Welp, I’m a bit bored and thought I’d have another crack at this IF lark. I’m fine with the programming (I use Inform v6.3-ish) I’m just casting around for inspiration and stuff. So basically, I’d like people to challenge me! I can’t promise I’ll include every suggestion. I can’t promise I’ll use any suggestion for that matter, but if I see something that really sparks my interest then I’ll do my best! So, go ahead! Tell me what you’d like to see! Throw random words at me to use as ingredients if you like! Challenge me with tests of programming skill and stuff! Anything you like!
Great idea Ash. My game idea list is too long for me to have a go at one percent of it in my lifetime. Here are three ideas from the top:
Supernatural paranoid androids
A biological agent in a world of chess-playing machines
A future world where policemen, firefighters, garbage men, etc. are all rolled into one cybernetically enhanced civil servant.
Here are three programming ideas:
A thief game, in a building with scalable walls, enterable windows, etcetera
A kung-fu game in a programmatically generated forest – where the player can jump from tree-top to tree-top (I’m not sure if anything but TADS 3 could do this – unless I7 could generate at compile time?), and also float back to the ground.
A political power struggle game, where the player and the game each start with three characters, which they may ‘trade’ between them, making offers to trade and accepting or rejecting. Alternatively there is a cast of twelve agents in a city which the game and player both try to recruit to serve the ultimate victory condition of the game.
Write a “classic” style game (like Colossal Cave or Zork) that isn’t so cruel; don’t let the player get into an unwinnable situation, or make it really obvious if they do.
A game with a lot of player agency – where the player’s choices really matter, and affect the plot in a dramatic way.
A non-human PC with interesting abilities.
Simulate one particular thing very deeply (but it should be relevant in the context of the game).
Conversation with NPCs has a lot of room to explore, too.
Ah, now this has given me an idea for a game. To address the points in order:
I hardly ever include player death in my games. If something would prove deadly, the hero avoids the action on behalf of the player. If the hero dies at all, then it’s a part of the story, either as its legitimate end or as a plot device (i.e. to transfer control to another hero, or to allow the player to continue playing the game as a ghost.)
I’m planning a multiple-ending strategy where the decisions that the player makes determines what chapter(s) they face, and what happens at the end of the story. I reckon it’ll be about 5 different endings in all. Hope this works!
I’m going all-out on this one, and I’ve chosen as my focus detective work. The player receives a notebook that will automatically keep track of any important clues they uncover, and the game will facilitate the ability to draw new conclusions from existing clues in order to solve puzzles.
I’ve always been a fan of highly-interactive NPCs, but this can be a problem too. There really is a lot of scope to what you can do with an NPC, but having so many options can also lead the player to confusion and being unable to guess precisely what command they need to issue to solve the puzzle. This can partially be alleviated with ‘tutorial’ style puzzles early on in the game which demonstrate how complex NPC interactions can work.
Ok, I’m going to get to work! I may even fit in the non-human character if I can, although from what I’m thinking of this is likely to be an NPC under the temporary or indirect control of the player rather than being the main character. People, feel free to keep dropping in ideas if you want to!
Sadly, I don’t think Kumquat is going to make the final cut, but I may yet be able to find a place for General Moonface!
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