This post is a bit of navel-gazing so feel free to ignore it if you want. I have a little extra time during the summer as I’m a school teacher, so I hope I’m not posting too much.
I enjoy working on a game in the background because it always gives me something to do. I recently released Never Gives Up Her Dead, a really big polished parser game, and Faery Swapped, a pretty small kind of rough parser game.
When the new version of Inform comes out, I want to make a dialog-heavy game with the new system, but I’m not sure when that will be.
Here are some ideas I’ve been tossing around for the next game I’m going to work on:
Trying to make an Infocom-style game that would take a month or so to solve, not through tons of content like my game Never Gives Up Her Dead, but by having ‘dead man walking’ scenarios, player death, less-clued puzzles, etc.
An IFComp-style game where you play a bank robber in the 1920s, and all the patrons and employees have cleverly hidden things. Characters are based off famous Great Depression novels. Would enter in Parsercomp or ifcomp.
A choicescript game for Hosted games that is dungeons and dragons but robots in space. Undead would be cyborgs/androids, and ‘turning undead’ would be hacking them. You fly from world to world and your party includes things like a creepy necromancer who’s always trying to summon his god, a holy paladin trying to destroy the emperor, etc. and the player would specialize with different tech into close combat, schmoozing, or ‘spells’.
Waiting and just offering my ‘30 minute game set in the world of the winner’ prize for ifcomp again (previous results are The Origin of Madame Time, The Magpie Takes the Train, and Impossible Stairs)
Waiting for Inform update and making my conversation game My Dinner With Android based on My Dinner with Andre and functioning as a tribute to Emily Short games
Which idea would you want to see as a player? It’s fine if none appeal at all, that just means that I could pick whatever I want to make. It’s just that right now they’re all a bit balanced in my mind.
I’m writing this because i think “none of the above”. But at the same time they’re all good ideas and I’m not knocking any of them.
pitch:
How about a game centered around conversation, but not specifically a “dinner scenario”. Whether that’s with Inform8 or existing tech, up to you.
I’ve long thought that IF with strong conversational elements is the way forward. That’s to say conversations feature prominently but are not the sole game mechanic.
The other idea i have is “flow”. Flow is the notion that a game is a journey through a story that doesn’t necessary pose any strong challenges. That’s why i think the word “puzzle” is a term for classic IF and instead “challenge” for modern IF. But that’s just the way i see it. A “challenge” can be something as simple as talking to someone. Yes, it makes things easy, but why not. So long as it’s entertaining.
‘Flow’ is a cool concept, thanks for sharing! I feel like I’ve played some games with that style before. And I definitely would like to include more conversation!
I voted old school. I love the idea of a game filled with things authors aren’t allowed to do. Maybe very difficult with a community/crowdsource approach to problem solving? It could be fun
e: I added space D&D because, hey, that sounds cool
I like 'em all. I really like your ‘IFComp Winner’ games, like MTT, but I prefer your personal IFComp games, like Absence of Law. I love Never Gives Up Her Dead and testing it and playing it, so I voted for that too.
I’d like to add that I would take the top two or three, roll a dice/flip a coin, and then decide, “okay I’ll go with that” or your brain will think “but that’s more fun to write!” And change. It’s really about what’s more fun for you to write.
my position is the same of jkj, all and none, but I give a good suggestion, based on last month’s experience:
try to write a CYOA prequel or sequel to never give your dead.
Albeit my WIP is far from complete, your having solved the conundrum of handling the final dev phase (public beta of release candidate) deserve something more substantial than duly noting it in CREDITS…
As someone who co-designed and GMed escape rooms for years my biggest observation is that your average player basically wants to follow instructions and have cool things happen. I’ve been wondering how to bring this approach to IF. The idea of a ‘flow’ game leans in that direction.
One of the problems of translating escape room design to IF is that a false wall opening up in human space is far more exciting than in text space.
the third wall opening up can sometimes be fun for a reader or player. ( now you know you are playing a game, and the game knows you know you are playing a game, so maybe you as the player can hack some game rule changes to get out of the room and back into the story. )
I’m kind of in the same boat. Do I proceed with my sexy D&D game, my sexy 80s erotic thriller, or my erotic horror about an all-men’s college with sexy secret rituals?
Or do I want Mathbrush to be able to play my next game?
I’ve been on a historical fiction kick the past few years, and so that one intrigued me the most. Have you read Billy Bathgate? (Not published during the Great Depression, obviously.)
I hadn’t thought about this before, but I think I have sometimes got the “false wall opens in an escape room” experience from IF. Spider and Web and The Wand are the two games that immediately come to mind for it. They both have key moments of “a fundamental limitation of the game suddenly disappeared when the player never expected it to”.
I’m now closing the poll. Thanks for those who voted! I will probably make all of these at some point in the next few years, except for maybe the Hosted Games; if I make a hosted games game, it will be to make money, and I didn’t enjoy writing my last CoG game and in any case would do more market research.
I do think I will work on Grand Island Bank Robbery and release it in either Parsercomp or IFcomp (leaning towards parsercomp). When new Inform comes out I might switch over to the dialogue game (or maybe use the Bank Robbery for practice then do that). Thanks for the feedback!
