Game within the game.

Do you think that an IF game that has an IF game modeled within it would be welcomed by the IF community?

If it is good: yes.

If it is bad: no.

(This would be the response to basically every question like this, except maybe things like “Do you think that an IF game that is a propaganda piece for North Korean communism would be welcomed by the IF community?”)

The answer depends on your intent. Any fun and unique interaction that meshes with the plot is almost never unwelcome. The player is already playing an IF game, so I can’t see why they would shy away from it.

But don’t ever let people dictate what you write. If the mini-IF game belongs in the game, put it in. Answers to straw polls about “what kind of/what would you like in a/game” almost invariably can be definitively answered “Show us what you got.”

Don’t see why not, if it’s well done. I was completely amused by tripping over an IF game inside Fallout 3 (fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Reign_of_Grelok), and the 2011 IFComp entry “A Comedy of Error Messages” included a chunk of a MUD.

But if it’s badly done, it’ll just be confusing.

[EDIT] In short, what everyone else said.

Do a game within a game within a game until the player is baffled by the ordeal.

A North Korean propaganda piece satire on the other hand.

Inside another game. Or the propaganda piece might not even have to be satire if the outer game gives it another context…

I have an idea for a (probably multiauthored) game in which the player boots up a game, plays the game for a little while, gets to the end where it says “Thanks for playing my Introcomp game!”, goes to IFDB to get the full version, winds up with a completely different game, gets irretrievably stuck, goes to get a hint, finds it as a completely different game file like ah what’s that game Cursed, finds that that’s a completely different game anyway, hits a programming error (here I’m running out of ideas) until at the end you realize that the frame story has been the game all along.

In short, IF on a winter’s night a traveler.

There’s IFDB Spelunking, which is not what you’re talking about but isn’t far off.

Well, at the end of my game you find out that the titles of the games you’ve been playing can be laid end-to-end to form a room description… hm, might be interesting to see if you can do that on IFDB.

Endless, nameless is THREE games, one inside the other.

“Insider Information”, while small in size, seems relevant right about now.

What is it exactly? Its IFDB page is sadly neglected; doesn’t even seem to say what format it’s in.

It’s an Inform curiosity. Two rooms, in one of which is a computer that allows you to “Play the Game” or “View the Source”. Gameplay will consist in delving deeper into the recursive “game” and then "quit"ting back some iterations back as (presumably because of changes during design) the various iterations are slightly different…

…it’s really hard to describe. Best to give it a whirl. But don’t expect anything huge or mind-blowing, just surprising and intriguing.

EDIT - Just replayed it. The gimmick is indeed fun first time you see it, but it is indeed a mini-game, two puzzles to speak of. Both quite meta. But I like it. It’s quirky and nerdy and unassuming, and a neat concept.

I know I can’t expect a sympathetic hearing from you, and the game is old enough that it’s completely anachronistic, but it makes me sad when little games like this come in zip files full of tons of games rather than just being .z5 or .z8s that I can play online and be done with.

It’s usually a bit of a mess, yes. In this particular one, though, there are only three games in that zip file, and it seems to be a matter of organisation - it would be perfectly possible re-submit the games to the IF-archive individually and then link to them, making IFDB’s automatic “Play Online” thing available.

I’m not against games being played online. I’m against games not being playable offline. :wink:

Good plan, but no. I don’t want the people thoroughly confused.

?

I think Mr. Pears is saying that the luxury of playing the game offline should be made available to the player. That is, it should not be an online-only game. I agree with him.

I see…

I’m working on a game-within-a-game as a project right now. I don’t want to say too much about it in case I enter it into a comp… but uh, PM me because I don’t want to do the same thing as someone else! :S