Sleep is Death : a storytelling game by Jason Rohrer
sleepisdeath.net
sleepisdeath.net
(He doesn't like the D&D comparison, though.)
Why doesn't he like the comparison? It's perfectly appropriate here.
Edit: I found this article http://www.destructoid.com/preview-sleep-is-death-player-mod... where he highlights the differences: "The first and most obvious difference, the time constraint, essentially turns Sleep is Death into performance art. ". Ok, that's a point in its favor.
The second point is not valid "The computer screens that separated us gave the experience both a sense of tangible believability" as there are computer RPGs, though this might be a better / more freeform implementation (and that might be a killer feature)
No it isn't. Players aren't going to sit around waiting more than a few seconds for a DM to react to what they do.
At first the 30 second limit seemed outrageous, but once you find the rhythm it makes for a really engaging experience. You start becoming less ambitious and the scenes tend to become more driven by dialogue and character. A great decision on Rohrer's part.
When you buy the game, you get two licenses so you can send a copy to a friend and start playing immediately. There are also player matching sites springing up like sidtube.
I don't know how this works with playing with multiple other persons. I hope I don't have to buy more than one copy.
However, since the source code is public domain and come with the game, you probably can hack it to support multiple players and controllers as well.
200 bucks via paypal for anyone who managed to get selected.