[fabiobit]

Adding a parser to Trilby's Notes (and the following -upcoming- game) was a great way to enhance the mood. Writing your actions give you a larger sense of control over the character (at least to me it does). One thing bothered (it didn't make the game any less enjoyable): the parser in AGS is a (poorly-coded) fake of Infocom's parser (not Yathzee's fault, nor Chris' since he's deticating his energies to a point and click oriented engine). And in Trilby's Notes it's practically used the same way you would employ a mouse in a point and click adventure. Verbs were often limited to talk, use, etc.

Graphics and sounds are great. I remember playing The Secret of Monkey Island (my first adventure game - and I am sure lots of people started there too) and crying of joy. I was hooked in the genre. Fortunately, in 1995 or so, I was introduced by a friend to Interactive Fiction. The grandfather of point and click adventures (in a way).

Yes, it's only text. Yes, it's extremelly addictive and "graphical". I can't find the exact words to describe it, but Interactive Fiction takes you to a whole new level of adventuring - you are suddenly involved in the plot in a way point and click adventures simply can't. Seriously. The mood is set up by the author (so a talented writer is needed) and your input is not limited to a few stock commands. True enough, the first works of IF had the terrible problem of "having to guess the right verb" but later works (specially the thousands of freeware IF being released every year on the Internet [IF features a very large community, if you never heard of it try surfing the web for a couple hours, you won't regret]) have such an advanced parser and handles nouns in a way that the problem has been lessened considerably.

Ben is a talented writer and a fairly good game/plot designer. I am not sure if he tried his hands with it in the past but, regardless, I think he's too worried about public acceptance (and reaching a wide range of players) to try his hands on it again. Or maybe he's just not interest. No matter.

I invite you all to search these topics on google and see what you think of it. I won't even give you links (this will save the topic from slash-n-hackers [I doubt they even read the thread this far]): Inform 7 (the most famous and widely used programming package to produce IF), TADS (the second most famous package), IF Comp (the annual IF competition), IF Archive (with loads of good games, etc) and so on. A simple search will lead you to many other paths.

Maybe you enjoy the reading, maybe not. Feel free to share you thoughts on IF and try convicing Ben to give it a try (again? not sure). And remember: neat graphics, sound and smooth animation are great BUT they're only complementary stuff. You don't need any of these to write a fun/scary/adventurous game.

Cheers!

[Yahtzee]

Who is this Ben person you keep talking about?

[Gobbler]

And remember: neat graphics, sound and smooth animation are great BUT they're only complementary stuff. You don't need any of these to write a fun/scary/adventurous game.

I really can't agree with that. Sure, reading alone can be quite thrilling, but there are limits to that too. Especially when you are trying to set up an atmosphere. Just reading everything makes it a very personal experience, indeed, and you're left to imagine the scary stuff in between on your own.

But the thing that I liked most about Mr. Yahtzee's work was the "games as art" thought. Compared to that, writing something that freaks the readers out is quite easy to accomplish. Managing to address just more than one sense, however, isn't.

This post has been edited by Gobbler: 21 September 2006 - 03:43 AM

[CJ Marren]

Who is this Ben person you keep talking about?

Some British guy trapped indefinitely in Auntrailia... you wouldn't know him

[fabiobit]

Who is this Ben person you keep talking about?

It's you, dimwit. You used to sign Ben Yathz. I am pretty certain of that.

Compared to that, writing something that freaks the readers out is quite easy to accomplish.

...really? hmm...

[David-kyo]

It's you, dimwit. You used to sign Ben Yathz. I am pretty certain of that.

You really have no idea how to respond to sarcasm, do you?
And it's spelled Yahtz.

[Otal Nimrodi]

It's you, dimwit. You used to sign Ben Yathz. I am pretty certain of that.
...really? hmm...

Dude...


He KNOWS that!

[AdamM]

Some British guy trapped indefinitely in Auntrailia... you wouldn't know him

Mmm. Especially considering Yahtzee doesn't live in a made-up country.

I've dabbled with Inform in the past, but, to put it succinctly, it was much more troublesome than AGS.

[fabiobit]

Mmm. Especially considering Yahtzee doesn't live in a made-up country.

I've dabbled with Inform in the past, but, to put it succinctly, it was much more troublesome than AGS.

However, it changed. That's why I wanted to point out the seventh version of Inform. It's supposed to make programming easier and let the author spend more time on the story part of it. Graham Nelson came up with a somewhat original (and I say somewhat because I read somewhere it has been done before) programming language which is entirely based in -english-.


As for everyone else:
Calling him "dimwit" was in itself a sarcastic answer. But I don't think any of you played Zork.

This post has been edited by fabiobit: 21 September 2006 - 05:23 PM

[CJ Marren]

Mmm. Especially considering Yahtzee doesn't live in a made-up country.

I've dabbled with Inform in the past, but, to put it succinctly, it was much more troublesome than AGS.

Hey, all I'll say is be glad that I didn't put a 'c' instead of an 'a' at the start of the word

[Zazzo]

But I don't think any of you played Zork.

Played it a few times on and off, never beat it. Never did explore the entirety of the 1000-point version of Adventure, either. Infocom had quality parsers, though. I spent a lot of time playing with GAGS, then AGT in the early 90s; still my favourite tools for that.

[fabiobit]

Played it a few times on and off, never beat it. Never did explore the entirety of the 1000-point version of Adventure, either. Infocom had quality parsers, though. I spent a lot of time playing with GAGS, then AGT in the early 90s; still my favourite tools for that.

AGT was nice. I remember playing Crusader (one of my early favourites) and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Zork 1 was tough but fairly beatable, you just had to figure out what to do with the trasures you found and survive the puzzles, the dam being the hardest one. Zork 2 featured a much better underlying plot but was still hard and primitive (compared to the subsequent IFs they released).

I -think- Adventure became The Colossal Cave by the time Douglas Adams started working with Infocom and gave up his "Odysseus" project. Not sure tho. He and Scott Adams (unrelated) started working with IF after ADVENT and, of course, DUNGEON which later became known as Zork and was divided in three separate games for the sake of playability. Colossal Cave has been ported to different IF languages and is readily available on the net through a quick search. I never played it to the end because I am not a fan of overly stretched IF works but I liked some of the puzzles in the early stages.

Adventure was not written by Adams, btw, I just mentioned his name as a reference to the year it was changed to Colossal Cave. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas' work and well-known book) remains one of the best IF games, again readily available if you do a quick search. You should've read the book before you try it tho or you may find it too challenging.

For newcomers I still recommend Bronze by Emily Short. Or Moonmist if you want an easy, Infocom classic, IF detective adventure. Just download the latest Gargoyle interpreter (for Win and Linux) or Zoom (for Mac) and get the games from either ifarchive.org or some other IF depot.

This post has been edited by fabiobit: 22 September 2006 - 04:19 PM