I will be exploring how the two art forms of poems and games converge to fuel new forms of creative expression. Have you ever wanted to “play” a poem? Probably not. This is something that most people would not even think about because it is such an unlikely pairing.
History
Playable poetry comes out of a long tradition of interactive fiction, which started way back in the 1970s and 1980s. Games like Zork and Adventure were some of the first to use only text to create full experiences. Players would type commands and the game would describe what happened next. It was like reading a book that responded to you.
As time went on, some creators started using interactive fiction not just for puzzles and stories, but for more artistic expression. In the 1990s and early 2000s, people like Andrew Plotkin began making games that were more thoughtful and poetic.
Around the same time, digital poets and indie game developers began experimenting with new ways to mix poetry and gameplay. Some used visuals, some used sound, and some stuck with text. The goal was always to create something emotionally rich.
Exploring The Dreamhold
One of my favorite poetry games/experiences is The Dreamhold by Andrew Plotkin. It’s an indie interactive fiction game. It is all text and you are the one controlling what happens by typing out commands like “go west”. This game does not have graphics, it is all words and imagination.
The way the game is written makes it feel like a poem you play. Every new area is described like a new stanza, and there’s something dreamlike about the whole journey.
Conclusion
What I like most about playable poetry is that it shows how creative games can be. They’re not always about leveling up or winning. They can also be about the emotional experience that the player feels.
If you’re curious to try one, I definitely recommend The Dreamhold. It’s free and made for beginners, so it’s a great way to try out a type of computational media that you may not have tried before.
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