RECOMMENDATION REQUEST: The Future of Interactive Fiction

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This is why I’m working on TACK. Not because I think it’s better than Inform. I think Inform is the best there is. However, I’m trying to streamline the process. There’s a reason why I like ScottKit. Think of TACK as a more sophisticated ScottKit, instead of Inform rival.

But working with ScottKit, as easy as it was, does take some time. It’s really the world model inherent in parser games. So, I’m having second thoughts. Maybe an easy to use and quick to write+draw VN program is better for most people.

The problem is that I can’t imagine it for PC. All I can see is that the ideal implementation is possible on Nintendo 3DS! Or maybe tablet in portrait mode, like Nintendo 2DS. Implementing the design on landscape mode means overlapping the graphic with text, and that’s not something desirable, at least to my taste. Witness Adventuron. Something like that.

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I’ve been following a new choice system called Elm Story Engine which is in open beta. One of the features is the Runtime Engine can ping the original files to detect if there’s a version update and suggest the player upgrade the game.

In the IDE the tool sorts by “studio” (author) and by “story world” as opposed to calling them “games”. So I believe serialized games may be their intention for doing things this way. That, along with that individual variables are generated in a list by the tool with a separate ID number from the variable name would tend to support carrying variables throughout multiple stories.

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This is something we’ve really struggled with for our interactive novels at Choice of Games. Often authors will ship a popular game and start trying to work on a “sequel.” But part of what made the first game good was the many different endings. In ending 1, you’re the king; in ending 2, there are no kings, because you’ve set up a democracy. The sequel to ending 1 would look very different to the sequel to ending 2, making it unaffordable to develop a sequel that takes all of the previous endings into account.

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Yes. Serialization probably would work better logistically for, say, dividing a game into short chapters than it would to carry a major ending forward into a sequel unless there was one major ending between each installment.

The issue is saving state between each game, and with chapters it can be extremely difficult especially if it’s as granular as parser - did the player pick up the wrench last chapter or not? Is it necessary for the next installment or is there a workaround? Does the player have access to go back and pick it in chapter 2 - meaning the entire world from the first part has to be carried over as well…

CoG tend to be more world-focused than inventory/puzzle focused, but to serialize any game probably requires much planning from the beginning regarding how those transitions will be accomplished.

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From a storytelling and technical perspective, is to start with the full story path, then break it down into its serial episodes. Sequels typically have to be better than the preceding game in order to sell as well; many people don’t want to go through additional material first, for the same reason that they don’t read manuals before starting to play games. In Choice of Games parlance, it would probably look like releasing one or a few chapters at a time onto the same game, rather than releasing a sequence of separate games.

It would have to be less Charles Dickens and more JRR Tolkien in terms of forward planning.

If you know where the original story will finish, you can then make the episode endings significant to the story told so far and in that specific episode, without being so big as to upstage those grand endings you want. Then check at the end that there is at least one ending that makes sense given any particular path (perhaps by using variations if someone got to a particular ending via an episode. I suspect someone who makes a good Choice of Games game already would manage this quite well, especially since people who play the demo before paying for the full game.effectively treat the game like a two-part serial in any case. It just happens that full serialisation would have several smaller pay points (and probably a discount to purchase the whole thing in one go) rather than a single payment at the end of Serial Episode 1.

Commerically, it is a lot tougher, because people are used to downloading/obtaining their game in one go, even if they are going to play it across several sessions.

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Yes, i think you would have to chop up a large story into parts. Of course, some parts could be further developed and expanded, but the overall plot would have to be known (mostly) upfront.

Regarding inter-game transfers and different endings;

For serialisation, my plan would be to have (mostly) one win state. It might be possible to have small variations, but generally one that facilitated a single object, treasure or ability to transfer to the next episode. Any other objects would be lost.

The next episode would start assuming you had whatever the goal was from the previous episode. Importantly, it would not be assumed the player had actually played the previous episode(s). It would be crucial that each episode can stand alone without prior knowledge.

A slightly different spin on the episodes model, that doesn’t require chopping up a bigger story, would be like a TV series where the state is “reset” for each new episode.

Lets take, say “Star Trek TOS” (i pick this for familiarity rather than as actual suggestion). At the start, everything is normal, then either;

  • a force tries to take over the ship
  • someone goes mad
  • they beam down to a planet that goes hostile

In addition maybe, Kirk encounters a previous girlfriend, has a fight, makes lame jokes, Spock says “fascinating!”

At the end of each episode, everything is “reset” for the next one, so they don’t have to be watched in order. However, in reality the design would still afford a small amount of inter-episode transfer; a new crew member maybe.

Why is this different from separate games?

Because as a developer you would re-use a whole chunk of material, including graphics, sounds etc from one game to the next. In the above example, areas of the ship and the main crew would be in all game episodes. Maybe as much as 20-30% content could be reused, saving time and money on each episode.

If this were a commercial endeavour, there would be substantial value for money for a customer when buying his/her first episode (which wouldn’t have to be EP1). That customer is quite likely to buy more.

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Some non-IF video games have struggled with this too, like Mass Effect. Granted, the endings between the games in the original trilogy don’t differ that much (mostly who lives and who dies, which did mean that beloved characters couldn’t play prominent roles in the sequels because they might be dead), but when they made the stand-alone sequel Mass Effect: Andromeda they set it in another galaxy altogether to not have to deal with the ramifications of the ending(s) to Mass Effect 3. But rumors have it that in the upcoming new game they’ll just lock in one of the endings as canonical, which also isn’t the best solution. I think, all in all, there’s no good way to do this…

… except doing it this way. See for example Life is Strange, The Walking Dead (and all of Telltale’s games, really), and a myriad of other serialized adventure games/walking simulators.

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I think that you basically collapse all the choices into one, as per usual. In the sequel, there is no king because (choose one)1. the king is in disguise. 2. Was overthrown. 3. A neighboring country is the focus of the story. 4. A previously minor character now becomes major.

The stats can carry over from previous story instead of rolling new characters. Same for equipment, which can be traded for the new stories.

But you do have to do extensive planning of the world model, or else, it’d be too easy to paint yourself into a corner.

Edit:
You can add a special chapter: “if you played the previous game …” for collapsing the story line. New readers can simply skip the chapter and go right into action. This is similar to "the story so far …
", but in Interactive format.

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I very much enjoy serial fiction. That is one of the nice things about Kindle Unlimited. There are many quality authors that release a fair number of serialized novels, usually 300 pages or so.

The things that draws me to a serial novel are the characters and a generally common environment. A common environment doesn’t mean a central location but it can. It is nice for novels to move around and not be “static”. Even with common characters it can bring in new characters and develop along a theme that can be sequential and parallel.

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I like the idea of game series based around a common group of characters or a common setting. As with the Star Trek example, they don’t necessarily have to be direct sequels. The Jeeves and Wooster stories occasionally refer back to past events, but can still be read in any order. The same goes for Sherlock Holmes. It definitely helps that the status quo resets at the end of every episode.

The AGS community had a project called Reality-on-the-Norm in which the setting (a small town) remained the same, but with each chapter adding new characters and depth to the world. I’ve often thought it would be fun to do something similar in IF.

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Sort of an interactive fiction take on Thieves World? That sounds pretty cool. I’d be interested in that.

I wonder if one direction might be to simplify the input but retain the richness of parser world modeling. (Maybe this is what you’re getting at.) Reduce the number of available “verbs” to a handful of useful ones (plus travel), but the verbs may be applied and combined to alter the game state in a way that CYOA doesn’t permit. Embed links in the descriptive text hyperlinks which respond with common, non-destructive commands. (Clicking a room name is a GO TO; clicking an object is an EXAMINE; clicking the water fountain is a DRINK FROM; etc.) Maybe someone has tried this already?

Finally,

Upon re-read, I see this comes off as being catty. That wasn’t my intent.

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Absolutely! I think the world model can get richer, but the parser get simpler. This is due to various alternative input mechanisms.

Clicking “links” in text has been done. Directions mentioned in the text translate to “go” and objects to a, context dependent, sequence. So; examine → get → drop. Turns out, it’s a bad idea to auto “eat” or “drink” something edible as there can be consequences. It might be poisoned, or perhaps you need to not eat the cookie as you need it for a puzzle. same for drink.

If the game UI is smart enough to “know” not to drink the poisoned water, it becomes a bit of a spoiler.

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Double click: X,Get,Drop.
Drag and drop: eat/drink.
Lots of possibilities with drag and drop. That’s how I design my games, anyway. Building up a matrix of NounxNoun and decide the verbs that way.

Of course, pure parser can be much, much richer. The 5 senses + ESP, for example. Also, creative solutions. Using a flash light as melee weapon, or a bed sheet as rope, clothing, or tent.

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I’m curious as to how long a chapter is. Usually around 5,000 words in a novel. How about IF? Should the size be equivalent to Zork, Enchanter, Detective, Starcross series, etc? That would be 2 years per chapter!

Those of you wishing to have an IF Game Series, how big should the game/map/items be? And how often should the publishing schedule be?

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It sounds quite well to me, an story that keeps growing which you can play furthermore time to time.

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I’d imagine they’d be short games, but someone could write a longer one if they felt like it.

I don’t know how the AGS community developed the world of Reality-on-the-Norm, but I suspect it started as one game and developed organically, with different game authors adding new areas to the town (and re-using established areas) as the needs of their game required them. I don’t think there’d be a schedule, people would release new games when they’d made them.

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I have been looking for a while and there are little episodes and big ones sized from some KB to 50 MB or even more.

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As a guess, I’d say 40-50 locations with maybe 10-15 recycled. Published every 3 months. Shorter if it’s web only.

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