This post is for the May 22-28 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
Cut & paste that introduction into your game. When you start your game, that introduction should appear, drawing players into the story.
If you want other people to try out what you've programmed so far, upload it somewhere and post the Internet address in the comments. I believe that DropBox and Neocities are okay with people sharing adult content on their sites.
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I've reworked my introduction and pasted it into a Twine story. Obviously, there isn't much to play, but I uploaded the result to Dropbox.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/4ke2rg6uzs9hs4z/Mrs.%20Harrow%20and%20the%20Rake.html
This is good!
DeleteI'm liking where this is going. I'm really curious about the specifics of how Udele and husband study artwork lol
DeleteUnfortunately I've now got an extra game on my schedule so I don't know if I've got time to program Stupid Cupid right now. Oh, well. Good luck to everyone else! :)
ReplyDeleteI will say one thing - I'm glad to see the Salon organised here at AIF Central. This is the kind of thing that I think we wanted here, along with more discussion of current games.
DeleteCongratulations on hitting your Patreon goal.
DeleteThanks! :)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOk, uploaded what I've got so far to my neocities site!
ReplyDeletehttp://seattleman150.neocities.org/First%20Date.taf
Not much to do so far, but a decent start I think.
It plays smoothly so far. There were a lot of complicated actions available, but everything was well-prompted, so there were no guess the verb problems.
DeleteHey all. I'm going to try using gitlab to post the source and builds of Little Bastard. Here are links to the repo where you can find all the files for the game [1] and a direct download link [2]. The built html is currently located inside of the 'out' folder ironically. I'm curious if this will work out, or if I should use another host?
ReplyDelete[1] https://gitlab.com/MagosOldestSon/Little_Bastard_public
[2] https://gitlab.com/MagosOldestSon/Little_Bastard_public/repository/archive.zip?ref=master
So in my game I'm trying to gently guide the player down a list of conversation topics. As the game is set during a couple's first date, conversation is a key element. But, I feel like doing all the writing for a full featured conversation, and all the possible topics could get out of control very fast.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, does adding conversation topic prompts in bold or italics distract too much? Does it make it seem less interactive if the player is just following prompts? Is there a more elegant way to do this?
"does adding conversation topic prompts in bold or italics distract too much?"
DeleteYES!
If it's used sparingly to nudge the player towards certain specific actions, then that can be fine (for me, anyway).
DeleteI probably wouldn't use highlighting for conversation keywords - part of the appeal is to use trial and error. The keywords just being part of the text should be enough to guide the player.
Just try to be creative with letting the player know particular topics haven't been implemented.
I like topic prompts that are big and bold. I actually found your use of italics for your verb prompts to be hard to find initially because of the Adrift font. I don't like wasting my time guessing verbs. I don't agree with the idea of creating the false illusion of freedom in the game because it's exactly that: a false illusion. I'm a big believer in Sid Meier's philosophy that games are a series of interesting choices. Anything else is just busywork between those choices. For me, hiding the conversation topics just adds busywork for both the developer and the player without adding substantively more choices.
DeleteI'd probably dispute that a little bit, since I think deduction and exploration would fall under the category of 'busywork' in that philosophy, and those can produce (in my opinion) some of the best moments in gaming.
DeleteI do, however, agree that players will probably enjoy the game more if conversation topics are clear. Personally I actually intensely dislike the classic ask/tell IF conversation system as I feel like there's no good way for it to work. Either you hand the conversation topics to the player on a platter or you make them play guess-the-topic.
Now, before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy for creating Let Me In, which is basically ALL guess-the-topic, I want to clarify that I think that it's okay to do that if it's a primary gameplay function. In LMI the only thing your brain is supposed to do is understand one conversation. Also, I would never claim LMI is perfect. :)
In most AIF, however, conversation is simply a side feature to help character development, or occasionally a plot button ('push to proceed'). Therefore I find ask/tell to be a disruptive element that just cannot ever be fun, as far as I can see. Unfortunately ADRIFT doesn't have a built-in menu conversation system, because that's much better in my opinion. You can still make menus, but it's a little more improvised.
So, anyway, I'd say make the conversation topics clear. Don't make finding a topic into a puzzle because nobody's going to enjoy that.
Yes, there is some nuance involved. The most important thing, of course, is to do whatever you enjoy and which is the easiest to finish.
DeleteI would argue that Let Me In is more about providing the player with so many interesting choices that the game can't present all the choices to the player on the screen. At that point, letting people type in anything without topic prompts is more of an interface issue.
I like that way of thinking about LMI! And I agree that a lot of the gameplay is about creating a limited scenario so that it allows a very wide array of potential choices.
DeleteI'm not entirely disputing the importance of choices in gameplay. I just feel that doesn't quite sum up the joy of exploration and discovery in games; I suppose you could argue that exploration and discovery comes down to 'hey, look at all the potential choices of where you can go', but that's not necessarily the way I think about 'choice' in a game setting. Oh, well, I think we're on to a semantic discussion now which is largely meaningless, so I'll shut up.
I still hate ask/tell conversation systems, though. :)
Hey all. I'm going to try using gitlab to post the source and builds of Little Bastard. Here are links to the repo where you can find all the files for the game [1] and a direct download link [2]. The built html is currently located inside of the 'out' folder ironically. I'm curious if this will work out, or if I should use another host?
ReplyDelete[1] https://gitlab.com/MagosOldestSon/Little_Bastard_public
[2] https://gitlab.com/MagosOldestSon/Little_Bastard_public/repository/archive.zip?ref=master
Hey all. I've been having some trouble posting this here but I'll try again. I'm using gitlab to post the work on my game: https://gitlab.com/MagosOldestSon/Little_Bastard_public
ReplyDeleteHopefully this works this time around -_-
The extra introduction at the beginning helps clear things up now. With everything broken up into choices, I can really see how the game will come together in the end.
DeleteHere's the beginning of my "epic"...not much to do yet but I'm getting used to the hybrid nature of choice/parser.
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/1T7WpeC
That was a colorful and richly detailed world. Quite imaginative and funny. In terms of the introduction though, I had no idea what was going on until the very end. It would be useful to front-end a little more explanation of the world at the beginning. I think you were aiming for a pulpy feel with flowery, bombastic language that immerses the reader deep in the world. But you might have gone too far there. The sentences seemed too long with too high a vocabulary level, excessive adjectives, and too much weird terminology from your world. It became hard to read at times with new jargon appearing constantly. Once I got to the passageway, everything clicked into place, but before then I was just confused and aimlessly stumbling around.
DeleteThanks so much for the feedback. I agree the intro needs some editing, but I'm glad you got your bearings in the second room. I'm hoping when those two rooms are the beginning of a slightly longer adventure it hopefully won't feel like you're figuring it out at the end.
DeleteI'd hate to "dumb down" the jargon...none of it is serious and all of it is made up in order to immerse the player. In general the in game protagonist knows what's up and the player is along for the ride.
I'm sure as I write this more the style will settle a bit. I was floundering in that first room basically learning the benefits and limitations of AW Freyr's Hybrid Parser within Inform. Thanks again!