Editing Andrew Plotkin

{{short description|American programmer and writer (born 1970)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
|name        = Andrew Plotkin
|image       = Andrew_Plotkin.jpg
|caption     = Plotkin in 2010
|birth_date  = {{birth date and age|1970|5|15}}
|birth_place = [[Syracuse, New York]]
|death_date  = 
|death_place = 
|other_names = Zarf
|known_for   = ''System's Twilight'' (1994), ''Spider and Web'' (1998)
|occupation  = [[interactive fiction]] writer, [[programmer]]
|nationality = American
|website     = {{URL|http://www.eblong.com/zarf}}
}}
'''Andrew Plotkin''' (born May 15, 1970), also known as '''Zarf''', is an American programmer and writer. He is a central figure in the modern [[interactive fiction]] (IF) community. Having both written a number of award-winning games and developed a range of new file formats, interpreters, and other utilities for the design, production, and running of IF games, Plotkin is widely recognised for both his creative and his technical contributions to the [[Homebrew (video games)|homebrew]] IF scene.

==Interactive fiction==
Plotkin was one of the earliest writers to use [[Graham Nelson]]'s [[Inform]] development system, and one of the first since [[Infocom]]'s heyday to explore the boundaries of interactive fiction as an artistic medium. Many later authors cite him as a primary influence. He has won many awards within the community, and is frequently interviewed for magazine articles about interactive fiction.

Plotkin has also made major technical contributions to the interactive fiction medium, designing the [[Blorb]] [[file archiver|archive]] format, the [[Glk (software)|Glk]] I/O platform, and the [[Glulx]] [[virtual machine]], and implementing [[Glulx Inform]] and several interactive fiction [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]]s for the [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] and [[X Window System|X]]. The Glk API has made possible the creation of "universal translator" interpreters such as Gargoyle, a single program capable of running all interactive fiction formats.

{{As of|2007}}, Plotkin holds two [[XYZZY Award]]-related records: for most XYZZYs won in one year (5, with ''[[Spider and Web]]'') and for most XYZZYs won in total: 18.<ref name='xyzzys'>[http://wurb.com/if/award/3 XYZZY Awards]</ref>
His most influential games are:
* ''Freefall'' (1995; Tetris clone – possibly the first so-called [[Z-machine]] abuse)
* ''[[A Change in the Weather]]'' (1995; winner of the 1995 [[IF Comp]]'s Inform division)
* ''So Far'' (1996; winner of many [[XYZZY Award]]s that year, including for [[XYZZY Award for Best Game|Best Game]])
* ''[[The Space Under the Window]]'' (1997)
* ''[[Spider and Web]]'' (1998; winner of many [[XYZZY Award]]s that year, including for [[XYZZY Award for Best Game|Best Game]])
* ''[[Hunter, in Darkness]]'' (1999; winner of the [[XYZZY Award]]s for [[XYZZY Award for Best Individual Puzzle|Best Individual Puzzle]] and [[XYZZY Award for Best Setting|Best Setting]])
* ''[[Shade (video game)|Shade]]'' (2000; winner of the [[XYZZY Award for Best Setting]])

Other Andrew Plotkin games include:

*''Lists and Lists'' (1996), an introductory course in the [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]] programming language
*''[[The Dreamhold]]'' (2004), a general IF tutorial game
*''Delightful Wallpaper'' (2006; sixth place in [[IF Comp]] and winner of Miss Congeniality)
*''Dual Transform'' (2010)
*''Hoist Sail for the Heliopause and Home'' (2010)

More recently, he was featured on [[CNN Money]] for successfully raising over $31,000 using [[Kickstarter]] for development of a new interactive fiction piece called ''Hadean Lands'' for the [[iPhone]] and release of the resulting iPhone game framework as [[Open-source software|open source]].<ref name='Kickstarter'>{{cite news| url=https://money.cnn.com/2010/11/15/technology/kickstart_plotkin/index.htm | work=CNN | first=Andrew | last=Plotkin | title=How I raised $24,000 on Kickstarter | date=November 15, 2010}}</ref> Plotkin was also featured prominently in the 2010 interactive fiction documentary, [[GET LAMP]].<ref>{{cite web|title=GET LAMP interviewees|url=http://www.getlamp.com/cast/|publisher=Jason Scott|accessdate=January 26, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=IMDb |website=[[IMDb]] |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4146031/|accessdate=January 26, 2012}}</ref>

On June 24, 2014, Plotkin released the [[source code]] for several of his games for educational purposes.<ref>[http://gameshelf.jmac.org/2014/06/old-zarf-code/ Old Zarf code] by Andrew Plotkin (June 24, 2014)</ref>

==Other work==
He wrote the former [[shareware]] puzzle game ''[[System's Twilight]]''. Plotkin appears as a character in ''Being Andrew Plotkin'', an interactive fiction game by J. Robinson Wheeler based in part on the film ''[[Being John Malkovich]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Montfort |first1=Nick |title=Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction |date=2005-02-11 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262297127 |page=210 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XWI7YIU3QnAC&q=Being+Andrew+Plotkin&pg=PA210 |accessdate=27 June 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

While a student at [[Carnegie Mellon University]], Plotkin was one of the early members of the Carnegie Mellon KGB. He created the organization's signature "Capture the Flag with Stuff"<ref>[http://www.cmukgb.org/activities/ctfws.php Capture the Flag with Stuff<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> game, which is now played by several hundred students every semester.

In 1997, Plotkin developed a rethemed version of Dmitry Davidoff's social game [[Mafia (party game)|Mafia]], replacing the "mafia" characters with werewolves.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html|title=Werewolf|last=Plotkin|first=Andrew|accessdate=May 9, 2009}}</ref> Plotkin's version of the game subsequently became popular at universities and conferences in the United States, with a set of cards being produced by [[Looney Labs]].

He has also made contributions to the [[Icehouse (game)|Icehouse]] community, both in designing the game ''Branches & Twigs & Thorns'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eblong.com/zarf/barsoom-go.html|title=Branches and Twigs and Thorns|last=Plotkin|first=Andrew|accessdate=March 1, 2020|date=July 7, 2002}}</ref> and the creation of several custom sets of pieces.  During 2006 he was involved in the [[Open-source model|open source]] on-line game platform Volity and has created, or assisted in the creation of, on-line versions of the pyramid game Treehouse and other Looney Labs titles to showcase the platform.

In 2019 he created and co-chaired with Adri Mills NarraScope, a games conference focusing on interactive narrative, adventure games, and interactive fiction.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [http://www.eblong.com/zarf/home.html Andrew Plotkin's homepage]
* [http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Andrew_Plotkin Andrew Plotkin on the IFWiki]
* [https://www.icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Andrew_Plotkin Andrew Plotkin on the IcehouseGames.org wiki]
* [http://narrascope.org NarraScope]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plotkin, Andrew}}
[[Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni]]
[[Category:American video game programmers]]
[[Category:Interactive fiction writers]]
[[Category:Usenet people]]
[[Category:1970 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Rockville, Maryland]]
[[Category:Writers from Syracuse, New York]]