Hello! I could have sworn that I saw this mentioned in the inform documentation somewhere, but I can’t remember where/if I actually saw it.
I was wondering if there was a way to implement a “text per second” style of showing new output to the player like the way visual novels often display new text, i.e. as if the output is being typed out in real time (albeit by a very fast typist). I recall being told that this is generally not a good idea for text adventures, but I wanted to try it out anyway. Is this at all possible, whether by an extension or otherwise?
Hi! That is called the typewriter effect, I think. If it isn’t, it got somehow filed under “typewriter” in my mind for years and years for some reason. I was under the impression that there was an extension for Inform 7 that did it, but I can’t find it, so it must be the Mandela effect (or me just mixing stuff up).
Still, in this thread you get a couple of warnings to probably not do that ( ) and the information that an Inform 6 extension does it: printslow.h . There is also a concept of how to do it in Inform 7.
Personally, I also find it annoying, and depending on the interpreter I’m using it may not work at all (“A Matter of Heist Urgency” uses it, and it didn’t work on Fabularium; it froze until it had internally displayed all the text it wanted to, making me think it had crashed, then displayed the whole thing at once).
EDIT - To be fair, I don’t like it in VN either. Changing text speed to “instant” is literally the first thing I always do. If a VN doesn’t have that option, then there is endless clicking-to-display-the-whole-message every time… horrible, really.
I don’t think such an extension currently exists, and to put it bluntly, I suspect the reason is that the people with the Glulx expertise to make this happen, generally think it’s a bad idea and don’t want to do it! Every IFComp sees a few entries with timed text, and they tend to be roundly criticized and lose points for it.
If you really want to make this happen, I would do it on the interpreter side, and go for an effect like what Ink.js does (where each paragraph fades in, not each character).
I encourage experimentation at all times, but something I always point out is that the average room description will print several times over the course of a game, and that is always worth considering while writing things, placing features within a text, and so forth.
A trick here would be making it as interesting the fifth time as it was the first.
Yeah, I often see people saying “I want to bring the typewriter effect over from VNs to other kinds of IF!” or defending its use in other kinds of IF as “Well, VNs do it all the time, you’re only complaining because you’re not used to it!” without considering that most VN engines have built-in settings to disable it and/or crank up the speed—“this is something a lot of writers like to use but a certain portion of readers really hate or at least find annoying if it’s too slow” is kind of a solved problem there in a way that it isn’t, out of the box, in other kinds of IF authoring systems, specifically because it’s so common for VNs to have it. As a regular VN player who is a fast reader I absolutely will always disable it if possible and turn that speed slider all the way up if it’s not.
I think timed text can be good when used sparingly, but even then I tend to prefer when it goes word-by-word or fades in whole phrases or sentences at once, as opposed to the traditional typewriter effect (unless the typewriter effect is very, very sparing and used for bits of text that are quite short). But I’m not sure how feasible that is in Inform.
If you commit to online only play or a downloadable zip with a web file, you can just edit the css files in Inform to add a typewriter effect. The issue is that every time you hit release you have to make the changes again. There might be a simple way to make changes persistent but I’ve released games with this technique (for instance, changing the way cover art is displayed).
From what I’ve seen, games written in Inform 7 tend to contain a lot more text than visual novels. Whilst it can be effective to have a few couple of sentences “typewriter” on, it’s going to get very annoying when it’s several paragraphs.
Players of parser games tend to move around the map quite quickly, especially when they’ve got the lay of the land and are invested in solving puzzles. If they’ve visited a room a few times, they’ll scan the description for changes rather than read it again in full. Consequently timed text in a room description would be enough to make most seasoned players rage quit.
My advice would be, if you do use timed text, use it sparingly for emphasis, and preferably in places where the player will only read that text once, such as a significant event.
Aside the solid reasons for using sparingly the timed text, I have posted in past the conversion of bps into ms for realistic teletypewriter effect; a slower rate can give an hand-typed effect.
The best place for a typewriter-timed output in a detective-style story is, IMVHO, the ending: the suspense for the player “I have got the actual culprit and/or found all the true evidences and rejected all the false ones ?” (cfr. Deadline for a classic example of end-game assessment): can be only raised by a the word-by-word (tele)typewriter effect, which also, in a detective/mystery story, has a strong digetic value (think typing a final report…)
You mean the point at which the player is saturated with the story and just wants the game to get on with it and spill the beans already?
While respecting your opinion, I will gently dissent on the usage of the word “only”. In other words, while acknowledging the value of the technique, there are definitely others. Better or worse? That’s a matter of opinion and trade-offs.
EDIT - Oh, or do you mean “only” in the sense that “the only effect this technique can have is benefitial”? In which case I still maintain my little dissent and agree to disagree, though.
Hmmmm… I suspect isn’t bad english per se but I guess that there can be an italianism.
In Italian, the expression is “può essere solo alzata” (o “migliorata”). Some Italian fellow with a command of english better than mine can provide a better rendition in english ?
It sounds like the phrase “it can only get better” or “the only way to go is up”.
Likely has opposite context/implications that what you mean in English
This might be an Italian idiom that doesn’t come across - likely based on the context of how it’s normally used rather than what it literally means. The phrase in English basically means “you can’t make this any worse no matter what you do differently” “you’ve hit the bottom/you’re at the worst place” and the only direction to go is “up” and improve because you can’t go lower. It usually applies as encouragement for someone at a low point.
“You came in last in that race. You can’t do any worse; the only way to go is up!”
If you use it for something good: “You won the race! You have a long career ahead and it can only get better!” almost would serve to jinx[1] someone.
“We just made a million dollars in profit! The only way from here is up!” (Not true: you can still lose money, and these are usually “famous last words” before catastrophe occurs.)
It’s similar to the Schrodinger’s Salt conundrum:
“You can’t put too much salt in the soup”
Editors would ask you to fix this because it’s a paradox. It can mean:
You shouldn’t put too much salt in the soup. (be careful not to use too much salt)
OR
There’s no way you can put too much salt in the soup. (you don’t need to be careful; use all the salt)
In spoken conversation, this can be mitigated by inflection. In text, you lose that.
I believe your implication is the second one “You can’t make it worse by adding something extra” which isn’t really the case. Adding decoration to something which is already fine the way it is may not improve it, and could actually make it worse.
As a verb: To cause bad luck. If you say, “My car never breaks down,” and it breaks down a minute later, you might say you jinxed it. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] ↩︎
I definitely didn’t expect these many thoughtful replies, thank you so much for the input everyone! Taking into account what I’m seeing here, I think I’ll back off from employing this kind of effect in my game (at least not without a very good reason…)
I think this is unambiguous. Maybe the 32 words between the subject and the verb make it harder to follow, but it can only mean that, as for the suspense, this technique will raise it. Not like “can only be raised by”, which can also mean that it is the only way to raise the suspense.
I think the issue is that “can be only raised by” reads as very un-idiomatic (to me at least), to the point of seeming like an error. So people will be inclined to instead “correct” it to either “can be raised only by” or “can only be raised by” before interpreting it, neither of which unambiguously conveys the intended meaning.
It’s interesting that lots of other adverbs are common in that position (“can be quickly raised”, “can be easily raised”), and in the active voice “only” would itself be unremarkable (“the effect can only raise the suspense”). Definitely less usual in the passive, although I think I’d write it if I were concerned about ambiguity.
What’s even weirder to me is that if you complicate the middle bit of the sentence more (e.g. “the tension can be only raised, but never lowered, by a typewriter effect”) then it starts to sound more acceptable to me again (still a bit off, but not by as much). Not sure what’s up with that.
Now I feel bad for bringing it up. To me, his clarification clarified it… Sometimes people read things differently, I’m Portuguese, he’s Italian, we’re speaking English, it happens…
EDIT - Oh feck, I think I’m the one who worded something ambiguously.
I did NOT mean to say he was using it wrong. Crap. I meant to say “I don’t think it’s the only thing that can improve it”. Or, even later, “I’m not sure it does improve it”. All within gentle dissent and agree-to-disagree. I absolutely did not mean to say the word itself was incorrectly used. Damn.
FWIW, the italian construction makes a lot of sense, and it also ends up making sense in english, I just didn’t see that meaning immediately. And one tends to hold on to the first meaning one perceives.
) and the information that an Inform 6 extension does it: printslow.h . There is also a concept of how to do it in Inform 7.
Every IFComp sees a few entries with timed text, and they tend to be roundly criticized and lose points for it.
(at least not without a very good reason…)