In a parser game, how essential is it to tell the player “Press a key to continue” when the story pauses to wait for a keypress? I mean at a dramatic moment or during a transition from one part of the story to the next, not during pre-game instructions or something like that.
If it’s important to say “Press a key,” do you have ideas for how to do it in a way that is least disruptive to the story?
Some games put a “Press any key” instruction in the status bar rather than the main window. I like this idea. The only thing is there’s no guarantee that everyone will see it, since some interpreters don’t display the status bar, and from what I understand, screen readers may or may not ignore the status bar.
A related question: since interpreters* and (I gather) screen readers do not all deal with status bars the same way, is there an elegant way to ask players how they want to deal with the status bar?
*Edit: Rather than interpreters, it sounds like the status bar might be more just an issue for Floyd/ClubFloyd, which does or did use cheapglk, so maybe this is not really an interpreter issue.
I’m mostly familiar with the Z machine, and I believe it’s a function of the interpreter to supply the “Press a key to continue” prompts any time the interpreter has displayed an entire screen full of text without a normal prompt.
(So if your screen is 20 lines high and the response to the last command you entered is more than 20 lines long, you’ll see one or more of those prompts until you get to your next command input)
Many games start with some quotes or a “cutscene” of some kind, but those “press a key to continue” prompts are generally from the game itself, I think?
Print “Press a key to continue”. Don’t worry about disrupting the story. Players know how to read.
If there’s no prompt, it can look like the game has crashed. This is less of a risk when the game has just started, as players are in more of a “splash screen” mode and expect that sort of thing. But once the game is in full swing, I’d say always use a prompt.
I think there’s some authorial design going on here too. If you want to maintain suspension of belief, then write your cut scene in a way that doesn’t require the paused screen output.
I can present one bit of anecdotal evidence: in ‘course correction’, there’s a couple times where there’s a scene change or a dramatic moment, and I just wait for a keypress, but didn’t say ‘press any key’. Nobody complained, though that doesn’t mean nobody was confused?
My guess is that you have to convey to the player that this is normal, somehow. A very clear signal of that is the text ‘press any key’, but ‘the game is starting’ or ‘something big is happening’ also seem to work, at least for some people.
Status bars are, for me, something I might glance at every so often at a moment when I’m trying to catch my bearings. There have been games where I never consciously looked at the status bar at all, so I definitely wouldn’t put anything time-sensitive or critical in them. (The exception: the map in ‘Wise Woman’s Dog’. Even there, I only looked at the map, not the room name or whatever else was there.)
Basically ‘there’s no guarantee anyone will see it’ is true even for standard play!
Second this. From a purely User Experience standpoint, the model of parser games is very simple: present some text, prompt the user for input, repeat. “Press a key to continue” still fits the model, but removing the prompt breaks it, leaving the player adrift. It could be argued that players already know to press a key, but that’s based on an assumption that excludes new players (and possibly screen reader players).
You could always handle it diegetically:
"Oh no!" she screamed. "I'm dying! Quick! Press a key! PRESS A KEY!!!"
While I was—at least I hope I was—diligent with regard to narrative voice, there are 40 wait for any key prompts in Repeat the Ending. I didn’t do anything too special with them. This is the message:
***Press Any Key to Continue***
I used the asterisks as kind of an echo of the epitaph output. The wait on key is an established thing, so I don’t think players resist it much. I did this in Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight:
Wherever this sign appears, paw at the keyboard to continue.
>^-^<
Portrait with Wolf has a lot of unique wait for any key messages, but that was a very specific (and high effort) situation. I think players are looking for clear guidance, and, as this is a convention of the form, I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure to do something novel. Not that it’s a bad idea to try! But players recognize these prompts and shouldn’t respond negatively to them in the abstract.
In my work, I just ask the player if they are using a screen reader at the beginning of play. I have assumed that status window output will not be available in all (most?) interpreters. Someone educate me if I’m wrong! My current WIP has some conveniences in the status window, and I haven’t come up with convenient alternatives yet.
Do you print the “Press a key” message with the fleuron each time, or explain what the fleuron means in the “How to play” instructions, or something like that? Or do people seem to figure it out?
People seem to figure it out on their own. I haven’t had any testers specifically complain about it, at least, from Miss Gosling through Antediluvian Weapon.
Oh! I should mention that since I have a truth state for screenreader mode, I only print characters (like the cat emoticon) when it isn’t active. In those cases, I go with the standard “press any key to continue.” I don’t know how much that matters, but try to have text-only alternatives for things
I test all @aschultz 's games and he doesn’t seem interested in printing out ‘press any key’ messages. His protocol is that there’s always an opening spiel, and the first time you need to press a key, it’ll say something like
[ NOTE : when the prompt does not appear, it means you need to press any key to continue]
(I just got that one from ‘Us too’. Went to IFDB page, clicked play online. Handy.)
For my own games, I am with what @Zarf said – if the player needs to a press a key, I always explicitly say < Press SPACE to continue > or the like in the main window. I never want anyone to be in doubt about what’s happening in the interface or how to proceed. I also find the visual punctuation of the message can be part of the drama or flow, so in that sense my use of the messages also changes how and when I put them in.
I have a funny story about this mechanic. When I first played Andrew Plotkin’s wonderful parser game Hoist Sail for the Heliopause and Home, there’s a critical, climactic moment in the game where the screen goes dark, if I remember right, and you have to press any key to continue. But when I played this game, I was a dumb kid, and relatively new to parser games to boot, and I didn’t know you could press any key to continue. I thought the game was broken.
So I restarted it. Then I got to the same point again.
So I restarted it again. Then I got to the same point again.
I think I ended up reading the ClubFloyd transcript instead of finishing the game. Then I realized: “Oh, THAT’s what you were supposed to do.”
I don’t mind this mechanic myself, but I think there should definitely be some kind of indicator as to what the player should do next, so they don’t think the game is broken. Or maybe there was, and I missed it. I was just a dumb kid back then, after all.
It’s still a good short game, all things considered.
I hope I’m not over-stepping by being so new and chiming in here, but:
If you’re after a slightly less intrusive way to let players know a key press is needed, you could word it so that it’s a part of the narrative.
For example, in my current project, it starts with a cutscene that sets up the premise for the story and in that scene you are being chased by something that will certainly have you for a tasty snack. To progress through the prose, several key presses are needed to continue and rather than the typical “press any key to continue…” I have things like “Press any key to scan the horizon…” or “Press any key to dodge!”
To me, at least, it seems less intrusive and allows the player to feel more of a participant during the long-winded parts.
Not at all! New perspectives are especially valuable for things like this. Those of us who have been here for decades are sufficiently used to the status quo that we might not notice the problems with it!