Generating ideas for IF.
Prinkster
I had a question. Where do you come up with ideas for interactive
fiction? I've just begun learning to program with I7 and playing IF,
and I'm consistently finding myself out of ideas or even anywhere to
begin.
Some IF seems to deal with pretty complex issues - do those writers
start with that issue and work from there, or come up with a creative
idea and then deduce and issue that could apply?
I am not what one would call a creative person, in a sense. I think
my mind is capable of programming, but coming up with that initial
idea, that initial "spark" is tough. I find myself full of ideas I
think would be *good* but upon further thought don't seem to lend
themselves to IF well.
For example, in some book I read this apparently common saying for the
first time: "Wherever you go, there you'll be." I liked it, and
thought it could be a cool theme to implant into an interactive
fiction. I deduced that a great way to show this would be to place a
deeply flawed or otherwise troubled character into a utopia, in a
sense, and show the inevitable breakdown that occurs not because of
the place but the person. But I found myself out - out of ideas for
conflict, puzzles, etc. This is only an example of the problem that I
seem to run into - what I find to be a decent idea for a story, but
lack of any game-like elements to infuse in order to make it a truly
enjoyable experience.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
Hazard Suit
Well,
you could do the "journey starts with the first step." - thing. To
stick with the example you gave, start thinking of things like: Ok,
this guy is troubled- why? Is it a mental problem (depression,
schizophrenia or amnesia)? Drug Habit? Is he a common person who is
not satisfied with his life? Handicapp? Maybe a cyborg with some
feeling left? Selfish? or too caring?
What kind of utopic place is it? Real? Fantasy? Is it the story of a
normal guy entering a fantasy world (very classic), an explorer
discovering an underground empire (and, in this case, an inevitable
brass lantern)? An alien consciene entering human society (by taking
over a body / an animal / taking no form) and experiencing it as the
perfect society?
A 16th century merchant man, sailing to the Utopia described in the
book?
What should be the "goal" of the game, if your intention is too show
that 'where you'll go, there you are?' Will it end with the character
bringing the whole place down? Will he be able to change himself?
(Possible multiple endings)
And to begin it all, start small. A handicapped guy, in his
appartment, maybe his first day home after an accident - start with a
simple goal... getting the cookies from the cupboard which is far too
high to reach, something like that.
It will all come to you (it at least does to me) if you play around
with an idea.
Hope it helped and looking forward to your game(s)
Hazard Suit
Prinkster
Thanks! Maybe there's just a lot more work to do, and I shouldn't
give up. Do you think there are ideas that simply would not lend
themselves to IF, no matter what?
Poster
There are some, but the only ones that I've discarded turned out to be
ideas that required no interaction from the player. That is, I found
myself wanting to tell a story more than to allow others to interact
with my story. I'd say if you have a game where it's very important that
every step be followed in a precise way with no alternate ways to solve
the puzzle, and no alternate endings, write a short story instead. :)
As for ideas, I come up with them all the time. I doubt I'll live long
enough to write all the games I'd like to write. I think if you just put
the idea on the mental back burner for a while, you might be surprised
what turns up.
-- Poster
www.intaligo.com Building, INFORM, Seasons (upcoming!)
John H.
> Hi everyone.
>
> I had a question. Where do you come up with ideas for interactive
> fiction? I've just begun learning to program with I7 and playing IF,
> and I'm consistently finding myself out of ideas or even anywhere to
> begin.
This is a problem that all creative people face.
My own solution is to start out with an idea that is extremely
interesting to me, and hope that that interest is enough me to blast
through all the cruddy interruptions and limitations I'll have to
overcome to get it realized. If I were to start with just the idea
that I wanted to make interactive fiction, I'd barely start before
moving on; creating interactive fiction itself is not interesting to
me, but if it is useful to communicating some important idea I felt
needed to be expressed, that would get me through.
- John H.
Jim Aikin
> Hi everyone.
>
> I had a question. Where do you come up with ideas for interactive
> fiction? I've just begun learning to program with I7 and playing IF,
> and I'm consistently finding myself out of ideas or even anywhere to
> begin.
There's a post office box in Schenectady. You send them a stamped,
self-addressed postcard, and they send you back an idea. But the actual
number of the P.O. box is a secret known only to the Inner Circle.
Okay, I'm kidding. That's a classic answer that science fiction writers
give to people who ask that question.
A more helpful answer would be, if you think you're out of ideas, it's
most likely because you're engaging in self-censorship. Being too
critical at too early a stage in the creative process. Here's an
unblocking exercise that I've used with great success:
Start with a blank piece of paper. At the top, write, "Ten Ideas for IF
Games." On the next line, write the number 1. Then write down an idea.
Continue until you reach 10.
Here's the tricky bit, though: You're not allowed to skip anything that
comes into your mind. ANY idea, no matter how silly you think it is, no
matter how difficult, no matter how derivative of some game you just
played, you MUST write it down.
Before you know it, you'll have a list of ten ideas, and probably at
least two of them will be good.
--Jim Aikin
Raksab
I have a folder on my computer that is full of beginnings of games --
stuff that I started implementing but haven't yet finished. It's also
full of notes on things I'd like to program but haven't yet learned
how to do.
You may get inspired by playing some more IF. I get a lot of ideas
from games I liked. There's a ton of good stuff already out there,
and furthermore, playing it will help keep you from doing what's
already been done (or encourage you to make an encore, if it was
good!)
Books and movies can give you some ideas, too ... but don't limit
yourself to writing an "adaptation" of a book or movie. Actually, I
have a habit of visualizing games I play as movies. I wish I had some
actor friends so I could make some of my favorite IF into film
shorts. There are a lot of unusual effects in IF that I'd like to try
creating on the silver screen. but I digress...
Tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons and Dragons, etc.) have many resources
for worldbuilding, including some books with endless ideas for
creating cool environs for your players to explore. They may even
have some useful suggestions for puzzles and traps. The earliest IF
games were strongly reminiscent of "dungeon crawls" without the dice,
and personally I believe the genre is never truly dead.
Play as much IF as you can, enjoy it, and stop occasionally to think
about your experiences and write down your thoughts. After a while
you'll get a feel for what you like and don't like in a game, and
you'll understand some common types of puzzles. Reading some of the
articles on the Web about IF may be informative ... try XYZZY, game
reviews, the IFWiki, and of course, r.a.i-f and r.g.i-f.
Read the manual carefully and play around with the examples given.
There's a lot of possible inspiration there. Check out the Inform
website for sample games, play those games, and look at the open
sources to see how they were done.
If you figure out the setting you want your game to take place in, you
can either start drawing a map on paper, or simply sit down and start
implementing rooms (the software will automatically create a map as
you go). One thing I love about I7 is, it's easy to add new rooms
almost instantly. Then once you've got the location begun, you can
fill in some descriptions, items, scenery, and maybe even some NPCs.
Some "dungeon masters" get a lot of fun out of creating their world
and coloring it in.
If the first idea you get is for a puzzle, just create one or two
simple rooms, and start making the puzzle in there. (I always put in
a minimum one sentence of room description at the beginning, so I can
tell if the game is "skipping lines" or not later.) Once you've got
the code figured out, you can always move the puzzle (or, indeed, the
room itself) wherever you want to put it.
Keep hitting "Go!" to test out what you've got so far, and have a soft
item handy to throw across the room when the software complains and
refuses to compile ... over and over and over, no matter how you try
to word your request. It happens to me a lot, although maybe
experienced programmers get that problem less frequently. Keep
checking the Index tabs and Recipe Book as well as the instructions in
the chapters. Don't give up.
I add tons of notes to my code like [insert table of background noises
here] and [see 6.18: repeated actions.] If you can't figure out how
to do something, make a note and try again later. If you find a
relevant section of the manual, note it for future reference. Don't
erase code that upsets the compiler: instead, bracket it off so the
game will ignore it, and then you can figure out how to fix it later.
You can even experiment with "adding" and "subtracting" things with
brackets, testing what the compiler will do ... I often use this
technique to figure out exactly what is causing a problem.
If an error has been bothering you for a while and you finally figure
out what the problem is, make a note of that too, so you don't repeat
the error in the future. You might want to start keeping a paper
notebook as well as making notes all over your code.
K M
Pick two disparate ideas, themes, or dreams and find a way to marry
them together. Alternatively, the next time you're in a cafe,
eavesdrop on snatches of the conversation to the left of you, then
eavesdrop on snatches of conversation to the right of you. Make them
into a dialogue in some creative way. (And hope it doesn't drive your
significant other nuts.)
Bert Byfield
> at least two of them will be good. --Jim Aikin
Plug "brainstorming" into Google. The bad news is that lots of writers
don't understand the question of "where do you get your ideas" because
they just naturally are brimming with more ideas than they can handle,
without even trying.
Prinkster
trying to help me out. You all have given me a *lot* of really great
advice...hopefully next time you hear from me, it's to hear me say,
"Hey, check out this new game I made."
Thank you all so much! *Runs off to begin brainstorming...
Hazard Suit
Wouldn't that in our case be a mailbox in front of a white house? :-)
Maybe we should make a Comp out of this, as I like the idea of
combining to completely unrelated ideas. Rules would be hard though.
Another thing that came to mind concerning puzzles: To some they come
naturally as they create the world (they do to me - sometimes).
Poster
Puzzles are my weak point. I can come up with descriptions, themes, even
objects, but puzzles? Brick wall. NPCs are pretty hard for me, too, but
I think they're not easy for anyone.
Blank
and trying to imagine the stories behind the articles. Why didn't anyone
recognise the guy who was shot in the convenience store? There's a group
of people picketing the local airport - who's looking after their
homes/kids/pets? What if...
The obituaries are good too - though of course you have to take a little
bit from here and a little bit from there, change the names around and
set it somewhere different...
--jz