Hi there. I was just wondering how often you all make new projects, especially in Inform 7 but also in other systems, in order to test out a very specific idea.
Like just yesterday, I made one to practice writing random text that has a chance of coming up- environmental “noise”, like the player character’s thoughts, another character’s actions.
Or today, when I made one to test out having an invisible character (it didn’t work) and then subsequently how to make another character do things, and how to make a trading sort of deal.
Personally, I think this is a valuable use of time. How about you? If you do this sometimes, how often do you do it?
Oh, all the time. I used to have a thread here (way back when) where I posted random little snippets like that in case they ended up useful to anyone else. And my first released game, Scroll Thief, is almost entirely those little “huh what if…” experiments strung together with some semblance of a plot.
Nowadays I’ve started doing that with Dialog too: “hmm, could I make a knights and knaves puzzle in this language?”
I made myself a little Ink blog thingy explicitly to try and make myself write more small, experimental Ink stories, but so far I only have 2 finished and couple unfinished. I need to do more of that.
I do it quite a bit. When I’m designing a new type of object or trying something new, I don’t want to screw up the project I’m working on, so I create a little experimental file and fiddle with that until I get it working. I can then copy and paste the relevant bits to the real project.
If the experiment is particularly useful, I’ll save it for possible use in other projects, otherwise I’ll delete it. I have quite a collection of useful little snippets.
Always: Is what I call “I’m messing/fooling around” this or that IF language/library…
Specifically, I’m not hiding that I’m reasoning (but still not messing/fooling much on those) about how to randomise “party banter” without cacophony with NPC reactions/comments (hence my question on the exact sequencing of TADS3 turn handling) and “invisible character” (as a sort of “DM” always following the PC, hence always in scope, potentially a more flexible tool than a set of daemons/fuses &c.)
I like experiments. Not only in terms of content, but also technically and in terms of the UI.
As far as content is concerned, I use a self-written framework in C#/.Net, so I have a comparatively large amount of freedom to implement things myself. The flip side of the coin is that I HAVE to do it myself, because ready-made solutions just don’t exist.
I find experimental implementations such as voice input or all sorts of approaches to playing an interactive fiction purely via links/multiple choice even more exciting. There is still a lot I want to try.