I’m in the process of playing (a small portion of) my own game on Twitter, letting people vote on what to do next. Here.
So far, I’m really pleased with the experience, and I wonder if there are others here who are trying something similar (on Twitter or elsewhere). One of the players mentioned this was the first time they’d seen a game played like this, which gives me pause.
Pros:
- Gives people a glimpse of the game.
- Allows the author to make “director’s commentary”-style sidenotes.
- An inherently social experience.
- Gives the author an idea which options will be popular.
Cons:
- Reveals a part of the game.
- Depends on the dynamic nature of the game. I can easily do this because a lot of my prose is procedural. I would hesitate to do this for a more scripted part of the game.
- Hard to know how long to wait for the poll. On Twitter, you have to say how long the poll will run in advance. I went with 1 day at first, which was waaaay too long — the result was obvious after an hour or so.
- The trick, I think, is to realize that not everyone needs a chance to vote on every move.
- Much harder for a parser games, obviously, though not unthinkable.
- Terrifying for the author. I’m doing this with a part of the game that is dynamic but also very much unpolished. I’m unhappy with the prose (pre-first-draft) and I find problems and little bugs all the time, “on camera”, which is anxiety-inducing. I would recommend waiting until the part that you intend to demonstrate is at least first-draft quality.