Hello all! So I’ve started my exploration into the awesome world of interactive fiction with the following demo. It would mean SO MUCH to me if anyone played through it and shared their thoughts. I REALLY hope that there are no mistakes and people can just enjoy (critique?) the experience, but if there are any more glitches that I failed to catch, I need to fix those too.
Anyway, I’d be glad to return the favor and beta test anything anyone asks me to. Just let me know.
This is just the first section of a much larger design that I have written out. I’m looking for a partner to help bring it to life. Stipend or profit-share deal available.
It’s fascinating how you managed to implement a complicated machine puzzle using only hypertext. It reminds me vaguely of some of the machine puzzles in Blue Lacuna, minus the parser. I have not managed to solve the puzzle, and I almost think it might be a little easier if there were a parser.
I think the room description being repeated in most turns is generally good, but the presentation could use some tweaking for clarity. Maybe the room description could be offset with a CSS border property, or something.
In the first room, the presence of the three “touch” options at the bottom is interesting. It was not immediately clear that “touch wall” after the room description does something different than “wall” highlighted in the room description. It looks like you are trying to emulate the parser experience in hypertext.
All things considered, very interesting, and a worthy first attempt at IF!
I liked the story, but it was a little disorienting and counterintuitive in hypertext. Reason being that clicking a term doesn’t really tell you what sort of interaction you’ll have with that object in advance. For example, clicking some things seemed to be an automatic “look” or “examine”, while others were a “go” or “use” or somesuch. That was counterintuitive.
As for the disorienting, clicking on anything clears the screen, so rather than just reading whatever has popped up since the last command, I feel like I have to read the whole page again, in case something has changed. Further, I had a hard time remembering what I did and didn’t do, since I couldn’t scroll back and find out. That might just be me, though.
Apart from that, it was well-written and well-implemented, all things considered. An excellent first attempt!
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I’ve found a partner, so production of the complete game is moving forward. I’ll be taking your notes as well as adding images to improve the gameplay. Hopefully it’ll be ready by August. If anyone wants to be added to a mailing list to be the first beta players, just shoot me an email!
It’s here! This is just a preliminary link before it launches on the InkyPath website, but the game is here for all to enjoy! Make sure you have a good internet connection, or certain images/sounds won’t work properly.
This seems like an excellent opportunity for me to ask about something that’s always bothered me about Twine games.
Many web-based games I can download by simply saving the web page. Others are more complex, like Undum games, but I can still download them in the form of a zip file containing all relevant files.
Some twine games, like The Ark, I can’t; passages disappear, the game becomes unplayable offline. In other games, audio/video becomes MIA.
I would like to understand why. What are Twine games doing that accesses other sites? This game, for instance. The “How to Play” section is unavailable. Why? It’s no accessing anything external. Other games try to do fancy things, and I get an immediate error upon opening the saved page.
I am simply asking, because I really do not see what a Twine game does - ANY twine game - that can’t be done offline, in an HTML page and an accompanying folder with the relevant materials. Some of them I can play offline, and those look no different to the ones I can’t.
Twine games can include arbitrary HTML and Javascript - including embedding videos, images, and sound, loading Javascript libraries such as jquery, etc. In the case of The Ark, I can see that it’s using embedded audio, and all the sound files are located on theark.net46.net and hence not available offline. There are also links to various images on Flickr and other locations.
Most Twine games don’t use external media or complex Javascript (beyond what’s supplied by the Twine engine itself, which is entirely self-contained).
Sorry for the brief hiatus folks! We were doing some debugging. The new and improved game file can be found here! dacharya64.wix.com/inkypath#!games/c60z (As you guys pointed out, you will have to be online to play.)
We’ve added a spiffy game synopsis, as well as a hint and strategy section!
Visit our Facebook page and comment with you thoughts! We’d love to hear your feedback. If you’re stuck and need a hint, let us know too! facebook.com/groups/597845593567746/
Also, check it out! We’ve been featured in THE BLOG for all things puzzling and mysterious, Clavis Cryptica! Check out the article! claviscryptica.com/2013/08/1 … n-the-ark/
We’re actually still looking for play testers. If it’s more convenient for you, and you’d be willing to share your thoughts on the game, I could provide you with a private copy of the game that you could play-test offline.
Shoot me an email, and we’ll work out the details.
