Cone of Silence is an experiment in combining politics with interactive fiction. The piece is short and makes use of humor similar to that of a political cartoon.

The game is inspired by the recent nationally televised Saddleback Civil Forum. The format of the forum was supposed to be that Pastor Rick Warren would ask questions of one candidate while, the other candidate was placed into a “cone of silence.” When the first candidate was done, the other candidate would come out and answer the same line of questioning.

Senator Barack Obama went first, decided by the toss of a coin. During this time, Senator John McCain was supposedly placed into this so-called cone of silence. However, several media outlets are now reporting that John McCain was not in the cone for the first thirty minutes.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that McCain used this time outside of the cone to learn of the questions prior to his on-stage interview. Though if the media’s assertions are true, then the Saddleback Civil Forum was clearly compromised by John McCain and raises justifiable doubts about the validity of event. Which is really a shame because I really enjoyed the less aggressive nature of this kind of format. I guess it wouldn’t be politics if things didn’t get ugly.

To play “Cone of Silence,” you’ll need to download this and a z-machine interpreter. I recommend the Z-Machine Preservation Project. Written with Inform 7.