories to the lawyer preparing them for a Congressional hearing. The stories begin in the highly competitive world of Harbinger academic study, but develop into globe-spanning journeys involving a Presidential campaign and a tech billionaire's quest for limitless energy. There is real thought about the implications of the different magical powers, how they might be used and how society might react to their existence.

There are a lot of twists and developments and the whole picture is revealed gradually over the season - or is it? While the first season has a satisfying plot and conclusion, there are still unanswered questions, untold chapters and unmet characters of the story. The ancient Harbinger civilization with its architecture, myths, languages and values is also imagined in great detail, even though we only learn about it from the fragments, relics and discoveries that have survived to the present day, and there is definitely more Harbinger history to uncover. I am really looking forward to season 2.

The performances from Enriquez, Thompson and all of the cast are outstanding, and as a result the friendships, relationships, drama and peril, and the tension between the two main characters all ring true. Highly recommended for fans of archaeology, magic, superpowers and lawyers. 

Stuck With You [Review: The WONDERfools Episodes 2 and 3]

Some highlights from episodes 2 and 3 of Korean superhero drama The WONDERfools - minor spoilers only. Three characters have now developed superpowers - teleportation, super-strength and STICKING TO THINGS! but they don't understand how their powers work so can't control them. As a result:

• The teleporter appeared for a few moments on the set of a TV historical drama, so now believes they are a time traveller.
• The super-strength character now has some interesting holes in their walls.
• The character who's superpower is STICKING TO THINGS! finds their arm is stuck to their fridge door, so they have to stand in front of the fridge and persuade their family that this is for completely normal reasons.

So far this series has been an absolute treat, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes superhero dramas and needs to break their addiction to the MCU (yes, Geek Twins, I'm looking at you).

The rebellious and chaotic Eun Chae-ni, played by Park Eun-bin, remains the star of the show, but the whole cast is strong, and the arguments between the characters appear to be getting bigger and more melodramatic. I believe the sticking superpower may be unique, and I'm looking forward to see how this power might be used for the good of humanity later in the series.

Meanwhile a series of flashbacks reveal that one character spent their childhood in a 50s style concrete laboratory being subjected to experiments by a sinister scientist. This is a widely used trope, seen in films and dramas from Firestarter to Stranger Things. Here it's just one part of the greater mystery of Haesong City.

As with many non-Western productions there are constant switches between melodramatics, slapstick or farce, and more serious and nuanced drama - there doesn't seem to be a requirement to stick to one tone. This, combined with the complex maze of secrets and twists that are slowly unravelling, makes The WONDERfools difficult to predict. I'm still holding back on the urge to binge the entire series so I can savour it for as long as possible, but I doubt I can hold out for much longer.

And The Beat Goes On [Honkai Star Rail]

Some more thoughts on Honkai Star Rail:

I've played for a couple of years now, with some breaks - still playing through the Amphoreus storyline. Initially I was put off by the Ancient Greece-inspired setting but I've warmed to it over time, and what's really impressed me is the depth of the story. On several occasions I thought I was approaching the end of this chapter - how silly of me to think that completing the Flame Chase Journey would be the end! instead of reaching any kind of finale, the player is thrown backwards and forwards in time, and whole new layers of reality are uncovered, Matrix or Inception style, with new storylines and characters. 

The story also involves themes of death, loss and self-sacrifice explored in a deeper and more emotional way than storylines earlier in the game, although there are still plenty of comedic elements too.

For no particular reason I'll end this post with a video from the recent Honkai Star Rail concert livestream - a performance of one of the in-game songs, Sway To My Beat In Cosmos, by @chevyha , the voice of Robin.

 

Global Superpower [Review: The WONDERfools episode 1]

Started the first episode of The WONDERfools this week and was completely gripped. The episode opens on Eun Chae-ni (Park Eun-bin, star of Extraordinary Attorney Woo) who lives and works in her grandmother's restaurant, dreams of travelling, has a severe heart condition, no money and lots of punk attitude. Within the first 1-2 minutes there's a fantastic, character-defining scene where she takes on a group of street evangelists announcing the end of the world.

This opening episode is about establishing characters - in addition to Chae-ni, her family and friends, we also meet Lee Un-jeong (Cha Eun-woo), a very junior official in a government complaints office. Where Chae-ni is comically loud and punk, Un-jeong is the opposite, facing down the angry complainant that terrorizes everyone else in the office with a calm, deadpan response. It's early in the series but I feel like it isn't going to be a coincidence that these two have complementary personalities. 

The episode also establishes that there are links between several of the characters, and that pretty much everyone is hiding something. This also applies to the setting, Haesong City, on the surface a regular mid-sized modern town but there are hints of mysterious goings on in the past and the present.

Although I've been looking forward to this series for a long time I didn't know what to expect, apart from a superhero TV show with a different tone from the MCU. I'm now fighting the urge to binge-watch and looking forward to wherever this series takes me.

The Visitor - theremin version

"The Visitor" Sienna Spiro

Theremin cover version played at Queen's Head Open Mic, 7.5.2026 on Lost Volts LV4. Accompaniment John Drummond. Thanks to Neil Dennis for the video.

Happy March 7th

A blessed March 7th to all those who celebrate!

Summertime (George Gershwin) - theremin version

Summertime by George Gershwin, performed on Lost Volts LV4 theremin at Cricketers Open Mic Night, 28th August 2025. Thanks to John Drummond johnsopenmics.uk for accompaniment.

Lost In Your Eyes - theremin version

Happy birthday Debbie Gibson! 

"Lost In Your Eyes" by Debbie Gibson (and the song fairies), performed on Lost Volts LV4 theremin.

Everybody Was Mok'Bara Fighting [Review: Star Trek Section 31]

A team of Section 31 special agents on the hunt for a rumoured superweapon must persuade space pub landlord, ex-Section 31 agent and even-more-ex-Mirror Universe evil dictator Phillipa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) to ally with them. It turns out this is not the only thing linking Georgiou and the weapon.

In Star Trek history, Section 31 is the Federation's secret service, sent to carry out covert, deniable missions that might be seen as clashing with the Federation's ideology or laws - a lot like Special Circumstances in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels, or perhaps the secret services of our own world. Section 31 first appeared in Deep Space 9 episodes. They have cropped up in Enterprise, Picard, Lower Decks and some of the recent films, and were central to the plot of Discovery, which also introduced Emperor Georgiou.

The Section 31 movie was in many ways not what I had expected. The films and episodes above give an impression of a sinister and super-efficient spy agency, possibly with a mild black leather fetish. It's a little surprising that the team of special agents in this movie, supposedly Section 31's elite, are actually a bunch of comical, clumsy, arguing misfits. How do they ever actually get anything done? And how did powered-armour-obsessive Zeph and work experience girl Rachel, in particular, qualify for the Star Trek equivalent of 00 status?

However this description misses the point of Section 31, which is really all about Georgiou - and about Michelle Yeoh. I first saw Yeoh in action in the mind-blowing martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yeoh is a talented actor who has appeared in a wide range of roles, not least Everything Everywhere All At Once, but Section 31 is designed to put her martial arts talents centre stage. This is an action-heavy movie in which no opportunity is missed for fantastic, joyous hand to hand combat - unusual in the phaser-heavy world of Star Trek.

Section 31 may not be the best Star Trek movie (obviously that's Galaxy Quest) but it's certainly the best Star Trek martial arts movie.

Score: Three stars out of five.

All movies reviewed on The Sci-Fi Gene blog are awarded three stars out of five.

If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking - theremin version

"If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking" from Honkai: Star Rail. Music by HOYO-MiX, performed in-game by Chevy as Robin. This is my theremin cover version for the Hoyoverse Multiverse Vistas 2025 competition, fan-made music category. I'm playing a Lost Volts LV4 theremin. Backing track uses the official HOYO-MiX score on MuseScore. I am grateful as always to the open source software movement for Blender, MuseScore and Audacity.

The title of this song is also the title of an Emily Dickinson poem which includes the lines "Or help one fainting robin / Unto his nest again" (full poem here) - and I love the way Robin's story in HSR takes inspiration from the poem.

I've really enjoyed the journey of creating these two videos for #MultiverseVistas and continue to enjoy trailblazing my way through the Amphoreus missions.

You can find Chevy on youtube @chevyha and instagram @chiffonhaha.

Honkai: Star Rail Theme - theremin version

Honkai: Star Rail theme by HOYO-MiX - theremin cover version for the Hoyoverse Multiverse Vistas 2025 competition, fan-made music category. I'm playing a Lost Volts LV4 theremin.

Hasta La Multiverse Vistas, Baby [work in progress]

New project intended for the Honkai: Star Rail Multiverse Vistas competition:

Merilick

 A there fellow young once called was Jack
Quite limericks didn't who's track
The his body captive
Brain his of overactive
Wrong and words in would order his stack.