Modeling "Relationships" in Interactive Fiction

Aminka Ozmun

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Mar 7, 2012, 11:46:49 AM3/7/12

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Hi, Everyone!

I'm interested in making interactive romance stories but there's a
"conceptual block" I have for which I'd like your advice, please!!

I've taken a look at some interactive fiction and notice that they are
basically "text puzzlers," which is great for a traditional whodunit
and the like but I'm not sure how a romance would work. You see, a
romance is about relationships. Idealized, highly fantastical, yes,
but at heart it's about discovering not a whole new planet or a way
out of the dungeon or who killed the butler but a person, a man, an
idealized man...it's about relationships, about conversation.

Well, I just don't see how conversations are going to work. Has
anyone used Inform 7 or any other application to bring some artificial
intelligence to interactive fiction?

Thanks!

Kyuzo

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Mar 7, 2012, 2:26:07 PM3/7/12

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Try "Urban Conflict" by Sam Gordon. Perhaps it is what you're
searchin for..
Released in Inform 7

Conrad Cook

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Mar 7, 2012, 6:22:19 PM3/7/12

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Sound like you'd be interested in a dating sim. You're more likely to
find people doing that in Ren'Py -- [http://lemmasoft.renai.us/
forums/] -- which means you can probably find more folks over there to
talk about the underlying logic to such games, regardless of what
language you end up using.

Conrad.

Jim Aikin

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Mar 7, 2012, 10:46:14 PM3/7/12

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Both Inform 7 and TADS 3 have fairly sophisticated systems for producing
conversation between the player and other characters. (In fact, some of
the better conversation extensions for I7 were written by Eric Eve, who
is primarily a T3 author. He adapted the concepts in the T3 conversation
system to I7.)

These systems will let you do things like menu-based conversation,
suggested topics, and alternate responses based on the state of previous
conversations or other events.

That said, there's a difference between a flexible conversation
framework for a game (which is difficult to write, but very possible)
and artificial intelligence (which is far _more_ difficult).

What I have found is that writing believable, human-seeming characters
in interactive fiction is quite a challenge! The reason a lot of games
end up being dungeon-crawls is because dungeon-crawls are easier to program.

You might want to begin by writing out a dummy transcript. Write a few
scenes as they would appear to the player of your game. And then imagine
what may happen if the player is uncooperative and fails to type the
commands you're hoping for! This might give you some insight into what
sorts of programming tools will be most useful to you.

You might also try playing "Galatea" by Emily Short, which is mainly a
conversation game (though not a romance).

--Jim Aikin

Ron Newcomb

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Mar 8, 2012, 11:52:17 PM3/8/12

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> Well, I just don't see how conversations are going to work. Has
> anyone used Inform 7 or any other application to bring some artificial
> intelligence to interactive fiction?

Many of my blog articles aim squarely at that.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ronnewcomb/293/

I'm trying to polish what the most recent post is about, but i have a
hard time finding free time.

Chan

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Mar 21, 2012, 2:18:09 PM3/21/12

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I've been going through some of Emily Short's "conversational" IF. You
might be able find inspiration in them. I suggest Galatea, Pytho's
Mask, Best of Three as starters.
I also played Kathleen Fischer's "Redemption" - your typical romance
novel type story, a nice read too.