What Interactive Storytelling Tools and Writing Resources Does erasmatazz.com Offer?

Updated

erasmatazz.com is Chris Crawford's personal site for interactive storytelling: it combines a playable interactive story, Le Morte D'Arthur, with a large library of essays on why interactive storytelling is hard and how it might be done. It is a place to read ideas and try an example, not a shop for general-purpose writing software. If you want downloadable tools or a structured course, the site as described does not provide them; if you want design thinking and a working demonstration, it does.

What the site is

The homepage presents the site as "Interactive Storytelling Tools for Writers" and notes that it has run since 1996. The main entry points are Home, Library, Personal, Site Map, and Contact Form. The site is a personal publication by Chris Crawford, and the content mixes interactive storytelling with unrelated essays on topics such as astronomy, politics, and language.

The playable example: Le Morte D'Arthur

The homepage describes Le Morte D'Arthur as Crawford's "magnum opus" and says it is now available to play. It is explicitly unfinished — the page says it "never will be finished" — but playable and, in the author's words, "pretty good." For a writer, this is the most concrete resource on the site: a working interactive story you can experience to see how the ideas are applied.

The Library: essays on method and difficulty

The Library holds the site's writing resources. Relevant items visible on the homepage include:

  • "Why interactive storytelling is so difficult" (November 1)
  • "The world just isn't ready for interactive storytelling" (January 29)
  • "Signals, Songs, Language, and Stories" (June 15)
  • "Plan B for interactive storytelling," linked from the site's pricing-related links
  • "A summation of my thoughts," described as written nearly a year earlier

These are essays and arguments rather than templates or step-by-step tool guides. They are useful for understanding design constraints and the author's position, and less useful if you need a checklist to build a scene today.

What you will not find

Based on the site's own description, expect no general-purpose writing app, no downloadable story engine, and no course structure. The "tools" framing refers to the site's purpose and to the playable work, not to a software product page. The site also mixes in personal and political essays, so navigation requires some filtering.

How to use it

  1. Open the homepage and read the short introduction to confirm the current state of Le Morte D'Arthur.
  2. Play Le Morte D'Arthur to observe how an interactive story is structured in practice.
  3. Go to the Library and read "Why interactive storytelling is so difficult" first, then "Plan B for interactive storytelling" for the author's proposed direction.
  4. Use the Site Map if you want to locate older essays; the homepage's "Recent additions" list only covers recent months.

A practical check: after playing the work and reading the two essays above, you should be able to state Crawford's core claim about why interactive storytelling resists conventional narrative design. If that is what you need, the site delivers it; if you need production tools, look elsewhere.