Emily Short
Interactive narrative designer and critic; author of interactive fiction including Galatea and Counterfeit Monkey, and a long-time contributor to the Inform development system.
Emily Short did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 10 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Uses Xbox 360
For reviewing purposes, I also have an Xbox 360. It was a gift; exact specifications I am therefore less sure about, but it has plenty of storage space.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Liked Processing
I've dabbled in Processing, and thought it was awesome, but haven't had enough time to devote to doing anything significant with it so far.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Uses Papers
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Liked Scrivener
For assembling research for academic purposes, I like Scrivener. It keeps together a lot of odds and ends of information and makes it easier to go from a pile of quotes and references to a finished document.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Uses Omnigraffle
To visualize complex puzzle or narrative structures, I rely on OmniGraffle.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Disliked Word
(I have never forgiven Word for screwing up the encoding of every Greek quotation in my dissertation weeks before the deadline, in such a way that even backups didn't work, and requiring me to set the entire thing from scratch in Pages.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Liked BBEdit
I frequently brainstorm on paper or in BBEdit. I also use BBEdit for composing reviews and articles, as much as I can get away with, and turn to Microsoft Word only when it's professionally necessary.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Uses Inform
Inform is the interactive fiction development system I've been helping to develop for the last few years. I use it on a near-daily basis both for my own work and to develop example material and do troubleshooting for other interactive fiction authors.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
their own
Liked Sennheiser CX 300 II
To go with that, a pair of Sennheiser CX 300 II in-ear headphones. Cutting out the white noise makes a world of difference to how much I hate long flights.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Loved Moleskine
So, Moleskine: good paper, tough but flexible binding, an elastic band to keep the book shut in transit. I'm never going back.
usesthis.com 7 Feb 2011
Where they publish
Blog emshort.blog Her blog of interactive fiction criticism, design writing and reviews.
Link verified 5 Sept 2026.
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