Unconventional Parser Movement

Authoring Story Research and Design
21

I’ve said all this before, but having used left/right/forward/back in Lady Thalia 2 I can’t say I recommend it. Players didn’t actually complain about it*, but it was a huge headache on the programming end to have to keep track of where players were coming from and opened up a lot of extra opportunities for bugs. I don’t exactly regret doing it, because I still think navigating a private home with compass directions would have been distractingly artificial in a choice-based game, but I didn’t have a whole lot of fun with it.

[*] Though this may have been because it wasn’t a parser game; n/e/w/s is so entrenched in the parser-game-playing part of my brain that I struggle a bit even with stuff like nautical directions, so I can definitely imagine the reaction would be worse if it had been.

6 Likes
22

:handshake:
I’ve done that as well for my co-authored Twine project (and we’re doing it again for the new maze), but not to the extent of variation that you did have :joy:
Still a pain. Will (prob) not do that again either

5 Likes
23

Do you feel like changing the move mecanic and use something earie dreamlike like the telescopic zoom in Lime Ergot, The castle of the red prince, red haze, or Toby’s Nose?

If you feel the game’s theme fits this mechanic, drop me a line, I have some secrets things around here that maybe could help.

5 Likes