[ANN] "The Act of Misdirection"
Cal Harrison
the stage once more, with feats his that baffle and defy.
-- Announcing (drum-roll from the pit):
"THE ACT OF MISDIRECTION"
An Interactive Performance,
By Cal Harrison (c) 2004
http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/Misdirection.z5
(and mirrors)
currently at:
http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/unprocessed/Misdirection.z5
----------
Preview by Paul O'Brian:
THE ACT OF MISDIRECTION by Cal Harrison
The Act Of Misdirection is not a competition game, and in today's IF
community, that alone is enough to make it remarkable. For a first-time
author to release a comp-sized game (or maybe even *any* game) outside the
competition is an even gutsier move, since she risks the product of all her
hard work sinking without a trace. So when Callico Harrison asked me if I'd
like to write a review that she could release simultaneously with her first
game, I loved the idea. Imagine my pleasure when I started playing and
discovered that this a very strong game indeed. It's intriguing, skillfully
crafted, and if it were entered in the competition it would surely place in
the top ten, perhaps even the top three. Not only is it written with flair
and diligently coded, it also makes some impressive inroads into one of my
favorite areas of modern IF development: player-friendly design. Many areas
of the game are constructed to allow the player to discover the story for
himself, but also to notice if the player seems to be struggling, and to
offer gentle nudges in the right direction without recourse to some kind of
external hint system.
Nowhere is this excellent design more evident than in the game's first
scene. The setting is the brightly lit boards of London's Carthaginian Stage
in 1896. The house is packed with "the city's gents and ladies" who wait
breathlessly "in anticipation of something magical." The protagonist is a
magician, equipped with nothing but a bare baize table, a handkerchief, and
a debonair top hat. The game places you in this nerve-wracking situation,
and lets you take it from there; what follows is one of the most charming
interactive fiction scenes I've ever played. There's nothing quite so
gratifying in IF as attempting a non-standard action or phrasing that makes
sense in context and finding that the game anticipates and handles it. To
find that this action is the *exact* right choice is an unparalleled
pleasure, and it's a pleasure that the game's magic act offers over and
over. Whether Misdirection craftily led me into the right actions or simply
anticipated a wide range of options I don't know, and in the moment of
playing I didn't care -- all I knew was that as the act unfolded, I felt
myself both the magician and the audience, both directing the action and
dazzled by the exciting spectacle before me. The experience isn't perfect,
mind. There were plenty of times when I tried something that wasn't
implemented, and there was even the occasional novice glitch, like the
following:
>show 9 of hearts to audience
You can only do that to something animate.
>show nine of hearts (to the audience)
"Any card you choose is here, friends. The Nine of Hearts?" With a quick
ruffle the card is produced and shown to all.
Still, the game achieves a much higher percentage of implemented actions
than usual, and it's enough to make the magician's routine very memorable.
Just as important, when I couldn't think of the right thing to do, I never
felt stuck, because eventually the game would step in and give me a gentle
push in the right direction. Parser responses are written with delightful
cleverness, usually pointing subtly towards a more productive action if the
player has guessed wrong.
For this first scene alone, The Act Of Misdirection would be well worth
playing, but the game goes on from there, its story expanding and its
mystery deepening. One of the story's main themes is surprise, and this
manifests itself both in plot and in design, so it wouldn't do to give away
any more secrets. I'll just settle for saying that although the game's
helpful design philosophy continues throughout, it becomes more and more
puzzling as it reveals itself, winding up in a great enigma. I hope that the
mysterious nature of the plot prompts a great deal of discussion, because,
ironically enough, the game's willingness to help players through its
puzzles removes one of the most prominent spurs to public discussion that
past games like The Mulldoon Legacy and my own LASH have used to prompt
public posting. Without hint requests to drive up the number of posts on
rec.games.int-fiction, The Act Of Misdirection must rely on community
support and enthusiasm. For that reason and for the others I've just
detailed, I urge you to play this game, and to post your reaction on the
newsgroups. If this game gets the attention it deserves, it'll be a lock for
several 2004 XYZZY nominations. I've tried to do my part to get it that
attention -- the rest is up to you.
----------
Beta-testing by: Sal Jones, James Ossuki, Mary Eliot, Storme Winfield, Greg
Pallis and John Bichard
----------
cal harrison - at - eudoramail dot com
Newcastle, UK
Daphne Brinkerhoff
"Cal Harrison" <real.a...@bottom.of.post> wrote in message
news:c14s59$jri$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
> -- The stage is set, the lamps are lighted, and the Great Meldellevo takes
> the stage once more, with feats his that baffle and defy.
>
> -- Announcing (drum-roll from the pit):
>
> "THE ACT OF MISDIRECTION"
>
> An Interactive Performance,
>
> By Cal Harrison (c) 2004
Yay! New IF! Yay!
...um, and I enjoyed it too (that is, not only did it satisfy my neophilia,
but also it had merits besides just being "new"). I couldn't help wondering
if "Callico Harrison" is a pseudonym for an experienced IF author. The
writing is spot-on, and as Paul O'Brian said, the coding is good as well.
In fact, I feel a lot like saying "Ditto" to his preview.
If I'm wrong about the pseudonym thing, and Cal Harrison is a first-time
author, well, I'm really impressed, and I hope to see more from her
(guessing that Callico is a woman's name, despite the fact that my best
friend's nephew is named Calico, but then my friend's sister is a little
weird).
I spent about an hour on the game; it took me half an hour to reach the
first ending, and I spent another 20 minutes getting a different ending (I
don't know if there are more; these two are the only ones I can figure out).
It wouldn't have taken so long the second time around if I hadn't kept
messing up.
What Paul said about the user-friendliness was true. I was only stuck once,
in the opening scene. Fortunately, the props are so limited there that I
was able to fiddle around and hit upon the thing that needed doing. I also
liked the sentence just before the opening prompt... it got me off to a good
start. It's great when a game can almost unconsciously elicit responses; it
makes me feel smart, and of course it gives me confidence that the game is
figure-out-able, which makes me try harder to figure things out when I'm
stuck.
Also, the opening scene reminded me a lot of a scene from Andy Phillips'
game _Heroine's Mantle_, the part where you have to perform a religious rite
in front of lots of worshippers who want to kill you if you get it wrong.
This scene was way more forgiving, though, and much more newbie-appropriate.
Anyway, thumbs up, and maybe I'll post more later with spoilers.
--
Daphne
Cal Harrison
> Yay! New IF! Yay!
> ...um, and I enjoyed it too (that is, not only did it satisfy my
neophilia,
> but also it had merits besides just being "new").
Thanks; glad you liked it.
> my best friend's nephew is named Calico, but then my friend's sister is a
little
> weird).
...but hey, you know, it's a weird name, but it's the only one I've got...
-- Cal
Eytan Zweig
beginning to end. I only found one reading, the one you take by staying on
the path given you. I haven't found the divergence point, but if I were
less busy I would definitely play on to find it - as it is, I'll probably
wait until someone posts a walkthrough and look at it, because I do want
to see how it ends.
I don't have much to add to what Paul and Daphne said - I basically agree
with both, on most points. One thing I noticed was that the scene in the
bakery seems a bit over-designed - there's a lot going on there that you
can't really notice unless you play through it more than once; but that's
hardly a negative point - it's more that when, reading the ending notes,
the author complains that it was difficult to do, I sort of wondered if it
was necessarily worth the effort, when a simpler design would have been
nearly as effective.
I cannot say that I really understood what was going on - the story seems
to be a twilight-zone style horror story, where things start looking
normal but the deeper you look into them, the weirder and more disturbing
they get.
From here on, the discussion gets spoilery, so consider yourself warned:
I did find the first two parts far more effective emotionally - the magic
act and the bakery - the first really swept me along, and then when things
suddenly went wrong it was quite surprising (but the strange ash woman
seemed to detract a bit, as it hinted that there's more going on here than
I know, and if it had a meaning, I didn't get it). The Bakery gave me a
good impression of being harried and over-worked and when things got a bit
weird and hinted of change I shared the character's curiousity and the
hint of excitement indeed outshadowed the ominous hints.
But at the hat shop, things just got confusing - and no longer
attractive - once David started telling me his plans the things I had to
do to progress the narrative no longer seemed congruous with my own
desires; I started feeling more like a spectator again, and was more
puzzled than anything else. The real place where I had a problem was when
David mentioned that he had already many different masters - until then I
could see how this plays on the ego of the heroine "I'm better than his
current master, which is why he betrays him to join me", but once it is
clear that this is a pattern, that no longer makes sense. Maybe I missed
an alternative action here, or maybe I just got over-confused by the
seeming irrationality in the characters' behavior.
But the only reason that this part seemed inferior to the other two was
that they were so effective - taken against the context of IF at large,
the third part of the game was still very, very good.
Eytan
Tommy Herbert
making the plot more and more twisty and opaque - when you have a game
like that, the ending seems to be saying "What do you make of that?".
Can't answer that question. Haven't even found the other ending...
Still, good fun and not long.
Richard Bos
> -- The stage is set, the lamps are lighted, and the Great Meldellevo takes
> the stage once more, with feats his that baffle and defy.
>
> -- Announcing (drum-roll from the pit):
>
> "THE ACT OF MISDIRECTION"
So... how _do_ you get the other ending? I only found the one, and it
seemed as if there wasn't any place for me to deviate from my "fate".
Richard
Daphne Brinkerhoff
news:405061fb....@news.individual.net...
Well, I posted a couple of weeks ago, so you could google-groups for
message-ID
<1a80bb93.04022...@posting.google.com>
or for the phrase "Misdirection alternate ending".
--
Daphne
Richard Bos
Ah, silly me, I completely overlooked that. Thanks. But that _is_ a bit
hrad to get, isn't it? Especially since by the time you need <that
object>, you cannot go back to get it.
Right. Now all I've got to find is a way to make the handkerchief
disappear (which I thought I had... it turned into a newspaper, which
burned up), and a way to operate the sword mechanism by hand.
Richard