ENGL 376VV. A literature course at the University of Mary Washington
Your Government Needs You is my dystopian interactive fiction. It focuses on an unnamed protagonist and reveals the unpleasant reality of his life through clues from his belongings and his perspective on the world around him. I hope you enjoy it if you play it, and message me if there are any errors and they will be fixed as soon as possible.
Have a great summer, E-Lit Class of 2012!
For my final blog post, I decided to take a look at some more of Andrew Plotkin’s work. I bonded with him a lot through writing a paper about “Shade” and hearing him discuss the struggles faced by IF writers in Get Lamp, so I spent some time perusing his catalogue of IFs. Although I will be focusing on only one of his works, I think it’s worth noting that he’s been extremely prolific and he’s covered a wide array of subjects. Some of his works deal with classic themes of video games and IF, while others exhibit a more philosophical or critical tone as in “Shade.” Since I couldn’t explore all of his works, I picked one that seemed more experimental than the others: “The Space Under the Window.” Here’s the way Plotkin introduces it:
This appealed to me for a number of reasons but primarily because I’m actually terrible at IF, and I thought that interactive poetry would be something I could more easily navigate. If you are like me, then this work is for you. By typing the names of different objects is the scenario presented to you, you change the course of events in the short narrative. I hesitate to say that you determine or decide the course of events because that’s not really how this IF works. For example, the first line presented by the parser reads: “The window is closed, so you can’t go inside.” If you type “window,” the first message disappears, and instead the parser tells you: “The window is open, so you can go into the room.” The interactor does not know that by typing “window,” the setting will change, but that’s how this IF works. Sometimes when the interactor types a word, the previous text disappears and is replaced by something entirely different. Other times, it’s only altered or lengthened, or both. For example, once the parser tells you that the window is open, if you type “window” again, the text turns into: “The window is open, one pane laid back. As always, you strain to see what lies in the room below, and fail — there is only tinted glass, and the darkness of the opening.”
It’s difficult to say exactly what this work is about, since the course of the events changes almost each time you play. However, each storyline does revolve around this one window and usually leads to a discussion between a man and woman. I never found a combination of words that led to a truly positive conversation between the two. Rather, every scenario seemed to be accompanied by some degree of tension and dissatisfaction. Not to spoil the ending[s], but each scenario results in the window shattering. Since the man and the woman enter a land of tension through the window, and the window shatters at the end of each scenario, Plotkin may be making a point about how couples interact and lead to their own destruction. Really, though, the meaning changes with each play. Here’s one of the longer solutions I managed to come up with:
I recommend taking a lot at this if you enjoy either digital poetry or IF. “The Space Under the Window” is an interesting combination of the two, and it provides a great example of untraditional IF. Instead of guiding a player character, you type words that make the world around the player character progress. The result is the experience of living out the various scenarios that could evolve from a single starting point and understanding that one cannot always decide how something will progress.
For those of you who don’t already know, Pottermore is an all-new interactive look at JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. It does something interesting (and really fun) by taking books that most of us have probably already read (maybe more than once) and making them interactive. Well, in a sense.
There are still plot lines that are very definite and can’t be changed around, but Pottermore does offer an entirely new perspective on the Potter books. Instead of only thinking and knowing what Harry knows, the user has a chance to view Hogwarts from their own point-of-view and form opinions and memories unique to them.
Aside from being totally geek-tastically fun (users are sorted into Houses and chosen by a wand), Pottermore is unlike most things I’ve discovered online. It brings users together they same way that the books brought readers together. I have friends on my Pottermore account that I have never met, but we mare members of the same House and work together to earn points. My House, Slytherin, is currently in the lead for the House Cup.
And even though I have always identified as a Hufflepuff, I feel a growing affection towards Slytherin House that I would not have gained outside of the Pottermore experience. For one thing, JK Rowling designed the Sorting Test herself, and I feel as though if anyone knows better than I do what House I belong in, it’s Rowling. And there’s no going back – no being re-Sorted or choosing another wand. But I kind of like it that way. It means that it’s more “real” in a sense because I didn’t just choose what answers I knew would get me into which House.
But it also means that Pottermore is far from being truly interactive. In each chapter, the user can only explore three layers of the newly-designed environment. (Think of it like a pop-up book in style). There are items to be collected, which gives the whole experience more of a “game” feel, but also brand-new content about the story and characters, written by JK Rowling. For example, Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall is discovered to have a very detailed (and sort of tragic) back story that is never revealed in the printed series.
So far, only Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is open on Pottermore, but it is an experience not to be missed by any fan of the series. While it is not completely interactive, it does add another level of interactivity to the beloved series. And it makes me feel like Harry Potter isn’t over after all.
So for this weeks blog I decided I would look into the actual genre of interactive fiction instead of just one specific work. In looking around for an interesting article I came across a novel called ‘Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction’ by Nick Montfort. I started skimming the book and realized it was much too long to write just one blog post about the entire thing so I chose one chapter to focus on and that was the chapter titled ‘Riddles’.
In this chapter, the author discusses the often over-looked role riddles play in the game play of IF games. He points out that basically the entire game is based on riddles. Each time you are faced with a challenge, it may seem fairly simple such as ‘you cannot pass through, the door is locked’, but you are presented with the riddle of how to unlock the door. What do you need to say/do/take in order to get the door to open? He also points out that the literary definition of a riddle says that it must consist of two things: competition between the riddler, which is usually the game maker, and the riddlee, the game player, and the language must be difficult but still include the clues necessary to solve the riddle. In the case with the locked door, the clue is that the door is locked, and what opens a locked door? Keys, which you then know you must go and find. As opposed to ‘the door it being held shut’, where you must figure out, often by trial and error, what or who is holding the door shut.
Montfort also makes the argument that situational puzzles are similar to riddles in their role in the game. He states that these puzzles present the player with a situation in which they must figure out what exactly is going on in order to understand the game and how to proceed. These situations challege the player to think ‘out side of the box’ and outside of the literal meaning of the interaction. One good example he gives is ‘A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The bartender pulls out a gun and points it at him. The man says “Thank you” and walks out’. One might wonder why the man would be thanking the bartender for threatening him but most probably wouldn’t consider that the man had the hiccups and was thanking the bartender for scaring them out of him. While this situation may not be one found in an IF game, it is a prime example of when a reader/player must think outside of their own immediate thoughts to determine what actually happened. This is key in many situations in IF games when the player is given a piece of text, often instructions or a description, and if taken literally would make not sense and not help with the game progression but when taken abstractly, it lends many important details about situations in the game.
What I found most interesting about this chapter was just how key riddles and situational puzzles are to IF games, though they are often overlooked as just plain text. In trying to advance in the game play of IF games, looking at each reply to the players inquiries as a riddle to be solved with abstract thinking seems to be a valid strategy. I know from my experience, I always tended to take the text literally and often found myself stuck trying to do what I thought the computer was obviously telling me to do but really it was telling me something entirely different. I will approach each game from now on with a new understanding and tactic for overcoming this competition between riddler and riddlee in hopes of coming out on top.
If you have yet to play Photopia, you should really try it out immediately. We have played a lot of text adventure games in class, however, this one has stood out the most to me. The concept is remarkably radical- it is the first game we have played in class that I feel includes MORE narrative than game playing. Sure, the other IF games we have tried out have elements of a narrative; they include a setting, a plot, characters, a resoluation, etc. Photopia, however, is much more detailed in its story.
Although the game playing is limited in Photopia, I perfer it this way. I have found many of the other games that we have tried out in class to be extremely difficult in relation of “winning.” With other text adventure games, I have had to attempt to play them 8, 9 or even 10 times before I could grasp how NOT to lose. Photopia was a nice break from this because I felt at ease reading through the short story. I did not have to do a lot of guessing as to what I was supposed to do next; most of the directions were laid out right in front of me as I was reading, which I really enjoyed.
As I was playing Photopia, I began to realize how radical this piece of work probably was. It was the best example I have seen as to what I personally think of when I hear “Interactive Fiction.” It is a piece of literature, a short story, that I personally can interact with. Whereas other pieces of Interactive Fiction also attempt to do this, I have felt like many of them lack a “good” story. They focus more on the game playing rather than the actual story- which is fine- but as an English major, I am more intrigued by the narration than the game itself. Photopia is the perfect game for a beginner who is interested in seeing how narration and game playing can be combined to create something radical.
I played this year’s IF comp winner called Taco Fiction. The title of the IF is what drew me to it. I figured it would take place in a Taco Bell or be about food somehow. Instead, the game starts with you sitting in your car with a gun. You are preparing to rob a store of some type so that you can pay your rent. Instead of earning points through the game, you earn money. The amount of money is tallied and marks your success. I initially found the game enjoyable but found the lack of mobility frustrating. I got stuck in a loop of watching a movie in the safe and was unable to go further even when I used a walk through. Until that point I had been able to move about freely and interact with my surroundings.
This IF had a more realistic setting. It took place in modern times and in a common location. A majority of the IFs I’ve read have been works of fantasy or feature journeys of some type. Taco Fiction takes place in an urban setting and is about your quest to get money to pay rent. I found that this made it more and less enjoyable at the same time. There was more detail offered about the setting and it was easier for me to visualize where I was and what I was doing. However, I missed the fantasy story as this could have been a scene from someone’s everyday life. I found it interesting that the main action of the IF takes place in a Mexican restaurant. I’m not sure if there is any significance there or if the author chose it because of its commonality.
I became interested in the interactive fictions we had been playing (such as Shade) and wanted to research more possibly games to play. Specifically I wanted to blog about one, rather than a digital poem or electronic literature story, which I have mainly done in the past.
I came across LostPig after searching for interactive fiction games in Google. My introduction was this:
“Pig lost! Boss say that it Grunk fault. Say Grunk forget about closing gate. Maybe boss right. Grunk not remember forgetting, but maybe Grunk just forget. Boss say Grunk go find pig, bring it back. Him say, if Grunk not bring back pig, not bring back Grunk either. Grunk like working at pig farm, so now Grunk need find pig.”
Not only did I laugh at the name “Grunk” I felt funny reading these short, choppy sentences. I felt in character and that I became Grunk, the man looking for the pig. His speech reads like he is a caveman. I imagined him with a big stick in hand and wearing a loincloth.
I tried going north, south, east and west and couldn’t make a move anywhere. I typed help in search for help. I was led to hints.
After making way through a part of the forest and bushes, Grunk fell down a hole where the pig in fact was. I appreciated that “sub notes” provided in brackets that offered me advice on what to do next. For example, after the pig had Grunk running in circles after him, I typed:
“yell”
(response) Grunk can try TELL PIG ABOUT ENTERANCE or ASK PIG ABOUT GROUND or OINK AT PIG.
After trying to communicate with the pig, I realized that the more I paid less attention to it and searched other things, the more the pig interacted with me or the story. This game made me laugh and was on the less serious side like we’ve been playing. You can’t die in this game and its comical and light.
The author of LostPig, “Admiral Jota” was the winner of the “IF Comp.” It has been rated and reviewed by many computer world “celebs” such as, Emily Short, Jay is Games and The Onion. Admiral Jota is a software developer who seems to like to use his/her pseudonym name over their real name. I searched for Admiral Jotas bio page and found myself laughing yet again, just like I did at LostPig. Admiral Jota claims that they are a dieter- so they wrote recipes for custard and muffins with lower fat count. I’ll definitely have to try them out!
If I were to change anything about LostPig I think that it’d be cool if pictures were able to insert themselves in some way or that a map could show up on the lower right or left hand corners. Also, music would be fun to insert although I don’t know if that is possible for IF games. I enjoyed this game, and although I’m not an expert at solving and playing them this one seemed to provide the most entertainment to me.
I hope to flesh out what I have here and create chapter 2 for the final, but I’m (albeit all of the frustrations) pretty happy with what I ended up with.
From reading and experimenting with many other Inform7 projects created this semester, I share sentiments with nearly everyone. It is incredibly difficult to get things to work exactly the way you want them to. While Inform DOES use a computer language “based on natural language,” it is, like any other computer language, extremely finicky over having syntax EXACTLY right.
I mention a couple of instances where wording matters in my previous/most recent blog covering how-to’s on a few things in Inform.
For my project I created the first chapter of a game I’m entitling “Apocalypse Now.” The premise, to put it plainly, take you, the player character through a mostly normal day, and have you experience the “apocalypse.” I used quite a few current pop culture and current event type references.
I ran into quite a few issues and had to make more compromises than I would have liked. Instead of creating the ability to have conversations with the characters I had to stick with straight say commands.
Instead of setting a timer on finding the answer to surviving the “apocalypse” I again, had to use say commands and could not even figure out how to get a message to show up every turn after X event happened, nor could I set a time limit before death.
I hope to fix these (my two biggest complaints) and several others when I go back and make edits for the final project.
My face when I tried to figure out how to do ANYTHING with the included Inform manual.
I did many good things with the project as well, though, including dark rooms, scenes, order of events, being fairly thorough with descriptions/not picking up things you shouldn’t, etc.
It was very helpful to have some classmates take a look at it and test things though…
My face whenever someone testing the game picked up something they weren't supposed to that I forgot to "instead" or "fix in place:" like a shower, a window... etc.
I’m open for any comments you all have on the game, as this is obviously a work in progress (though it is completely playable right now).
I’m also open to having “Inform” get togethers for/with anyone else interested in expanding upon their games and/or using Inform for their final projects!
For my first creative project I decided to created an IF game with Inform7. During the brainstorming process I kept revisiting the idea of creating an allegorical game such as Passage. I appreciated Passage so much for its simplicity and its message that I decided to create an IF that had the same qualities. I chose to create my game based on the outdoors and hiking because I enjoy them both so much. I came up with “Paths and Gates” and I feel that with the time I spent on it, I created something that was close to what I desired. I do not want to fully reveal the meaning of this work (as Jason Rohrer did with his game here), but I do wish to provide some insight for anyone who plays the game.
The overall message of the game pertains to life and the different “paths” that people take. These paths can be viewed as ways of life (excuse the cliché). I have boiled these paths down to three (the names of the paths are very important to the understanding of each path). Also take note of the description of the trails on the signposts, and pay attention to the size of each trail. Frustration might occur regarding certain gates, but that is not by accident, it is part of the message I am trying to convey. The paths names, as well as their characteristics, are all carefully chosen to depict an aspect of that “path” of life. For example, there is a reason that two of the gates are at the end of the trail, and one gate is at the head of the trail.
The objects you encounter are also allegorical. The keys and the backpack play an integral role in the meaning of the work, namely when one seeks to open the Charis Gate. In the same regard, the point system is also set up in such a way to represent a truth about life (Ok I might have stolen Jason Rohrer’s mentality of the point system in Passage). When I say that these things play an integral role in the meaning of the work, I certainly do not mean that they are essential in winning the game.
Reaching the Summit is the ultimate goal of the game, and truthfully only one trail will take you there. The only way to lose the game is to give up, or to never try taking that trail to the top. Now here’s what I came up with. Happy hiking!
I don’t know about you all, but while working on my creative project I found the rulebook/guide to be less than helpful at times. Though I eventually figured out how to make some of the things that I wanted to do work, I figured I’d explain a few of them here step by step with simpler terms and explanations than the guide.
As Jeremy Douglass shares in his essay regarding dark rooms, Enlightening IF, “You can’t see anything; you can do very little indeed. All objects except those in your inventory are out of scope, unreachable, as if non-existent.”
There are ways to lighten up dark rooms, however; whether by turning a light on in the room, or by having some item on hand that provides light.
The first method: Using a device, such as a lantern, flashlight, or match, is significantly easier than creating a light within the room.
To begin, create the object and identify it within Inform7 as a device.
e.g. The lantern is a device in the cave entrance.Inform7 usually assumes that devices are “on” normally. So make sure that you label it as off if you want the player to have to turn it on.
e.g. The lantern is switched off.Note: The syntax here is rather picky as the word “switched” is necessary or it won’t understand what you’re saying.
In order for the lantern to provide it light, you have to tell it to provide light of course and can be accomplished via an “after” phrase.
e.g. After switching on the lantern, now the lantern is lit.Note:
While the device is on, any room the player is in that was previously dark, or that was coded as dark, will be illuminated.
The second method: In order to create a light-switch/light that can be turned on within a room, a few things need to happen.
First, you must create a dark room. This is done very easily and only requires that you label the room as “dark.”
e.g. The cave is a dark room.
Now, if the player enters the cave he’ll get the message, “It is pitch dark, and you can’t see a thing,” and as Douglass explains, won’t actually have anything in scope, but you can make it so.
In order to place an object in scope, you must first create the object. In this case, I’ll use matches. Then, use the following,
e.g. After deciding the scope of the player when the location is cave:
place the matches in scope.
The player must also have created a source in the room for light, like a torch on the wall. Then, use the following to light the object within the room.
e.g. Instead of taking the matches: Now the torch is lit; say “You strike a match against a nearby rock and light the torch on the wall, luckily for you it was freshly soaked in gasoline.”I made a short game, that can be accessed by clicking on this sentence, which has both cases.
A few notes:
Creating a vehicle is actually very simple. In fact, Inform already understands what a vehicle is!
e.g. In the frontyard is a vehicle called the sedan.
Inform will understand that the character can get inside of “the sedan” and can then move around while inside of it. Other common syntax works for vehicles as well, such as describing.
In order to create a scene, or, some event that occurs based on time passing or a certain event happening, the event must be described as such.
e.g. The Play is a scene.
Then, a condition must be met in order for the scene to begin.
e.g. The Play beings when the player is in the theater for 5 turns.
To define what happens in a scene, simply put When [the scene] begins: and then on a new line, begin defining.
e.g. When The Play begins: say “The actors come on stage and perform their show for you. You are astounded.”Ending the scene is exactly the same, only the words ends and ending must be used.
e.g. When The Play ends: say “You clap.” The Play ends when the player is in the theater for 5 turns.Here is an example of a scene.
A few notes:
Hope this is helpful!
Recent Comments