[Survey] "The Perfect Intro" -- What are *your* requirements?
Jay Goemmer
Robinson Wheeler), I noticed lots of people don't care for several
screensful of text before a game begins -- especially if they don't
give the player any clue about the final goal (i.e., "the point") of
the game.
In *your* opinion, what elements make up "The Perfect Intro?"
TIA,
--Jay Goemmer
Graham Holden
wrote:
For myself (and I suspect a lot here), there is unlikely to be _one_
perfect style of intro -- it would depend a lot on the type and style
of the game (or even if it is a "game", or a wider 'work of IF').
My "off the top of my head" response, for a typical "text game" would
be a shortish intro-text to set some general background (not much more
than one page of a Psion's screen [70x18 lines]). This would be
followed by a shortish "pre-game" -- where a bit more "grounding" can
be achieved; followed by the game proper. Even if the actions
available in the "pre-game" are severely restricted (and in practice
might not be much more than responding to a '<more>' prompt), I think
I prefer to have at least the impression of being interactive.
One style for the 'pre-game' that I have met and liked fairly often is
where you're placed in a fairly mundane situation and then either
something totally unexpected happens, or your initially simple-seeming
quest suddenly becomes much more complex (two examples that spring to
mind here are "Vacation Gone Awry" and "Curses").
I can picture a sort of 'spectrum' of intros, ranging from the
ultra-terse (you are plunged in to the thick of the action and have
virtually no time to acquaint yourself before having to act) to the
ultra-verbose (you read a short novel of background information before
you are allowed to see a ">" prompt).
I usually like to "have a bit of a look around" before having to do
anything "important" at the start of a new game, so games somewhere
toward the middle of this range are more likely to appeal. This
doesn't mean that either extreme _couldn't_ work for me; just that
there would probably need to be a good reason why, and it would
probably have to be a "better quality" work to pull it off
successfully.
Regards,
Graham Holden
g DASH holden AT dircon DOT co DOT uk
(to reply by email, replace DOT, DASH and AT as appropriate).
Tom Kenyon
> In *your* opinion, what elements make up "The Perfect Intro?"
>
>
There's always something I find appealing in games that begin where they
also end (maybe I just like it when everything is wrapped up neatly). Games
with no introduction at all I suppose pose the greatest story-telling
challenge to the reader (after all how do you justify dumping a player
somewhere and tell them 'go explore'). Ultimatly I prefer intros that are
short and don't throw facts stright at me. For example, the character is a
private detective but rather than telling me I am a private detective I
rather be more more subtly encouraged to think that way by the setting or
the style of my character's speech.
Adam Cadre
> at me.
Like 9:05?
-----
Adam Cadre, Holyoke, MA
http://adamcadre.ac
Tom Kenyon
> Like 9:05?
>
Not played it but just took a quick look...it's basically what I'm talking
about (in fact I want to go complete the whole game now :-) )
Boluc Papuccuoglu
About Graham's liking of unexpected twists after the intro or
pre-game, Lock and Key is one of my fave twists. A pity that this
year's When Help Collides couldn't pull it off quite so well tho. The
writing in that game's excellent. Magnetic Scrolls Wonderland and Zork
Zero are early examples of good use it, in my opinion.
Out of curiousity, What's the earliest use of twist-(intro/pre-game)?
Jay Goemmer
news:<ok8e0vohmceu9besc...@4ax.com>...
> My "off the top of my head" response, for a typical "text game" would
> be a shortish intro-text to set some general background (not much more
> than one page of a Psion's screen [70x18 lines]). This would be
> followed by a shortish "pre-game" -- where a bit more "grounding" can
> be achieved; followed by the game proper.
So, are you suggesting introductory text, followed by a limited
area the player can dabble in -- perhaps "opening the door" to a
larger game area (as a generalization, of course)?
> Even if the actions available in the "pre-game" are severely restricted
> (and in practice might not be much more than responding to a '<more>'
> prompt), I think I prefer to have at least the impression of being
> interactive.
>
> [snip]
>
> to the ultra-verbose (you read a short novel of background
> information before you are allowed to see a ">" prompt).
I guess what I want to avoid is requiring players to read the
equivalent of "The Encyclopedia Galactica" before actually being able
to *play* something. I don't think the idea of "hitting any key" ad
infinitum would appeal to most players.
> I can picture a sort of 'spectrum' of intros, ranging from the
> ultra-terse (you are plunged in to the thick of the action and have
> virtually no time to acquaint yourself before having to act)
This could be simultaneously effective *and* confusing, depending
on the player's experience -- but it could be a lot of fun, too.
Thanks for your comments, Graham! Anyone else?
Cheers,
--Jay Goemmer
Matthew F Funke
>
>In *your* opinion, what elements make up "The Perfect Intro?"
I have to admit that nothing has raised my determination to solve
what was going on more than Dan Schmidt's "For a Change":
The sun is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock.
--
-- With Best Regards,
Matthew Funke (m...@hopper.unh.edu)
Joey Narcotic
news:auq1fi$17c$1...@tabloid.unh.edu...
> Jay Goemmer <centu...@ltlink.com> wrote:
> >
> >In *your* opinion, what elements make up "The Perfect Intro?"
>
> I have to admit that nothing has raised my determination to solve
> what was going on more than Dan Schmidt's "For a Change":
>
> The sun is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock.
Ooh yes. I found that completely irresistable.
In my opinion, the "perfect intro" should be a hook that gets you into the
story. It should be as concise as possible. If there's a lot of background
to be conveyed, a skillful writer should be able to integrate it into the
body of the story. Putting screeds of text at the start strikes me as a
somewhat lazy way of doing it; it's roughly equivalent to opening a movie
with lengthy narration, which also turns me off.
Just as film is supposed to be a visual medium, IF is supposed to be an
interactive medium; otherwise, what's the point? If I want to read many
unbroken pages of writing, I'll get a book.
Cheers,
Joe
Graham Holden
wrote:
>Graham Holden <gDASH...@dirconDOTco.uk> wrote in message
>news:<ok8e0vohmceu9besc...@4ax.com>...
>
>> My "off the top of my head" response, for a typical "text game" would
>> be a shortish intro-text to set some general background (not much more
>> than one page of a Psion's screen [70x18 lines]). This would be
>> followed by a shortish "pre-game" -- where a bit more "grounding" can
>> be achieved; followed by the game proper.
>
> So, are you suggesting introductory text, followed by a limited
>area the player can dabble in -- perhaps "opening the door" to a
>larger game area (as a generalization, of course)?
Roughly, yes. I also would also broadly second Tom Keynon's views in
another reply:
>
>
>> Even if the actions available in the "pre-game" are severely restricted
>> (and in practice might not be much more than responding to a '<more>'
>> prompt), I think I prefer to have at least the impression of being
>> interactive.
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> to the ultra-verbose (you read a short novel of background
>> information before you are allowed to see a ">" prompt).
>
> I guess what I want to avoid is requiring players to read the
>equivalent of "The Encyclopedia Galactica" before actually being able
>to *play* something. I don't think the idea of "hitting any key" ad
>infinitum would appeal to most players.
I think I was probably trying to say two things here. First, yes, I
really wouldn't want to have to be forced to read the Encyclopedia
Galactica before getting down to typing anything. If the game
legitimately needed a chunk of background material, then this should
be exposed gradually (at the player's pace) during the intro. A
recent example of this in the IFComp02 game 'Fort Aegea' which had
four volumes of background information available that could be read
when required.
The second point was more along the lines of: whilst I would prefer
the author wouldn't, if you _are_ going to foist more than a screenful
of information on a player, a "pretense" at interactivity while
presenting it would be (slightly) better than just a "more>" prompt.
It's a while since I played it, but I think YAGWAD (Yet another game
with a dragon) did something like this with the King's introductory
speech.