Open Thread Summary: We Need More … Depth

This topic exploded quickly with comments, but kind of slowed down as it became clear there was pretty overwhelming consensus on what was wanted. Depth was the clear favorite, though it comes in a couple of different types.

I’m going to outline a few of the ideas suggested, though for anyone who hasn’t checked it out, the original thread has lot of great ideas not covered here.

Big AIF Survey's Big Analysis

Thanks to everyone who responded to the Big AIF survey. Based on some of the responses I've done a brief follow-up survey that you can answer here. This is the accompanying big analysis.

Big AIF Survey on Interactivity

I have made what I am dubbing the Big AIF Survey on Interactivity. It asks questions like: what are your favorite features in an interactive sex scene? What are your least favorite? What level of interactivity to you typically expect?

The survey is not very long. It should take less than 5 minutes. Go ahead and access it here.

By answering it, you help me (and possibly other AIF authors) know where they should invest their time and effort. It's definitely worth your time, too.

Overlooked AIF Games 3

Here's another Overlooked AIF article, so you don't have to wait any longer to find out what to play! This time I've included four because one of them is... well, you'll see. Let's get on with the show!

AIF Toolkit v0.6.1 (UPDATE 03/22/2014)

(I know this is only relevant for a narrow portion of the AIF audience, so from now on I'll only post major updates as separate blog posts. Minor updates will be added as edits to the original post. You can follow my blog (see sidebar) for more consistent updates.)

The AIF Toolkit is an AIF authoring system for Inform 7. Click below for more details.

March Open Thread: We Need More of …

According to AIF List, there have been 354 AIF games made going back to the 80s. In addition, there are a lot of games that border/included in AIF territory such as RAGs and some commercial releases (ExLibris has an informative post all about this). What gems, what great ideas have you seen in that long history of AIF games? What lessons from the past (whether thirty years ago or just weeks) do you believe deserve more recognition? Now is the time to call attention to those ideas.

Note this isn’t a thread for Overlooked AIF titles; BBBen is already covering that. I think it would be helpful if we could discuss specific concepts, design ideas, plot points, or other elements that you wish were done more frequently. It could be a setting (fantasy, modern, school), a particular type of character (sister, teacher, wife), a way the sex scenes were written, a goal in the game, or any other element that when you played the game made you say, "That was a great idea, we should have more of that". This way authors can look to some prior works for good ideas, and maybe the community can help find you games that already exist that have the elements you are looking for.

Open Thread: Development Diaries

I was going to email the Editor with this, but I figure other people in the community might have some thoughts. There are so far two development diaries and I have a few questions/thoughts about what policies should generally guide not just them but future entries as well.

Animations in AIF

by BBBen

Kenji and Ami from Pervert Action: Future. I wish I'd
done better with the lighting in this shot, but never mind.

I'd like to briefly discuss 3D animations, as opposed to still pictures. I am (I believe) the only author to have released an "AIF game" containing animated shots; namely Pervert Action: Future. It's actually surprised me that nobody else has attempted this, although I suppose there aren't many active AIF authors making games with pictures in the first place.

It kind of feels to me like this article should be longer and more complex than it is, engaging with more of the topic, but as there hasn't been any real discussion of the topic in the community before I don't quite know what people want to talk about.

Therefore this is almost an 'open thread', but with some more of my random thoughts about the process running ahead of it.

Open Thread Summary: What Went Wrong?

I have to admit, I was a bit worried about the Open Thread experiment, but I think it went quite well with (currently) 31 comments. Thanks to everyone who contributed

Here is a summary of many of the pitfalls and problems authors have encountered. I tried to cover as many of the ideas as possible and some of the categories are almost duplicates of others, but I’d rather go for broadness then precision here.

Hopefully this list can help both new and established authors when they set out to start games. If there is anything anyone would like to add, please feel free to comment and I will update the post with suggestions.

This month in AIF (February 2014)

February saw the release of 2014's first AIF game, Study Date by Karrek. It's been very postively received so in the unlikely event that you haven't played it yet, I encourage you to check it out. The game is being discussed (including links to the latest version) at the following locations:
http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/study-date-v09-by-karrek.html
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aifarchive/conversations/topics/21443
http://www.the-new-lagoon.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3155

Archer Fifteen has also announced that he has a new game in development, X-Men: Amnesia. You can find all the details at http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/development-diary-x-men-amnesia.html. THK has also released an updated version of his 2012 game Another Friday Party 2.

On the technical side of things, Another Wannabe has released a new version of his AIF Toolkit extension for Inform 7. Details can be found at http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/02/aif-toolkit-v052.html.

As far as this blog goes, there were thirteen posts in February, and the blog got 25,918 pageviews. Overlooked AIF Games 2 and the Study Date thread led the charge with more than a thousand pageviews each. 

If there's anything else newsworthy that we've missed, please leave a comment below. And if you'd like author access, send an email to editor.aifblog@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.