We are so excited for this interview with the author of Whiskey Four, @johnlouisif!
Do you want to play a retired contract killer? Who's being hunted down by the corpos, the cops and even your (supposedly dead) ex! Oh right...you also need to save the galaxy from an unknown entity...
Have what it takes?
Check out the other winners in the action/adventure category here.
About the author
I don’t drink coffee. Or alcohol. My inspiration for my work comes purely from the pains of cold sobriety. I broke my wrist when I was eleven years old and my handwriting hasn’t recovered since, and I very often can’t read my own notes when I’m annotating books.
About the book
John Wick in space meets Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
Tell us a bit about what you're working on right now and your journey into interactive fiction
I’m working on the sequel to my first interactive fiction game, I, the Forgotten One. It’s a pretty beastly project, as the multiple endings diverge into three primary routes, so every chapter needs to be written about two and a half times. I started ITFO six years ago during COVID, and it was just a hobby for a while, but I’ve been attempting to take it more seriously with the opening of a Patreon, hoping that I can potentially do writing full time in the future.
What was the inspiration for this game and why did you want to write an action story?
I wanted to write in a futuristic/sci-fi setting after finishing ITFO, but more than that, I wanted to write a story with completely different pacing. ITFO and its sequel, I, the Unbroken One, take place over months. I need, for the sake of the plot, a great deal of time to pass. The characters are marching or riding vast distances; medieval war involves a lot of waiting and boredom. This doesn’t make for a good story, so time needs to be skipped. The great danger of this style of story is that it can sometimes feel like a series of vignettes; if I keep skipping time and just jumping between major scenes, there won’t be any connective tissue.
Whiskey-Four is all connective tissue. The game takes place over four days, and each scene leads immediately into the next. The movement of time is kept in check by the use of a clock which tells the reader what time it is after every minor time skip. This style of pacing is best suited to action/adventure stories, I believe.
What is one thing you're really proud of that you've written? Do you have any favourite character or scene you've written?
I think writing Ulysses/Ulyssa, the primary love interest from Whiskey-Four, was the best creative decision I have made in writing. I believe they are singlehandedly responsible for a full half of Whiskey-Four’s popularity. In the grand scheme of love interests, they don’t even have a lot of time with the protagonist, and yet they’re still so well-liked, which I think is a testament to how compelling they turned out.
How has your identity, heritage/background, or personal experiences influenced your storytelling or writing process?
I’ve dealt with mental health troubles in the past which really colored the prose and, for lack of a better term, the vibe of I, the Forgotten One. It’s a vibe I can’t really recapture, now that I’m in a better place.
For folks who have enjoyed your IF, what other book/music/movie should they check out for the same 'vibe'?
I discovered the song “Infinite Skin” by Blaqk Audio when writing Whiskey-Four, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song better encapsulate something I wrote. The entire album, “Only Things We Love,” fits the cyberpunk aesthetic of Whiskey-Four so well.
What are you excited to tackle/implement/work on next?
I, the Unbroken One, the sequel to ITFO! It’s up to 200,000+ words now, and it’s… maybe a quarter done. It’s been a huge project, much larger than I typically like, but I’ve so far enjoyed the process. I think the third chapter which I just released publicly is the best of the story so far. I started ITFO six years ago, and I’ve become a better writer since then, so the sequel is an opportunity to take existing characters and make them even stronger.
the power of hitting 'end task' on a glitchy program in task manager is intoxicating. i feel like an assassin. i feel like a tyrant. you don't want to work properly? begone. off with your head. i need to kill my apps with a guillotine
my favourite uk pastime is erecting scaffolding and then just leaving it. make sure that once the scaffolding is up there is no work being done. at all. it's actually better that no one works once the scaffolding is up because that means there's more people left to erect more scaffolding. more buildings need to be ready to have work done but not actually be worked on
i hate when you google a word and some fucking company comes up instead. Do you think you are more important than the english dictionary you piece of shit corporation
Over recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of people contacting our Adult Gender Service for support, advice, and treatment.
This week (20th April 2026) the Sandyford Adult Gender Service in Glasgow have said that they are beginning their adult waiting list validat
If you are on Sandyford's Adults waiting list, they are carrying out a "validation exercise" to confirm contact details beginning today (20th April 2026)
They'll contact you via email, text or mail depending on your contact preferences, and you have 2 weeks to respond and confirm that your contact details are still the same, or amend them if required
IF THEY HAVE NOT CONTACTED YOU BY 1ST JUNE then contact them at [email protected] or +44 141 211 8693
This is for the adult service only, the young people's service has already gone through this exercise.
Scottish Trans is still waiting to hear what will happen if you don't respond in time, though they have been told that reminders etc will be sent
Non responders will be removed from the waiting list, but if you get in touch afterwards, you MAY be put back on the list in the place you held previously, but this hasn't been confirmed by Sandyford.
FAQs and accessibility support are available on the first link (Sandyford's webpage about this) and I've also posted Scottish Trans's link about this too
Any signal boosting is GREATLY appreciated because I had no idea about this!
