Game "Application"
Mark M Woodward
I have posted a couple of things here, and received a bunch of encouraging
help, so I am going to try again. I was brought to this group via an
interest in hypertext, but have focused my energy on understanding this
medium (at least a little) before I go on.
My main problem right now, is that I have little interest in the puzzle/
riddle side of things (perhaps a bad childhood experience) and am looking
for a "game" that is really more a piece of fiction . My humble attempts
at Drifter, and UUnk1 have bruised my ego ( in 45 turns, you have 0 points,
does the word moron ring any bells for you )but I remain hopeful.
I work for a chain of restaurants, and I would like to write a "game" that
would help train the hostesses, waiters and waitresses. It seems to me that
I could force some customer situations that would require the waiter to
give the correct response, or be told that it was not correct?? I am not
thinking that this will replace regular training, but just a fun project for
me to get my feet wet, and it may help someone....any suggestions? Is it a
lame idea, should I move to a remote region of the globe and feign ignorance?
In advance thank you,
Mark -wood...@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
--
Mark Woodward
Carl Forhan
In article <1jjgli...@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, cg...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mark M Woodward) writes:
..
|>
|> My main problem right now, is that I have little interest in the puzzle/
|> riddle side of things (perhaps a bad childhood experience) and am looking
|> for a "game" that is really more a piece of fiction . My humble attempts
|> at Drifter, and UUnk1 have bruised my ego ( in 45 turns, you have 0 points,
|> does the word moron ring any bells for you )but I remain hopeful.
|>
I tend to agree with you. I am much more interested in designing a
system/gaming engine that has an overall goal for the player, but lots of sub-
plots that change depending on the player's actions. For example, you steal an
object from a local merchant. He finds out you did it, and hires a couple of
thugs to come after you. Or, if he considered you a friend, maybe he just
contacts the authorities or even confronts you directly. You get the idea.
So, my question is, is there a good system out there to handle "variable
plots", spawning new sub-plots, etc.? I've never used TADS, ALAN, etc. before,
so I don't know if these would meet my needs. Anyone have some input here?
Thanks in advance,
- Carl
Thomas Nilsson
>I work for a chain of restaurants, and I would like to write a "game" that
>would help train the hostesses, waiters and waitresses. It seems to me that
>I could force some customer situations that would require the waiter to
>give the correct response, or be told that it was not correct?? I am not
>thinking that this will replace regular training, but just a fun project for
>me to get my feet wet, and it may help someone....any suggestions? Is it a
>lame idea, should I move to a remote region of the globe and feign ignorance?
Personally I think this type of IF-application is very interesting. We
usually think (and talk) about the 'game' type of interactive fiction.
This more serious type of stories has not been mentioned very often on
this group, why is that?
Interactive fiction as a training (or simulation) tool has been used
in practice at least once. And there ought to be many types of
training that could benefit from this type of tool, everything from
project managers, economicists, politicians etc. etc. Actually a
friend of mine had an idea for a story in which you where put in
charge of a programming project which you had to design and implement
the solution for. Aspects such as creativity, planning, documentation,
thinking, recreation etc. could influence the result, which might
satisfy the customer to varying degree.
The training genre of IF should be interesting, if not on other
merits, so at least for the bucks involved (price of a game $29, price
of a manager training software package $2999, ;-).
Thomas
Little languages go a long way...
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Thomas Nilsson Phone Int.: (+46) 13 12 11 67
Stenbrotsgatan 57 Phone Nat.: 013 - 12 11 67
S-582 47 LINKOPING Email: th...@softlab.se
SWEDEN Thomas_...@augs.se
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--
Little languages go a long way...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Nilsson Phone Int.: (+46) 13 12 11 67
Stenbrotsgatan 57 Phone Nat.: 013 - 12 11 67
S-582 47 LINKOPING Email: th...@softlab.se
SWEDEN Thomas_...@augs.se
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Desi The Three-Armed Wonder Comic
I am not for...@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Carl Forhan). I didn't say:
> So, my question is, is there a good system out there to handle "variable
>plots", spawning new sub-plots, etc.? I've never used TADS, ALAN, etc. before,
>so I don't know if these would meet my needs. Anyone have some input here?
I don't know about ALAN, but TADS and ADVSYS are both reasonably complete
programming languages, so any puzzle you can devise can (theoretically) be
coded.
The key is to plan the story as well as possible in advance. I've got this
red hot game just about ready to go - the only thing holding it up is that I
haven't figured out what should happen at the end!
--
Jon Drukman (God's personal DJ) uunet!sco!jondr jo...@sco.com
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What I need is the drill, the hedge clippers and some ordinary household bleach