This post is part of the 2018 "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon.
Games are an interactive medium. The final experience is a combination
of player choices and your writing. Unless you're experienced enough to
be able to anticipate how players will react to your game, you need to
playtest your game to find out if players are experiencing the game in
the way you intended.
For the first couple of playtests, your game will just a skeleton. It
will be playable but incomplete. You should use these playtests to find
missing parts of your game and fill them in. You should think of
alternate choices that players can make at different points in the game
and write the text for them.
Just post any changes you want in the comments in the form of more transcripts or using more detailed instructions if necessary.
Your destination for Adult Interactive Fiction discussion
Showing posts with label AIF writing salon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AIF writing salon. Show all posts
Saturday, 23 June 2018
Thursday, 31 May 2018
2018 Writing Salon: Transcript of Complete Game
This post is part of the 2018 "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon.
Write a sample playthrough of your game. List the commands that a player will do and write the responses that will happen. Think about alternate commands that the player might try. Here is a sample transcript:
If you have problems writing sex scenes, consider stealing snippets from some public domain erotica like the ones below:
Fanny Hill
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25305
The Life and Amours of the Beautiful, Gay and Dashing Kate Percival
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29827
Romance of Lust
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30254
If you have something you want to share, just post it as a comment below. Be careful to use a separate account for posting and not an account you use IRL. Anonymous comments are welcome, but it would be useful to tag your comments somehow so we know which comments are from whom. AIF Central sometimes has difficulties dealing with longer comments, so you may need to break up your posts into multiple comments. You can also put your text in Dropbox or Google Docs and then post a link to it in the comments. Make sure you don't accidentally use a work or personal account for the Dropbox or Google Docs files. You can also just email the text to me at losttrout AT gmail DOT com.
It is assumed that any game content you post to this blog or elsewhere as part of the AIF Writing Salon is licensed under the GPL so that programmers can turn it into a game for you.
Write a sample playthrough of your game. List the commands that a player will do and write the responses that will happen. Think about alternate commands that the player might try. Here is a sample transcript:
> kiss herIt shows different commands that you can try and the expected responses. Programmers can take this transcript and make the skeleton of a game from it. Be sure that the transcript shows a complete playthrough of your game from beginning to end. Remember that the writing for AIF games is different from normal writing. Unless you have brilliant prose, it is better to have less writing and shorter descriptions but more choices for the player.
You kiss her.
> Lick breasts
You gently lick her nipple.
> Have sex
You have sex with her. You cuddle with her afterwards and go to sleep.
The End.
If you have problems writing sex scenes, consider stealing snippets from some public domain erotica like the ones below:
Fanny Hill
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25305
The Life and Amours of the Beautiful, Gay and Dashing Kate Percival
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29827
Romance of Lust
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30254
If you have something you want to share, just post it as a comment below. Be careful to use a separate account for posting and not an account you use IRL. Anonymous comments are welcome, but it would be useful to tag your comments somehow so we know which comments are from whom. AIF Central sometimes has difficulties dealing with longer comments, so you may need to break up your posts into multiple comments. You can also put your text in Dropbox or Google Docs and then post a link to it in the comments. Make sure you don't accidentally use a work or personal account for the Dropbox or Google Docs files. You can also just email the text to me at losttrout AT gmail DOT com.
It is assumed that any game content you post to this blog or elsewhere as part of the AIF Writing Salon is licensed under the GPL so that programmers can turn it into a game for you.
Monday, 7 May 2018
2018 Writing Salon: Introductions
This post is part of the 2018 "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon. It's not too late to join in! During the Writing Salon, if you write a transcript of a game by the end of May deadline, then a programmer will attempt to turn it into a game for you. If you do have an introduction for the game done already, then you can post it now, so that programmers can start preparing the necessary project files, but the main deadline is the end of May deadline for a complete transcript of a playthrough of the game.
Now that you've figured out what your game is about, you can start writing. You should post the introductory text for their game and declare what game engine you want for your game so that programmers can start work.
I will most likely be the one programming your game. I prefer programming your game using the Inky engine, which is for choice-based games. If you want a parser-based game though, I can try to program your game in TADS3. I can also program games in Twine or Newlife if that's what you want.
If you have something you want to share, just post it as a comment below. Be careful to use a separate account for posting and not an account you use IRL. Anonymous comments are welcome, but it would be useful to tag your comments somehow so we know which comments are from whom. AIF Central sometimes has difficulties dealing with longer comments, so you may need to break up your posts into multiple comments. At later stages of the Writing Salon, you can also use GitHub issues to send text to programmers.
It is assumed that any game content you post to this blog or elsewhere as part of the AIF Writing Salon is licensed under the GPL so that programmers can turn it into a game for you.
Now that you've figured out what your game is about, you can start writing. You should post the introductory text for their game and declare what game engine you want for your game so that programmers can start work.
I will most likely be the one programming your game. I prefer programming your game using the Inky engine, which is for choice-based games. If you want a parser-based game though, I can try to program your game in TADS3. I can also program games in Twine or Newlife if that's what you want.
If you have something you want to share, just post it as a comment below. Be careful to use a separate account for posting and not an account you use IRL. Anonymous comments are welcome, but it would be useful to tag your comments somehow so we know which comments are from whom. AIF Central sometimes has difficulties dealing with longer comments, so you may need to break up your posts into multiple comments. At later stages of the Writing Salon, you can also use GitHub issues to send text to programmers.
It is assumed that any game content you post to this blog or elsewhere as part of the AIF Writing Salon is licensed under the GPL so that programmers can turn it into a game for you.
Monday, 16 April 2018
2018 Writing Salon: Announce Your Story Ideas
This post is part of the 2018 "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon.
Please announce your ideas for an AIF game in the comments of this blog post. Describe the story arc and the characters involved.
The biggest problem faced by new authors is that they work on ideas that are too ambitious. They decide to write a novel when they should start with a short story. They don't realize that AIF games involve more work than normal prose. All the alternate paths and descriptions can easily add up to a novella-worth of text even for very short games. Another problem new authors face is that don't realize that certain seemingly innocuous details of their story ideas might require thousands of words of writing and code. The work needed to implement a minor character or alternate path can easily grow out of control.
The Writing Salon is not school. You don't get part marks for partial answers. If you don't have a finished game by the end of the Writing Salon, then you have nothing and everyone's time will have been wasted. So it's important to work on smaller, less ambitious ideas that are easier to finish. This is not Olympic figure skating. In the Writing Salon, a successful single axel is worth more than a failed triple axel.
To help you, this stage of the Writing Salon will entirely be focused on helping authors cut back on their ideas and to see alternate ways of formulating their stories with the same core characters, emotions, and sexiness but fewer characters, rooms, and plot points. Other people may question your ideas and challenge your decisions. Please do not become too defensive. Although it's always painful to have your ideas be "attacked" in this way, it is not meant to discourage you but to push you to see alternate ways of formulating your story. You do not need to follow the suggestions given, but you should seriously consider it. You should treat them like comments from an editor trying to help you improve your work. If someone asks you for more detail about your story, then please do supply these extra details. Don't think that you'll be able to figure it out later. You will have to write the text for all those parts of your game eventually anyway, so it's good to figure out the details early because sometimes you won't be able to figure it out later.
Here are some common pitfalls:
Some authors' ideas are based on thinking of all sorts of sexy situations that they want their characters to go through. Although sexy situations are a good source of inspiration, authors become too attached to them even if they are hard to squeeze into short games. Once you have been inspired by a sexy situation, you should think about the characters and why the situation is sexy for them. Then, it's easier to move those characters into different sexy situations.
Do you know why the characters in romance novels always fall in love at first sight? Because writing about people falling in love is both long and hard to do. If you include a romance in your game, you should start with your characters already in love but with some difficulty in the way.
In the last writing salon, we had several people who were interested in procedural-style AIF. In my limited experience, procedural games are designed differently from other games. You should not start with a plot. Instead, you should focus on the simulation. You want to find a situation that can be repeated many, many times but which plays out differently depending on what has happened in the past. You want this looping situation to be as short as possible so as to minimize the amount of writing you have to do.
You don't need a fully realized story arc for the Writing Salon, and not everything important needs to occur in the game itself. You are a writer. You can summarize characters' experiences in the introduction. You can allude to previous events in their conversations. Your game can be a small slice of a bigger story.
If you have something you want to share, just post it as a comment below. Be careful to use a separate account for posting and not an account you use IRL. Anonymous comments are welcome, but it would be useful to tag your comments somehow so we know which comments are from whom. AIF Central sometimes has difficulties dealing with longer comments, so you may need to break up your posts into multiple comments. At later stages of the Writing Salon, you can also use GitHub issues to send text to programmers.
Please announce your ideas for an AIF game in the comments of this blog post. Describe the story arc and the characters involved.
The biggest problem faced by new authors is that they work on ideas that are too ambitious. They decide to write a novel when they should start with a short story. They don't realize that AIF games involve more work than normal prose. All the alternate paths and descriptions can easily add up to a novella-worth of text even for very short games. Another problem new authors face is that don't realize that certain seemingly innocuous details of their story ideas might require thousands of words of writing and code. The work needed to implement a minor character or alternate path can easily grow out of control.
The Writing Salon is not school. You don't get part marks for partial answers. If you don't have a finished game by the end of the Writing Salon, then you have nothing and everyone's time will have been wasted. So it's important to work on smaller, less ambitious ideas that are easier to finish. This is not Olympic figure skating. In the Writing Salon, a successful single axel is worth more than a failed triple axel.
To help you, this stage of the Writing Salon will entirely be focused on helping authors cut back on their ideas and to see alternate ways of formulating their stories with the same core characters, emotions, and sexiness but fewer characters, rooms, and plot points. Other people may question your ideas and challenge your decisions. Please do not become too defensive. Although it's always painful to have your ideas be "attacked" in this way, it is not meant to discourage you but to push you to see alternate ways of formulating your story. You do not need to follow the suggestions given, but you should seriously consider it. You should treat them like comments from an editor trying to help you improve your work. If someone asks you for more detail about your story, then please do supply these extra details. Don't think that you'll be able to figure it out later. You will have to write the text for all those parts of your game eventually anyway, so it's good to figure out the details early because sometimes you won't be able to figure it out later.
Here are some common pitfalls:
Some authors' ideas are based on thinking of all sorts of sexy situations that they want their characters to go through. Although sexy situations are a good source of inspiration, authors become too attached to them even if they are hard to squeeze into short games. Once you have been inspired by a sexy situation, you should think about the characters and why the situation is sexy for them. Then, it's easier to move those characters into different sexy situations.
Do you know why the characters in romance novels always fall in love at first sight? Because writing about people falling in love is both long and hard to do. If you include a romance in your game, you should start with your characters already in love but with some difficulty in the way.
In the last writing salon, we had several people who were interested in procedural-style AIF. In my limited experience, procedural games are designed differently from other games. You should not start with a plot. Instead, you should focus on the simulation. You want to find a situation that can be repeated many, many times but which plays out differently depending on what has happened in the past. You want this looping situation to be as short as possible so as to minimize the amount of writing you have to do.
You don't need a fully realized story arc for the Writing Salon, and not everything important needs to occur in the game itself. You are a writer. You can summarize characters' experiences in the introduction. You can allude to previous events in their conversations. Your game can be a small slice of a bigger story.
If you have something you want to share, just post it as a comment below. Be careful to use a separate account for posting and not an account you use IRL. Anonymous comments are welcome, but it would be useful to tag your comments somehow so we know which comments are from whom. AIF Central sometimes has difficulties dealing with longer comments, so you may need to break up your posts into multiple comments. At later stages of the Writing Salon, you can also use GitHub issues to send text to programmers.
Thursday, 5 April 2018
2018 "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon
Do you want to write some Adult Interactive Fiction but aren't good at coding? Then join the "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon. During the Writing Salon, if you write all the text for an AIF game, a programmer will take your text and turn it into a game.
Sunday, 1 April 2018
2018 Writing Salon: Playtesting 3
This post is part of the 2018 "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon.
Games are an interactive medium. The final experience is a combination of player choices and your writing. Unless you're experienced enough to be able to anticipate how players will react to your game, you need to playtest your game to find out if players are experiencing the game in the way you intended.
For the first couple of playtests, your game will just a skeleton. It will be playable but incomplete. You should use these playtests to find missing parts of your game and fill them in. You should think of alternate choices that players can make at different points in the game and write the text for them.
For these later playtests, you should focus on refining how players experience your game. You should play some of the other games and leave comments about your experiences to help other authors and hopefully they will do the same for you. When reading player feedback, you should focus on their descriptions of how they felt while playing your game and on any problems they encountered. You should then see if these experiences match what you intended for your game. Keep in mind that players are not game designers, so any suggestions they make for actual changes to your game will often be wrong.
Just post any changes you want in the comments in the form of more transcripts or using more detailed instructions if necessary.
Games are an interactive medium. The final experience is a combination of player choices and your writing. Unless you're experienced enough to be able to anticipate how players will react to your game, you need to playtest your game to find out if players are experiencing the game in the way you intended.
For the first couple of playtests, your game will just a skeleton. It will be playable but incomplete. You should use these playtests to find missing parts of your game and fill them in. You should think of alternate choices that players can make at different points in the game and write the text for them.
For these later playtests, you should focus on refining how players experience your game. You should play some of the other games and leave comments about your experiences to help other authors and hopefully they will do the same for you. When reading player feedback, you should focus on their descriptions of how they felt while playing your game and on any problems they encountered. You should then see if these experiences match what you intended for your game. Keep in mind that players are not game designers, so any suggestions they make for actual changes to your game will often be wrong.
Just post any changes you want in the comments in the form of more transcripts or using more detailed instructions if necessary.
2018 Writing Salon: Playtesting 2
This post is part of the 2018 "If You Write It, They Will Come" AIF Writing Salon.
Games are an interactive medium. The final experience is a combination of player choices and your writing. Unless you're experienced enough to be able to anticipate how players will react to your game, you need to playtest your game to find out if players are experiencing the game in the way you intended.
For the first couple of playtests, your game will just a skeleton. It will be playable but incomplete. You should use these playtests to find missing parts of your game and fill them in. You should think of alternate choices that players can make at different points in the game and write the text for them.
For the later playtests, you should focus on refining how players experience your game. You should play some of the other games and leave comments about your experiences to help other authors and hopefully they will do the same for you. When reading player feedback, you should focus on their descriptions of how they felt while playing your game and on any problems they encountered. You should then see if these experiences match what you intended for your game. Keep in mind that players are not game designers, so any suggestions they make for actual changes to your game will often be wrong.
Just post any changes you want in the comments in the form of more transcripts or using more detailed instructions if necessary.
Games are an interactive medium. The final experience is a combination of player choices and your writing. Unless you're experienced enough to be able to anticipate how players will react to your game, you need to playtest your game to find out if players are experiencing the game in the way you intended.
For the first couple of playtests, your game will just a skeleton. It will be playable but incomplete. You should use these playtests to find missing parts of your game and fill them in. You should think of alternate choices that players can make at different points in the game and write the text for them.
For the later playtests, you should focus on refining how players experience your game. You should play some of the other games and leave comments about your experiences to help other authors and hopefully they will do the same for you. When reading player feedback, you should focus on their descriptions of how they felt while playing your game and on any problems they encountered. You should then see if these experiences match what you intended for your game. Keep in mind that players are not game designers, so any suggestions they make for actual changes to your game will often be wrong.
Just post any changes you want in the comments in the form of more transcripts or using more detailed instructions if necessary.
Saturday, 3 September 2016
AIF Minifest 2016
Updated 9/5:
Unfortunately, there were no organizers for the traditional AIF Minicomp this year and last year, so an alternative event was held instead, the AIF Minifest and Writing Salon. Instead of the traditional Minicomp author gladiator battles put on for the amusement of the readers, the Minifest was designed as a communal space for authors where they could get together to support each other as they wrote some games and released them at the end. Although there was a lot of creative story ideas generated by many authors at the beginning, only two games were completed by the end. You can trace the development process of these works as part of the AIF Writing Salon.
The two games that are being released as part of the Minifest are
ADRIFT 5
After hitting it off with the lovely Katherine on an online dating site, you are going to meet her for a first date at Benscamo's Cafe.
Note (9/30): To play ADRIFT games, you need to run the ADRIFT interpreter program. Then, open the .taf file in that program. To find out where to download an ADRIFT interpreter, please consult the AIF FAQ.
and
Mrs. Harrow and the Rake by Lost Trout
HTML (Twine)
Seduce Mrs. Harrow as a Victorian era rake.
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
AIF Minifest 2016 Final Deadline
This is just a reminder that the final deadline for the AIF Minifest is August 29. I hope you're all making good progress on your games. Please send me your entries at losttrout AT gmail DOT com around that date. Do send me raw game files or html files instead of actual executable programs to avoid problems with viruses. I will then need a few days to gather the entries together, upload them to the Matrix Mole site, and write up an announcement.
Monday, 25 July 2016
AIF Minifest Deadline
The AIF Writing Salon is winding down, and the deadline for the AIF Minifest is approaching. I originally set the deadline for the Minifest as August.
Is there anyone who's planning on submitting anything to the Minifest? Does anyone need more time?
Is there anyone who's planning on submitting anything to the Minifest? Does anyone need more time?
Sunday, 10 July 2016
Writing Salon Weeks 11+: Fleshing Things Out
This post is for the July 10-31 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
Now that you have a playable game, it's time to flesh things out. Add more commands to your game. Add extra rooms. Add puzzles and plot. Add a conclusion. There's three weeks until the minifest, so use your time wisely to enhance your game.
Post the text that you've written for feedback. Ask for programming advice. Put up playable versions of your game that others can try and make suggestions for. Send me your completed works at the start of August at the email address losttrout AT gmail, so I can gather them together and make them available for the minifest. Even if you haven't been involved with the Writing Salon, I will still accept your game for the minifest. Raw game files or .html files are preferred over executable files because they are smaller and are less likely to have viruses. Sometimes gmail automatically discards emails with certain attachments, so if you don't hear from me after a few days saying that I've received your game, please e-mail me asking what's up.
Now that you have a playable game, it's time to flesh things out. Add more commands to your game. Add extra rooms. Add puzzles and plot. Add a conclusion. There's three weeks until the minifest, so use your time wisely to enhance your game.
Post the text that you've written for feedback. Ask for programming advice. Put up playable versions of your game that others can try and make suggestions for. Send me your completed works at the start of August at the email address losttrout AT gmail, so I can gather them together and make them available for the minifest. Even if you haven't been involved with the Writing Salon, I will still accept your game for the minifest. Raw game files or .html files are preferred over executable files because they are smaller and are less likely to have viruses. Sometimes gmail automatically discards emails with certain attachments, so if you don't hear from me after a few days saying that I've received your game, please e-mail me asking what's up.
Sunday, 3 July 2016
Writing Salon Week 10: Program the Transcript
This post is for the July 3-9 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
It's time to get interactive! Add the commands from your sex transcript into your game. You should be able to play through your game now. Post your game up for people to try and give you feedback about how it plays.
When programming, it's important to not fight your story engine. Story engines are designed to be programmed in certain ways. As long as you stay within the expected structure, the programming should be relatively easy. If you do something that runs counter to the design of the story engine, the programming can quickly become very, very hard. If you find yourself doing a lot of complicated programming, you might be trying to make your story engine do something that it was not designed to do. In those cases, it is often easier to adapt your story to fit what the engine wants than the other way around. Experienced AIF authors are adept at finding compromises between the needs of their stories and the design of their story engines. Feel free to ask for advice.
It's time to get interactive! Add the commands from your sex transcript into your game. You should be able to play through your game now. Post your game up for people to try and give you feedback about how it plays.
When programming, it's important to not fight your story engine. Story engines are designed to be programmed in certain ways. As long as you stay within the expected structure, the programming should be relatively easy. If you do something that runs counter to the design of the story engine, the programming can quickly become very, very hard. If you find yourself doing a lot of complicated programming, you might be trying to make your story engine do something that it was not designed to do. In those cases, it is often easier to adapt your story to fit what the engine wants than the other way around. Experienced AIF authors are adept at finding compromises between the needs of their stories and the design of their story engines. Feel free to ask for advice.
Sunday, 26 June 2016
Writing Salon Week 9: Sex Transcript
This post is for the June 26-July 2 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
Write a sample playthrough of your sex scene. List the commands that a player will do and write the responses that will happen. Think about alternate commands that the player might try. Here is a sample transcript:
It shows different commands that you can try and the expected responses.
Writing sex scenes can be difficult. Surprisingly, writing sex scenes isn't taught in school, so most people don't have any practice with it. A good sex scene shouldn't just be a mechanical description of sex acts. Describe how it feels and the emotions involved. I am including numerous excerpts of some public domain sex scenes that you can pilfer and adapt for your own writing.
Write a sample playthrough of your sex scene. List the commands that a player will do and write the responses that will happen. Think about alternate commands that the player might try. Here is a sample transcript:
> kiss her
You kiss her.
> Lick breasts
You gently lick her nipple.
> Have sex
You have sex with her. You cuddle with her afterwards and go to sleep.
The End.
It shows different commands that you can try and the expected responses.
Writing sex scenes can be difficult. Surprisingly, writing sex scenes isn't taught in school, so most people don't have any practice with it. A good sex scene shouldn't just be a mechanical description of sex acts. Describe how it feels and the emotions involved. I am including numerous excerpts of some public domain sex scenes that you can pilfer and adapt for your own writing.
Sunday, 19 June 2016
Writing Salon Week 8: Program the Character Descriptions
This post is for the June 19-25 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
Add character descriptions to your game so that your characters can be looked at. Many beginner authors have "simulationist tendencies." They feel that they need to simulate the real world. Every body part needs to be examinable. Each piece of clothing can be individually removed. This is very difficult and time-consuming to do. It can also be tedious to write and tedious to read. It can get boring coming up with an interesting description of a woman's breasts and vagina all the time.
Avoid making a clothing system for your game unless you actually have a lot of extra time. Unless there's a narrative reason that individual body parts need to be examinable, make your life easier and don't include it.
Add character descriptions to your game so that your characters can be looked at. Many beginner authors have "simulationist tendencies." They feel that they need to simulate the real world. Every body part needs to be examinable. Each piece of clothing can be individually removed. This is very difficult and time-consuming to do. It can also be tedious to write and tedious to read. It can get boring coming up with an interesting description of a woman's breasts and vagina all the time.
Avoid making a clothing system for your game unless you actually have a lot of extra time. Unless there's a narrative reason that individual body parts need to be examinable, make your life easier and don't include it.
Sunday, 12 June 2016
Writing Salon Week 7: Character Description
This post is for the June 12-18 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
Write descriptions for the player and partner. What do they look like? What are they wearing? What do they look like naked? Post your descriptions and try to entice us with your characters.
To help get your mind in the mood for writing, I'm including two public domain excerpts from Fanny Hill. Adapt them to your needs.
Write descriptions for the player and partner. What do they look like? What are they wearing? What do they look like naked? Post your descriptions and try to entice us with your characters.
To help get your mind in the mood for writing, I'm including two public domain excerpts from Fanny Hill. Adapt them to your needs.
Sunday, 5 June 2016
Writing Salon Week 6: Program the Room Description
This post is for the June 5-11 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
Add the room description to your game so that players can look around.
If you are using Twine, you can emulate the feel of traditional interactive fiction. Create a different passage for each room. When you click on objects, instead of using the normal Twine links, use the <<popup>> macro by Claretta. You only need the javascript code and not the provided css code. If you want the popups to automatically close when you click on links, create a passage called "PassageReady" with the following contents: <<set UISystem.close()>>
Add the room description to your game so that players can look around.
If you are using Twine, you can emulate the feel of traditional interactive fiction. Create a different passage for each room. When you click on objects, instead of using the normal Twine links, use the <<popup>> macro by Claretta. You only need the javascript code and not the provided css code. If you want the popups to automatically close when you click on links, create a passage called "PassageReady" with the following contents: <<set UISystem.close()>>
Sunday, 29 May 2016
Writing Salon Week 5: Room Descriptions
This post is for the May 29-June 4 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon.
When your game starts, the player needs to know where he or she is. Establish the setting. Write a paragraph describing where the sex scene takes place. Is it an empty room, or do you want to have interactive objects in the room too? Post your descriptions for everyone to read.
Since traditional interactive fiction is built around moving between different rooms and interacting with objects in them, interactive fiction often has a strong sense of place. By focusing heavily on where you are and by forcing you to examine and interact with things, traditional interactive fiction immerses you in a world. Twine uses a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure model of the world, so Twine stories tend to emphasize plot more.
Although rich room descriptions with many interactive objects can help with immersion, don't feel obligated to spend too much time there. AIF stories are unusual in that they focus mostly on character. The setting isn't too important, so many AIF games provide only brief descriptions of your surroundings. What is important though is that you describe any exits that are available and any characters or objects that can be interacted with. One side-effect of this is that room descriptions sometimes read like dry lists of stuff, which is fine.
To help get you in the right mindset, I have grabbed a random assortment of room descriptions from some public domain novels. These descriptions read like traditional interactive fiction room descriptions, so you try to adapt them to your needs.
When your game starts, the player needs to know where he or she is. Establish the setting. Write a paragraph describing where the sex scene takes place. Is it an empty room, or do you want to have interactive objects in the room too? Post your descriptions for everyone to read.
Since traditional interactive fiction is built around moving between different rooms and interacting with objects in them, interactive fiction often has a strong sense of place. By focusing heavily on where you are and by forcing you to examine and interact with things, traditional interactive fiction immerses you in a world. Twine uses a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure model of the world, so Twine stories tend to emphasize plot more.
Although rich room descriptions with many interactive objects can help with immersion, don't feel obligated to spend too much time there. AIF stories are unusual in that they focus mostly on character. The setting isn't too important, so many AIF games provide only brief descriptions of your surroundings. What is important though is that you describe any exits that are available and any characters or objects that can be interacted with. One side-effect of this is that room descriptions sometimes read like dry lists of stuff, which is fine.
To help get you in the right mindset, I have grabbed a random assortment of room descriptions from some public domain novels. These descriptions read like traditional interactive fiction room descriptions, so you try to adapt them to your needs.
Sunday, 22 May 2016
Writing Salon Week 4: Program that Introduction
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.
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.
Sunday, 15 May 2016
Writing Salon Week 3: Introductions
This post is for the May 15-21 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon. It's not too late to join in. If you've got an idea for a game, feel free to discuss it.
Every AIF game needs a sex scene. In order to keep the scope of the writing manageable, we're going to concentrate on writing a game with only one sex scene first. Later, more chapters can be added on to create a longer work. Choose one sex scene from your game and write an introduction that summarizes everything in your story leading up to that sex scene. Post these teasers to get feedback and to generate excitement about your full game.
Although it is painful to replace the amazing plot points and puzzles that you had in your mind with a simple introductory summary, doing so can often improve your game. Starting in media res, right in the thick of the action, can really improve the pacing of your plot. One of the most common writing tricks used in romance novels is to start with the protagonist and her love interest already be in love. A story about how two people get together is much more difficult to write and can be tedious to read.
Every AIF game needs a sex scene. In order to keep the scope of the writing manageable, we're going to concentrate on writing a game with only one sex scene first. Later, more chapters can be added on to create a longer work. Choose one sex scene from your game and write an introduction that summarizes everything in your story leading up to that sex scene. Post these teasers to get feedback and to generate excitement about your full game.
Although it is painful to replace the amazing plot points and puzzles that you had in your mind with a simple introductory summary, doing so can often improve your game. Starting in media res, right in the thick of the action, can really improve the pacing of your plot. One of the most common writing tricks used in romance novels is to start with the protagonist and her love interest already be in love. A story about how two people get together is much more difficult to write and can be tedious to read.
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Writing Salon Week 2: Choose an Engine
This post is for the May 8-14 writing event of the 2016 AIF Writing Salon. It's not too late to join in. If you have an idea for a game, feel free to discuss it.
If you want to program interactive sex, you need a story engine to run in. Discuss your choices or come get advice about your options. Choose one, install it, and start it up.
For beginner authors, I highly recommend that you choose Twine. Specifically, I recommend Twine 2 with the SugarCube story format. When choosing a story engine, the most important thing is to choose one that has been used in other games. The more people who use a story engine, the better it becomes. There are also more people available who can help you. Twine is the most heavily used story engine available now. To be honest, Twine isn't very well-designed. It's very simple though, and over the years, the community has improved it to the point that it has become very usable. Unfortunately, the main designers of Twine created a new version called Twine 2 that discarded all the improvements made by the community. Twine 2 is easier to use but is missing many of the features from Twine 1 that are needed to make interesting games. The SugarCube story format brings many of these Twine 1 features to Twine 2, and it's mostly compatible with tutorials for Twine 1.
If you want to program interactive sex, you need a story engine to run in. Discuss your choices or come get advice about your options. Choose one, install it, and start it up.
For beginner authors, I highly recommend that you choose Twine. Specifically, I recommend Twine 2 with the SugarCube story format. When choosing a story engine, the most important thing is to choose one that has been used in other games. The more people who use a story engine, the better it becomes. There are also more people available who can help you. Twine is the most heavily used story engine available now. To be honest, Twine isn't very well-designed. It's very simple though, and over the years, the community has improved it to the point that it has become very usable. Unfortunately, the main designers of Twine created a new version called Twine 2 that discarded all the improvements made by the community. Twine 2 is easier to use but is missing many of the features from Twine 1 that are needed to make interesting games. The SugarCube story format brings many of these Twine 1 features to Twine 2, and it's mostly compatible with tutorials for Twine 1.
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