Update: The April Fool’s version of the site has been moved to a permanent page.

For April 1, my favorite webcomic, xkcd, switched over to a new interface: unixkcd.  The site now emulates a UNIX terminal.  You navigate by typing in commands, and the terminal responds, one line at a time.  There are also tons of command-based easter eggs to find.  It’s more awesome than pranksterly, really.

The experience is powered by Wordpress and doesn’t require flash.  A little link hunting at the bottom of the site and we discover that the prank is an adaptation of a free WP template called CLI2, which is part of a whole family of bash-like templates made by Rod McFarland .

Why does a free terminal-like WP template matter to transmedia?  Well, for one, you can write text-based games for it.  (The xkcd prank includes one.)  But more to the point, a terminal-style web site is Alternate Reality 101.  I’m looking at you, Jejune Institute, and you too, Project Abraham.  And I haven’t forgotten about you either, Exoriare.

The emulated terminal is a great storyteling tool that gets your audience in a game-playing mood, and its something that most indie ARG developers don’t have the time or resources to execute.  I don’t know if CLI2 was intended for storytelling, but it seems like a natural next step.

Presumably, xkcd will return to it’s normal site design later tonight, so I highly suggest you poke around with this prank while it’s still live.

Lest I seem to be leaving out anyone, the xkcd adaptation of CLI2 was done by chromakode.  The source code for his variation is available here.

For April 1, my favorite webcomic, xkcd, switched over to a new interface: unixkcd.  The site now emulates a UNIX terminal.  You navigate by typing in commands, and the terminal responds, one line at a time.  There are also tons of command-based easter eggs to find.  It’s more awesome than pranksterly, really.

The experience is powered by Wordpress and doesn’t require flash.  A little link hunting at the bottom of the site and we discover that the prank is an adaptation of a free WP template called CLI2, which is part of a whole family of bash-like templates made by Rod McFarland .

Why does a free terminal-like WP template matter to transmedia?  Well, for one, you can write text-based games for it.  (The xkcd prank includes one.)  But more to the point, a terminal-style web site is Alternate Reality 101.  I’m looking at you, Jejune Institute, and you too, Project Abraham.  And I haven’t forgotten about you either, Exoriare.

The emulated terminal is a great storyteling tool that gets your audience in a game-playing mood, and its something that most indie ARG developers don’t have the time or resources to execute.  I don’t know if CLI2 was intended for storytelling, but it seems like a natural next step.

Presumably, xkcd will return to it’s normal site design later tonight, so I highly suggest you poke around with this prank while it’s still live.

Lest I seem to be leaving out anyone, the xkcd adaptation of CLI2 was done by chromakode.  The source code for his variation is available here.