What makes a good I-F game
Sam Hulick
WARNING: Mild spoilers for Wishbringer, Christminster.
I've been gaming for years..and writing my own for about a year.. and
I've been thinking lately about what makes a game good. What makes it
memorable, what makes the player not want it to end? These are the key
things I've decided (my opinion, of course) that make a game good: they
make the player interested and involved. I'd like to emphasize that
these are my opinions only... nothing more.
* Have certain scenes (esp. in the beginning) where things happen
inevitably to you, yet it seems there's some way out of it. For
example, you start out in a room full of strange switches and objects.
After only a couple moves, a creature zips out of a trap door and grabs
you, pulling you under. The first few moves and the existence of the
objects and switches make the player think "There must be some way to
prevent the creature from getting me." It's those sorts of things that
always held my interest firmly, because I kept trying to try all
different sorts of combinations to escape the creature. Of course, you
may actually choose to have some solution, but in some cases, it's good
to just make the creature-grabbing inevitable.
* If the plot allows, you should have the player being chased at least
once in the game, and allow some interesting hiding places. For
example, in Wishbringer (one of my favorites), the boot patrol would go
out marching, trying to find you...and you could hide under a tree stump
in a secret room (as far as I can remember). You could hear them
stomping over you as they passed by, and you knew when it was safe to
come out. Having a sort of haven in the game is always something
nice. :) It gives the player a place where they don't have to worry
about a timer running out, or being snatched up by creatures or what
have you.
* Interaction between NPCs is always nice, for example, in
Christminster, just to permanently obtain the key, you have to get it
from the don, run to the busker, give it to him so he hides it under a
cup. The don wakes up, tries to accuse you of stealing the key, but the
cop finds you don't have it, so he arrests the don. After they head
off, the busker gives you the key. This was one of the most amusing
puzzles I've seen, definitely a break from the ordinary "find the key
that matches this door" sort of puzzle. Puzzles are the key to these
games, don't settle for something bland. In a game that I was working
on called Knight of Ages (but unfortunately abandoned the project),
there's a scene where you're on a beach near a lighthouse. There's a
lizard that keeps crawling around that seems rather pointless--just
scenery. However, once you get into the lighthouse, you find a ring,
and if you wear it and run into the lizard again, you'll find that you
can communicate with him, revealing answers to other parts of the game,
etc.
* Make the player learn about the world you've created. If the world
is some fantastic setting filled with strange creatures and beings,
don't let them be confused about how to handle these beings, but on the
other hand, don't just hand-feed them the information. For example,
let's say you have a "swords & sorcerers" sort of setting. Build a
library with encyclopedias so that the player can read about things in
the game that may be confusing. Maybe a certain beast called a redwing
keeps stealing your items. If you look up redwing in the encyclopedia,
maybe you'd find that there's some kind of herb that repels it,
so next time it approaches you to steal your items, it runs off
screaming. Make your world versatile, something that the player can
immerse him/herself in. It makes it all the more interesting.
* Solving complicated puzzles is probably one of the most satisfying
feelings, as we all know. :) Contrast your puzzles: make some simple,
make some extremely difficult, to the point that when they finally solve
it after X amount of weeks (or months), the new part of the game they've
reached almost seems like a new game because they've spent so much time
in the first half of the game puzzling away at their predicaments. :)
That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Hopefully
someone finds these opinions useful.. :) Good luck in your creations.
--
========================================================================
Sam Hulick
shu...@Indiana.EDU
http://copper.ucs.indiana.edu/~shulick/
Lyle Murphy
Interesting synopsis. I've played a few games on the Commodor-64. They were
interesting. I didn't like the delivery method. You know blank screen then
setting, then command prompt. I know it is probably hard to get around
this with the gaming engines used. This is not real exciting. The sceens
too were not real developed and lacked that appeal to go on. Those were the
first games though. I looked at a couple games off of gmd ftp site. They
were similar. So I am going to interject my own techniques. First an
appealing delivery method: ascii graphics. Then the story line. I remember
and had seen books called create your own adventure. These were simple.
They developed different story lines jumping all over the book. I got them
for my son a long time ago. So what I plan to do is first write a short
story completely through. Filled with lots of action and then create
shooter stories off of certain points. You as the player, control the
main character. At points you interact with other characters as if you
were the main character. You need to get information from the characters to
complete the game. I think developing a short story first gives you the
settings, scenes, and narrative that make it interesting and you're always
progressing (which I think is important in a game). Those I-F games I've
seen you're going from room to room and may not accomplish any thing. Here
you can't but help but progress. The difference is you may (and probably
will a lot of the time) be going down the wrong thread of the story line.
So you go back to a saved point and continue from there. This should be
sort of a (Create your on adventure/I-F/interactive with characters) type
of game. There is no engine that lets me do this all I guess so I'll
have to create my own from Pascal or Basic. Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Lyle
JlB1925
>progressing (which I think is important in a game). Those I-F games I've
>seen you're going from room to room and may not accomplish any thing.
Here
develop. (Example: Unnkuulian Unventure I; at the beginning you're
pretty much wandering around a forest, but as soon as you get into the
underworld you get an objective. Counterexample: Modernism. Actually,
that's probably a counterexample to a lot of things.)
---
Liam Burke
I do not in any way represent Punahou Academy, its employees or its giant
flying wombats, and anything I may say or do that directly contradicts
this is merely the product of one of my many warped minds.
chi...@fred.aurora.edu
> Interesting synopsis. I've played a few games on the Commodor-64. They were
> interesting. I didn't like the delivery method. You know blank screen then
> setting, then command prompt. I know it is probably hard to get around
> this with the gaming engines used. This is not real exciting. The sceens
> too were not real developed and lacked that appeal to go on. Those were the
> first games though. I looked at a couple games off of gmd ftp site. They
> were similar. So I am going to interject my own techniques. First an
> appealing delivery method: ascii graphics
all. Lets force people to use their imagination instead of giving
pictures; and with ascii art, generally poorly drawn pictures at
that.
. Then the story line. I remember
> and had seen books called create your own adventure. These were simple.
> They developed different story lines jumping all over the book. I got them
> for my son a long time ago. So what I plan to do is first write a short
> story completely through. Filled with lots of action and then create
> shooter stories off of certain points. You as the player, control the
> main character. At points you interact with other characters as if you
> were the main character. You need to get information from the characters to
> complete the game. I think developing a short story first gives you the
> settings, scenes, and narrative that make it interesting and you're always
> progressing (which I think is important in a game). Those I-F games I've
> seen you're going from room to room and may not accomplish any thing.
Here
> you can't but help but progress. The difference is you may (and probably
> will a lot of the time) be going down the wrong thread of the story line.
> So you go back to a saved point and continue from there.
I agree with you about the short story writing first(Although for
my game SHOPPING, all I have is a rough outline). But, at least
for me the choose your own adventure format is annoying in the
way it restricts my choices. For example:
'Oh and by the way, we plan on blowing up your planet.'
Press <1> To negotiate with the alien.
Press <2> To blow him up.
Press <3> To scare him to death by telling him Dole might be Pres.
Id much rather figure out what to do for msyelf and bang my head
against the wall for hours, or beg on a newsgroup <g>, then have my
choices reduced to : Press 1 , die, restore, Press 3, die, restore,
Press 2: goto next segment in the game.
This should be
> sort of a (Create your on adventure/I-F/interactive with characters) type
> of game. There is no engine that lets me do this all I guess so I'll
> have to create my own from Pascal or Basic. Let me know what you think.
>
> Regards,
> Lyle
>
I wish you luck. From my Basic/Pascal knoweledge it shouldnt be too
hard.
'
Chidder>
>
Trevor Barrie
ly...@MadVax.mo.ti.com (Lyle Murphy) wrote:
>Interesting synopsis. I've played a few games on the Commodor-64. They were
>interesting. I didn't like the delivery method. You know blank screen then
>setting, then command prompt.
I'm not following you. Do you just mean to say that you don't like text
adventures?
>This is not real exciting. The sceens too were not real developed and lacked
>that appeal to go on. Those were the first games though. I looked at a couple
>games off of gmd ftp site. They were similar.
To which games are you referring?
>I remember and had seen books called create your own adventure. These were
>simple. They developed different story lines jumping all over the book. I got
>them for my son a long time ago.
Those were fun, back in their day.
>So what I plan to do is first write a short story completely through.
I believe some authours consider this standard practice for writing a text
adventure, although of course everybody has their own style.
>I think developing a short story first gives you the settings, scenes, and
>narrative that make it interesting and you're always progressing (which I
>think is important in a game). Those I-F games I've seen you're going from
>room to room and may not accomplish any thing. Here you can't but help but
>progress.
But the Choose your own Adventure books accomplish this by _vastly_ limiting
your options as compared to in a text adventure. As far as I can tell, you
simply can't provide the sort of control over the character that players
have come to expect while making sure that _every_ action will advance the
plot in some way.
>There is no engine that lets me do this all I guess so I'll have to create
>my own from Pascal or Basic.
If I'm understanding you correctly, nothing you've suggested is beyond the
reach of TADS, Inform, or any of the other major if languages.