Message-ID: <3D09FBC5.5070809@csi.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 10:20:53 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:0.9.4.1) Gecko/20020314 Netscape6/6.2.2
X-Accept-Language: en-us
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Avatar-less IF
References: <ae9iap$52lj3$1@ID-101183.news.dfncis.de> <3D088991.20000@csi.com> <aeab2e$5c85h$1@ID-101183.news.dfncis.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
NNTP-Posting-Host: ool-182f30fa.dyn.optonline.net
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: ool-182f30fa.dyn.optonline.net
X-Trace: excalibur.gbmtech.net 1024064054 ool-182f30fa.dyn.optonline.net (14 Jun 2002 10:14:14 -0400)
Organization: ProNet USA Inc.
Lines: 53
X-Authenticated-User: jnc
Path: news.duke.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp.abs.net!uunet!dca.uu.net!excalibur.gbmtech.net
Xref: news.duke.edu rec.arts.int-fiction:105055

Eytan Zweig wrote:

>I need advice with how to design the game, not the technical side of how to
>actually code it
>

Oh!  Your initial comments seemed to me like you had the concept figured
out (since you described it fairly thoroughly) but couldn't quite figure
out how to make the game do what you envisioned.  I wasn't going to
presume to suggest anything beyond that, if you already had a plan.

Might I then suggest allowing the player to hop between perspectives of
characters, but not allow them to interfere in the action?  Something like:

] WHO AM I
You are Ook of the Banana Clan, keeper of the shiny thing found in the
river.

Oooku picks a grub off of Ukka's back.  "Don't let anyone say I don't
love you," he grunts.

] LOOK
Lush Meadow

You stand between several trees--a meeting place--blah, blah, blah.  You
see Ukka and Oooku here.

Ukka swats Oooku away, trying to finish reading "Ulysses."  You respond
by trying to tug the book from her grasp, until she pokes you in the eye.

] JUMP
That is not what is to be.

Angry, you swat back at Ukka.

] UKKA, LOOK
(as Ukka)
Lush Meadow

You stand between several trees--a meeting place--blah, blah, blah.  You
see Ook and Oooku here.

Ook apoligizes for hitting you, obviously guilty for trying to take your
book.

....and so on.  It has the advantage of looking like "normal" IF, but
fairly easy to determine the mechanisms that'll work.

On the downside, you'd probably have to rewrite most of the text (or
have a more general engine) to account for each perspective.

[...]

