Tuesday, 17 November 2009
btw
I am avoiding comments on the IGF for reasons of fairness. No hype goes in or out of this blog plz. :) However, the game list is published and you can probably find the website and look for yourself if you are interested.
The Shadow in the Cathedral
New commercial text adventure available.
This review suggests it's reasonably cool.
I so do not have time to look at it right now.
This review suggests it's reasonably cool.
I so do not have time to look at it right now.
freebie
Sandlot is giving away the original Westward free for a week.
The first game is the only one that is 2D and therefore the best in my opinion. :) Definitely recommended to bored strategy fans. (Obviously, this is somewhat a promotion of Westward 4 which just came out. But it's 3d so ignore it.)
The first game is the only one that is 2D and therefore the best in my opinion. :) Definitely recommended to bored strategy fans. (Obviously, this is somewhat a promotion of Westward 4 which just came out. But it's 3d so ignore it.)
Monday, 16 November 2009
Saturday, 14 November 2009
passing the time
So, at a particular point in our current project the characters decide to pass an evening with one of those old standbys, the drinking game "I Never". Except without the drinking, because at least one character doesn't drink.
This is entertaining from a writing/character development perspective, since not only does it mean working out who has and hasn't done what in order to answer the questions, there's also the matter of things like: who already knows about what other characters have done? Who will intentionally ask things they already know the answer to in order to score points? Who will ask what they really want to know? And who will carefully avoid asking about things they don't want to know or don't want to make public?
Of course, in a hentai game, which this isn't, the questions would probably get a lot more explicit.
This is entertaining from a writing/character development perspective, since not only does it mean working out who has and hasn't done what in order to answer the questions, there's also the matter of things like: who already knows about what other characters have done? Who will intentionally ask things they already know the answer to in order to score points? Who will ask what they really want to know? And who will carefully avoid asking about things they don't want to know or don't want to make public?
Of course, in a hentai game, which this isn't, the questions would probably get a lot more explicit.
Friday, 13 November 2009
choose your own adventure
This has been making the rounds lately - some interesting data on branching and multiple endings from the old Choose Your Own Adventure novels.
When I was young, I loved CYOAs. Not surprisingly, I wanted to write them, too. However, I found the process painfully confusing. I couldn't think of a good way to keep track of all the branches as I went along, and I had no idea at all how I was supposed to go about assigning numbers to the different bits when I hadn't written them yet and didn't know how they would go together!
But my school computer lab, even on the basic Apple 2 whatevers they had at the time, had turned up software for producing branching path stories. Not to be produced as books, but as simple games. And it was so much easier. They even had features for player-determined-choice and random-choice (Which VN writers will tell you is probably a bad idea, but the point is, it was something you couldn't easily do in a book.)
When I was young, I loved CYOAs. Not surprisingly, I wanted to write them, too. However, I found the process painfully confusing. I couldn't think of a good way to keep track of all the branches as I went along, and I had no idea at all how I was supposed to go about assigning numbers to the different bits when I hadn't written them yet and didn't know how they would go together!
But my school computer lab, even on the basic Apple 2 whatevers they had at the time, had turned up software for producing branching path stories. Not to be produced as books, but as simple games. And it was so much easier. They even had features for player-determined-choice and random-choice (Which VN writers will tell you is probably a bad idea, but the point is, it was something you couldn't easily do in a book.)
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