I’ve got some thoughts on this, but I’m struggling to find a way of expressing them without referring to that which must not be referred to in the IFcomp.
Room descriptions are your main opportunity to establish a consistent ‘voice’ through your work. They can be verbose, descriptive, bare, specific, vague, static, dynamic. They are more than a mechanic in that, as well as delivering the required information for the palyer to interact with the world, they both ground it and inform the player’s experience of that world. They establish atmosphere, and set expectations for the text.
They are also your control mechanism for world objects. An object is scenery. It is built into the room description. It is mentioned obliquely. It is separated out. It has the player’s attention drawn to it or it is part of a run-one sentence. It is buried in a list of things. It’s a noun the player can explore, or one you forget to implement. A room description is the starting point for revealing the world.
A room description might be dynamic - it changes in response to a players actions, and, as such, it becomes a part of the narrative drive.
Room descriptions can do alot.
McT
Later edit : Oooh…I’ve just remembered, we were discussing a similar sort of thing relatively recently here: The compass, location descriptions and mimesis