Sorry; I frequently misuse ''your'' when I mean ''you''re''.... It''s the people I tell you, the people...

Anyway, I think you are right. No; I know you are right. You are always the chosen one or the one that is the big macho dude/chick.

I''ve been working on a game (the graphics and "engine" so far) where the President''s dog is missing and somehow you need to look for it (that''s the whole game). You will talk to the CIA agents who are all around town (think of a Sam & Max style game), and always be one step ahead of them. The whole point of the game is to provide a comical environment that the player will not only enjoy playing but also enjoy the humor, plot, etc.

Anyway, I was trying to think of a way that the character can somehow be looking for the dog... I don''t want a reward; That''s stupid. I was thinking of something like him being a private investigator (no, not those privates) and he takes on the task even though the CIA told him not to...

So if you could think of a better way, some input would help.


BTW, what does the game have to do with text-based games? Well, I''d consider Sam&Max to be an "Old DOS Game". By my personal definition, ODGs are the ones where there wasn''t any sound (save sometimes for PC speakers and maybe, maybe adlib), cheap 2D graphics, and text-based messaging. Like when you click on something with the taste cursor, or look cursor, or pick-up cursor, you would respond appropriately.

Anyway, thanks again!

~Dwarf

Space Quest, Police Quest, Kings Quest... wow I used to love those games. I stopped playing after they went to the point and click interface. It just wasn''t as fun, or challenging. Nowadays u''d be even better off, all computers have soundcards/cd or dvd-ROM drives, audio compression text to speech... You could have narraration along with text. Dynamically rendered static graphics that come to life as they are narrarated... The flexability of the medium is just that much greater than back then. You could cut out the graphics completely and go for just text and narraration, or better yet give the user the option of one the other or both. Sound effects as clues, such as if u were following somebody and the hint as to which direction to go was in positional audio. Music is another dimension, movies, tv already take advantage of setting a mood, or giving a clue as to what needs to be done (investigative...). The main reason i think u can succeed is sometimes u feel like sitting down and blowing somebodies head off with a sniper rifle, others u want to be mentally challenged. Even more so u want to get lost in a world u interact with on a "real" level. Most "adventure" games now days consist of ''how do i get this door open'' or ''ok so first I have to do this and then this''. The more I think about it, as time has gone on there are fewer and fewer games where i actually pay attention to the storyline. Anyway i''m sorry if this started sounding like a rant but besides FPS''s there aren''t alot of games that are just plain fun anymore. I miss my C64 and Maniac Mansion... But one piece of advice, if you are going to make a text only game make it for the PALM platform. The majority of people who own them are in the right demographic, and if they take public transportation will have the time and will to play them on a regular basis. (Rush hour and somebody lack of underarm deodorant seems to have an escapist effect on people) I guess any portable platform would do...

quote: Original post by Dwarf with Axe
Anyway, I was trying to think of a way that the character can somehow be looking for the dog... I don't want a reward; That's stupid. I was thinking of something like him being a private investigator (no, not those privates) and he takes on the task even though the CIA told him not to...

White house orderly/kitchen staff. And you're actually the one who let the dog out while "Eagle" was at Camp David, so you have to find him before the "Chief" gets back tomorrow afternoon. Or you'll be the mess cook in Alaska by nightfall...

[Edit:] Formatting.

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Thanks to Kylotan for the idea!

Edited by - Oluseyi on January 20, 2002 5:35:15 AM

I was actually thinking of something like this, but with a major extra. First, you have the standard text interface with all the bells and whistles, but after every 5 commands or so, or 2 minutes of reading and typing, it cuts to a cinematic rendered 10 to 15 second movie of your last sequence of commands complete with AI driven cinematography, and so on. The rendering could be a little higher quality than found in realtime systems because it is rendering as you are completing your last sequence of commands.

Fun thought anyway...

___________________________________

Just imagine the 10 second still shot of your character standing motionless, as the computer renders "get sowrd" in realtime

Edited by - Kylotan on January 20, 2002 10:18:51 AM

I loved Kings Quest, Space Quest and Police Quest (played one of each some 10 years ago), but nothing else since, and I never played a text-only infocom game. Until I''ve found Heist: The Crime of the Century (look it up on download.com). Instant addiction. The game made quite an impression on me, and I was honestly more immersed than with many 3d games. I simply liked being in the game, I liked the atmosphere. Better than Quake as one of the reviewers on download.com put it.

Then I was slowly turned away from the game by the gameplay. Sure it felt good when I solved the puzzles (and Heist had very good ones, the kind of puzzles you ask yourself "Why didn''t I think of that before" after you find the answer.) But when you cannot do anything anymore, it''s immensely frustrating. I couldn''t resist getting the walkthrough. Not knowing whether to advance you need to use who knows what strange word you haven''t thought of before is not helping either.

Soon I discovered that the best kind of gameplay was to examine everything that I see, then examine every part of that, so that I can see what are the different entities the game considers (rather than reading the text like in a book, I started looking for distinct features.) Then I started trying to combine everything with everything, and using other brute force ways of solving the puzzles.

So, the text medium is _very_ powerfull, but without a different kind of gameplay, text adventures are as dead as the graphical adventures.

quote: Original post by Kylotan
Just imagine the 10 second still shot of your character standing motionless, as the computer renders "get sowrd" in realtime

Every five commands, I said. The program knows the commands you can do, and would not give you a ten second scene of your character picking up the sword. Besides, throw out the crappy graphics you see in realtime games. Imagine that the program knows the cool angles for the camera shots, because the level designer entered this into the database. Additionally, a little bit of thought and study on composition, lighting (silhouetted forms, side lighting, etc.), cinematography, closeups, and the standard suite of camera movements could make each cut scene quite fascinating, moody, thrilling, and possibly informative to the player.



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Check out Skotos Tech...I believe they are trying to reinvigorate the interactive fiction genre through online storytelling/gaming communities.

People are beginning to buy eBooks to read on their PDAs, and the screen qualities are getting good enough on those that you can read quite a bit of text without going blind. To me, this would be a perfect venue to bring these games back. I''d love to see Hitchiker''s Guide to the Galaxy or some of the old Zork games brought back on the PDA.

R.

bishop_pass, I was just being facetious. I know you didn''t mean for it to be anything like my example

Glad to see no flamers...yet. =)

I am also glad to see all of you like the same old games like I do.

Games nowadays (usually) are too generic; back in the day, you commanded a dog and rabbit pair of detectives, a space adventurer guy, a janitor, etc..

The white house staff Idea is PERFECT! Thank you! =)

~Dwarf