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Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship v1.0 by Kevin Wilson Hello. I'd like to start out this guide by suggesting a few other places you can look for information on writing text adventures. Then we can move on to the good stuff. Internet Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction, rec.games.programmer (for graphic adventures and programming.), and occasionally rec.games.int-fiction. If you like to get others' opinions of your ideas, or whatever, bring them to r.a.i-f. It's my favorite newsgroup. It's also a good place to look for betatesters for your games and to do a little bit of advertising (nothing commercial please, only shareware.) Be sure that you understand that r.a.i-f is primarily for discussing authorship, while r.g.i-f is centered around game hints and such, looking for old Infocom games or selling them, etc. See you there! FTP sites: ftp.gmd.de is the primary repository of the great IF of our time. There are also several authoring systems, and lots of Infocom information as well. Authoring systems: There is an authoring-system-FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on ftp.gmd.de that will cover this section quite well. Let me recommend either TADS or Inform. They are both excellent systems, each with its own strong points. TADS is shareware, registration $40, while Inform is freeware. I personally use TADS though, as I prefer its C formatted programming style. Inform reminds me of LISP a bit. Other Good Guides: There are only two decent authorship guides out there that I've read. One is contained in the TADS manual that you receive upon registration, and the other is in the Inform manual, in particular the Player's Bill of Rights which has several good suggestions. My e-mail address is currently whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu, but that could change for some odd reason. I'll try to keep the latest address in here though, so don't worry. If all else fails, post on r.a.i-f looking for me. Please report any mistakes or misspellings in this guide to me. I'd appreciate it greatly. Thanks! And now for something completely different.... =========================================================== The Table of Contents Part 6 =========================================================== Above ..............Introduction and other sources of Info. 1 ............What does Interactive Fiction mean to me? 2-4 ...........................The three parts of a game. 5 ............Writing IF as compared to writing a book. 6 ................................The Elements of plot. 7 ..The Story, or 'Where do I find an idea for a game?' 8 .......................................The Zen of IF. 9 ..........................The Thirty-Six basic Plots. 10 ..................An in-depth look at my 9 favorites. 11 ...................Developing your game's Atmosphere. 12 .................The other people in your game, NPCs. 13 .....................The player's good buddies, pets. 14 .........................................Betatesting. 15 ..............The gimmick and its place in your game. 16 ....Packaging your game with an eye for registration. 17 ................Marketing and distributing your game. Afterword and closing comments.......................... Useful Addresses........................................ An advertisement for Vertigo Software................... Note: I often use he to refer to the player. This reflects on nothing other than my own tendency to write to a male perspective. Sorry ladies. This guide is written for the experienced text adventure player who has decided to write his own game. I use references to several of the old Infocom game. You may also notice that I refer to movies and TV to point out dramatic techniques that I like. I tried to keep the information in this guide new and entertaining. I would also suggest that you look at the Inform manual before writing a game. It covers several basic strategies that I left out, since it already exists elsewhere. I mostly concentrated on the actual elements of writing and style that makes a good game. I hope you enjoy it. 1 --------- What does Interactive Fiction mean to me? ---------------------- Well, IF means a lot of different things to different people. Hence the title above. This is simply an explanation of what IF means to ME. You may not agree, that's your Constitutional right. IF is an artform, a work of love. I use the term to refer to text adventures exclusively. So, IF is to graphic games what books are to Network television. They are geared towards a more cerebral audience. The people that write IF usually have a deep-set love for language and its nuances. We are not satisfied with a few little mouse icons as a user interface. Instead we try to harness as much natural language as we can. Thus, you might be able to type >PICK UP EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE BLOW-UP DOLL, and a good IF game will understand you. Bear in mind, however, that any language, such as English, is hopelessly large. We simply cannot cover every conceivable word. But we try. Also, you should realize that IF has a fairly small market these days. It has been shoved aside by graphic games and given a bad name in the eyes of the new generation of computer users. My personal theory is that each new generation is being raised with more and more emphasis placed on visual stimulus in the form of television, WINDOWS 3.1, etc. This carries over into their recreation, and so, we are left with a smaller percentage of the populace each year that is literate enough to enjoy a good text adventure and understand the references made in them. C'est la vie. The upshot of this is that, if you enjoy IF, you really need to support the few authors that produce it, or it's going to die out. So be sure to register your games and run out and buy Lost Treasures of Infocom 1 and 2 so that Activision knows what we like. I seem to have departed from my original topic. You'll find that I tend to drift around in my writing. Anyhow, back to IF. There are a few requirements for any would be IF author. You need patience, lots of free time, an eye for organization, excellent writing skills, and, most importantly, a spell checker. IF players demand literacy in their games. You need to have a broad background of reading and playing IF. The broader your base, the more ideas you'll find will come to you. Anyways, that's a fair view of my impression of IF. Oh, here's a list of my criteria for IF: 1.) Is it fun to play? 2.) Does it get my message across? 3.) Does it allow the player much freedom? 4.) Are the characters unique and well-done? 5.) Does it have replayability? 2 ----------- The Three Parts of a Game. Part 1: The Beginning ----------- IF can be split into three distinct sections, the beginning, the middle, and the end. The beginning should be fast moving, short, and attention grabbing. Here is where you will lose most of your potential players. If they get bored early on, then they'll delete the game without ever giving it a chance. I've been known to do this myself. Don't make the initial puzzles too difficult. Don't worry if the beginning is fairly linear in nature, you'll have plenty of time to branch it out in the middle. Also, if your game has no set main character, here is where you should have the player decide on the character's sex. The bathroom approach in Leather Goddesses of Phobos was a good one, or the ticket in Ballyhoo. Try to avoid the generic method of just asking what their sex is though, IF is all about atmosphere and mood. Here is a list of important things to do in the beginning of your game: 1.) Establish the setting. 2.) Grab the player's attention. 3.) Reveal the character's purpose and motivation. 4.) Establish the character's sex or identity. 5.) Introduce important characters for later use. 3 ----------------------------- The Middle. -------------------------------- Now that you've done all that, you've got to start giving the player some room to maneuver. There should be several puzzles available to them at any one time. Not all of the puzzles should be mandatory, and several should have multiple solutions that work. I prefer at least one difficult solution and one easier solution. This should be reflected through the points awarded. Also, have some areas that are only available to the player if he solves a puzzle one way, and a different area if he solves it another way. Here's an example: There is corridor ending in a blank wall just ahead. On the wall is a lever. Examining it furthur, you see a pair of wings above it, and a fish below it. The lever sticks out at a 90-degree angle. Path 1: >PULL LEVER UP The corridor begins to grind upwards. As it does so, a beam of light strikes the ground before you, gradually widening as the new exit is exposed. Finally, the grinding noises stop, and you are left with a gorgeous view of the blue sky. >UP You climb up the tilted corridor and find yourself on top of a mesa. Clouds rush by above you in a manner reminiscent of time-lapse photography. They seem to flicker through a variety of shapes familiar to you. Giraffes, elephants, and horses all dance before you in a vast kaleidoscope of the heavens. There is a pair of wings lying nearby. > GET WINGS AND WEAR THEM Ok. > FLY (Up.) You fly up into the sky, reveling in the magnificent feeling of freedom that comes over you. As you climb in altitude, the wax on your wings begins to melt in the desert sun. > UP You dip and bob on the gentle wind currents, climbing ever higher. Suddenly, the feathers on your wings begin to flutter off as the wax that holds them in place melts. You flail your arms wildly as you plunge screaming down to the ground, to no avail. ** YOU HAVE DIED ** Path 2: >PULL LEVER DOWN The corridor begins to grind downwards. As it does so, the rippling effect of light reflecting off of water becomes visible to you. Finally, the grinding noises stop, and you are left with a wonderful view of an underground beach and ocean. >DOWN You climb down the tilted corridor and find yourself on top a deserted beach. There is a beautiful ocean stretching out before you in this sunless grotto. Waves lap at the white sands, and seashells litter the beach alongside clumps of seaweed and driftwood. Peering into the shallow water just offshore, you can just make out the form of a pentagram. >ENTER PENTAGRAM Wading out into the shallows, you cautiously approach the pentragram, aware of legends that demons or spells are sometimes contained in them. Reluctantly, you step into the center of it. Your eyes are blinded by a bright flash of light. When you can see again, you realize that you have been transformed into an octopus. >SWIM Confused at first by your numerous limbs, you gradually get into a sort of motion that involves pulling yourself along. You are surrounded on all sides by a beautiful coral reef. Your eyes seem to be quite similar to what they were in human form, so you get the colors as well. Tiny fish dart around you, and a succulent crab scuttles past. >NORTH You have entered a deeper part of the reef. The coral is less concealing here, and the fish are bigger. Much bigger in fact, for there's a shark swimming right at you! >SOUTH You try to make a break for the safety of the shallower part of the reef, but your fear agitates the shark, and you end up as a light dish of kalimari. ** YOU HAVE DIED ** From that point, the player would either be flying or swimming to his destination. Each path would have its own challenges and rewards. I tend to try to keep the paths at around the same difficulty level though. Once the player has chosen a pathway, make them stick to it. They can always restore an old game and try the other path. For that's why you're putting in all these alternate pathways and multiple solutions, replayability. You should design your game so that the player can go through two or three times and see different puzzles and places each time. Here's another list of important things: 1.) Establish a series of sub-goals for the player. 2.) Expand on the characters you introduced in the beginning. 3.) Foreshadow what is to come in the end. 4.) Branch the story out to allow the player more freedom. 5.) Provide a unified theme to the setting and descriptions. 6.) Provide numerous puzzles for the player's enjoyment. 4 ---------------------------- The End. ------------------------------------ Now it's time to close up all your loose ends, explain anything that you already haven't explained, and send in your Big Nasty (tm). The Big Nasty (tm) is the final challenge, be it monster, man, maze, or whatever. This is where you want to ham up your writing and get a sense of urgency going. There needs to be a time limit for this part of the game. The bomb is ticking away its last minute, or the evil Vorlung is about to pull the switch that will transform beautiful Marie into a six-armed monster. The last puzzle shouldn't be all that tough to figure out though. Understand that the player has been through hell to get here. He's flushed and excited, thrilled to be at the end of the game. So you want to make him sweat a bit, but you want to deliver the ending to him as well. Here's an example of a decent ending: >LOOK You are in the control room of the alien ship headed for Earth. Looking out its viewport, you can see an image of your planet swelling in size as this runaway ship continues on its disastrous collision course. Looking around, you see a chair, or at least you assume that it's a chair. It appears to have been designed with someone far thinner and taller than you in mind. There is a silver globe on the right armrest and a dull black cube in the left. >REMOVE CUBE FROM ARMREST Ok. The earth looms immensely in the viewport. Fire begins to trail off the nose of the ship as it begins to enter the atmosphere. >PUT GOLD CUBE IN LEFT ARMREST The cube fits snugly into the recess left by the dull black cube. Immediately the back of the chair lights up with strange scrolling letters as the ship begins to level out for a more gentle landing in Indiana. You sink, exhausted, to the floor, and begin to wonder how to convince the people gathering outside the ship that you're not an alien invader... *** YOU HAVE WON *** So you see, the game above centers around finding a backup navigation cube and getting into the control room to repair things before the ship crashes into the Earth. The last puzzle is simple, but you have a short amount of time to work it out, as shown by the reentry flames. Another good ending is used in Trinity, where you have to cut the wires and prevent the atomic test. Use your imagination and make 'em sweat it out. One more list: 1.) Use a time limit. 2.) Create a sense of urgency. 3.) Keep the last puzzles simple. 5 ------------- Writing IF as compared to writing a book. ------------------ There's one primary difference, interaction. The player MUST be able to control his own destiny within the context of your story. You really should also put in at least one or two 'happy' endings. Without a worthwhile endpoint, the player is going to feel reluctant to any more of your games, for fear of another poor ending. One nice touch is to have the game post up some suggestions for things the player can go back and try differently. So in my water/wing example, it might suggest that they go back and pull the lever in the other direction. Personally, I am going to try to make my games so that you can never see the entire thing in one run-through. This will undoubtedly upset many people, but I feel that it will eventually become a nice quirk, giving my games a reputation for being worth the money paid for them. Ack, I've done it again. Way off topic. Ok, back on track. I believe that almost any literary technique is valid in IF. Anything you can use in a creative writing class would therefore be appropriate in your game. This includes things like foreshadowing, characterization, repitition (as in something that shows up in several settings as a philosophic theme to your game. For example, litter might appear in many locations in a game about environmental decay.) personification, subtle metaphors, etc. Good writing is good writing. There might be a few techniques that I would use, but I can't thing of any at the moment. And that's about the sum of it. 6 -------------------------- The Elements of Plot -------------------------- This is a reprint of an article I posted to r.a.i-f: Anyways, I found a good description of the elements of plot in, of all places, Vampire RPG. Here are the parts of plot that they mention: Setting the Scene The Hook The Buildup Cliffhangers Plot Twists Climax Resolution I'll look at each of them in turn as they relate to IF. Setting the Scene - Give the player a few moments to get used to his character before you start throwing things at him. Allow him to 'look at myself' if you want, I find it makes a nice touch to give a physical description there. (If you have a pre-arranged character that is.) Here's a good point, if you have a long intro, allow the player the option to restore a saved game before you make him sit through it. I try to put the intro a bit into the game, with a relaxed setting for the first scene. The Hook - Whap! Something happens. His best friend comes running in to ask him to hide him from the police, his spaceship blows up, a murder occurs, etc. Hollywood Hijinx did a really crappy job of this. The hook is important to the game, vitally so. Make it dramatic, sudden, and give it the promise of exciting adventure. Tantalize them, draw them into the game. Trinity does a great job of this. [I have had several people send me e-mail verifying this particular statement. One of them was quite certain that his game had died for lack of a good hook.] Buildup - Give the player some challenges to overcome that in some way relate to the plot. Don't let the player get bogged down in one spot, multiple solutions are great for avoiding this. Get the suspense building up as soon as possible. Give the player a sense of accomplishment as he nears his goal, but keep drawing him into the game. Don't let up at all. As Vampire RPG says, "Do not falter." Cliffhanger - A cliffhanger is pretty much a teaser. Something that makes the player suck in his breath, and then let it out on the next turn. A decent, but not great, example is Trent's deaths in LGOP. How about a lever that, when pulled, does something, but only after a turn has passed. Just as the player is about to scream in frustration, the world is okay again, and life is wonderful. Plot Twist - By all means throw in plot twists. They keep life interesting. Maybe the bad guy is just a puppet controlled by an even greater threat. A friend could betray the player. Or maybe the player really DID commit the murder! Switch gears so fast you strip them. The player will sit there with his mouth open for a moment, then he'll be hooked on your game forever. Climax - Ok, enough dilly-dallying, cries the player. I've furled the magic fumongerabob, and bummoxed the mighty spiffywhacker, where's the Big Nasty (tm)? Give it to them. Both barrels. Make their blood run cold as time ticks away until the end of the world unless they stop it. If the player isn't breathing hard, you're not doing your job. Then, if you like, just as the Big Nasty (tm) kicks up the white flag, he pulls a fast one, and the player has to take him down again. This is your moment to ham it up, don't waste it! Resolution - The One Ring is molten slag, the damsel is rescued, the government is overturned. Let the player enjoy it with a spectacular ending. (The Rube Goldberg ending in LGOP is classic) This is the last impression your game will leave on the player, make it just as jarring as the Hook so he'll come back for the next one. I've played too many games with a crappy ending in reward for solving fiendish puzzles. It's an unbelievable downer when you finish one of them. Ruins the whole game, But on the other hand, keep it fairly short. Unwind the player, let them relax with a job well done. And, if you want, as a final teaser, throw in some foreshadowing... (A shot of an unnoticed Alien egg.) ----- As you can see, most of my opinions on the elements of plot are unchanged. Moving right along... 7 --------- The Story, or 'Where do I find an idea for a game?' ------------- Writers often get asked this question. I don't, but what the hell, it's my textfile. I think the trick to coming up with ideas is to have a broad reading base. The more stories you've seen and read, the more likely you are to understand what makes a story 'good'. So read everything you can get your hands on. Then, late at night, or early in the morning, an idea will hit you. It takes time and a certain mood. Once you get the idea, write it down quick, or you'll lose it forever. Actually, that's just the way I do it. You probably will have some other way to come up with ideas. I suggest that you play your favorite music and read a good book, while keeping a notebook handy. That works for a lot of people. 8 --------------------------- The Zen of IF -------------------------------- Ok, you've suffered through a fair amount of information on writing IF, so I thought I'd take some time out and plug a little humor into this now monstrous manual to Zork, the Universe, and Everything. The Interactive Fiction Classifieds: WANTED: A good plot. We seem to have lost ours. Inquire at Activision. LOST: One umbrella. Embellished with the slogan, 'All prams lead to Kensington Gardens.' Great sentimental value. Reward. Lost up in a tree. FOUND: One battered old text parser. It seems to somehow portray the lost innocence and fun in video games. Appears to have been carelessly tossed aside in the rush to appease mouse-hungry users. Text from a bottle found washed ashore near the new Infocom's HQ: "Help! We are being held hostage in a soulless land filled with gaudy graphics, purposeless quests, and (horrors!) a graphical user interface! Won't that nice gentleman with the brass lantern come to save us, please?" -The Inhabitants of Zork. Well, I did say 'a little' humor. Very little. Feel free to send me some jokes and such to flesh out this section. 9 ---------------------- The Thirty-Six Basic Plots ------------------------ Some years ago, a man named Polti noticed that a few basic plots were fairly commonly used. Later, a person named Loren J. Miller adapted this premise to role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. After reading her work, I brought this article to the Internet. -- The Thirty Six Basic Plots in Text Adventures First of all, _The 36 Dramatic Situations_ by Georges Polti is the work that this is based on. I would also like to thank Loren J. Miller who published an article in a local gaming magazine. Her article inspired this interpretation of Polti's work. So, without further ado, here are the 36 Basic Plots....Replete with ideas for using them. Enjoy, and if you find this useful, send me some mail and let me know. Oh, and if you disagree about these plots, you'll just have to talk to Polti. :-) 1. Supplication: A persecutor and a supplicant take a grievance before a power in authority. This can be any sort of court case or any variation on that theme. Personally, this strikes me as a better subplot than a full plot, at least in a text adventure. I mean, sure, Perry Mason is great for TV, but I wouldn't want to play it. 2. Deliverance: An unfortunate or group of unfortunates is delivered from a threatener by a Rescuer. This is one of the classic folklore plots. Perfect for text adventures in my opinion, if you use a little creativity. Let's look at the various characters. The unfortunates can be the player, the player's spouse, a friend, a distraught village, or even the population of an entire world, or universe. The threatener can be animate or inanimate. A force of nature is sometimes more threatening than a sinister villain. A whole series of Jaws movies will back me up on this one. You could have a dragon, an army, a robot, an earthquake, a volcano, a hurricane, or a breakdown in the laws of nature. The rescuer is most likely to be the player, otherwise they might feel a little left out of the game. But then, you might think of a nice plot twist and give that role to another character. 3. Revenge: An avenger and a criminal duke it out. I really won't dwell on this plot because there are a thousand different ways to use it, and a thousand motives for revenge. Look at any of a zillion cornball action movies for ideas, or better yet, don't. I can't stand those movies. 4. Vengeance by family upon family: I'm not sure exactly why Mr. Polti feels that this plot is so different from #3, but I suppose he had his reasons, like maybe a grudge against his uncle or something. 5. Pursuit: Fugitive from punishment is pursued by a pursuer. This plot has promise. _The Fugitive_ immediately springs to mind. Also I could see a game of human hunting, in the tradition of all those stories. _The Running Man_ has a similar plot (the book, not the movie.). A nice gimmick for a game would be to allow the player to try it from both viewpoints. 6. Victim of Cruelty or Misfortune: This involves unfortunates and a Master or Unlucky person. I assume that it refers to a slave master here, but I wouldn't write about slavery. It disgusts me. But then, an unlucky person meeting with misfortune isn't too bad an idea. _Bureaucracy_ was centered around that theme. Maybe the main character is cursed by bad luck wherever they go. Or maybe it's just an isolated incident of spectacularly bad fortune. Whatever the case, the point is that there's no real villain in this plot, just victims. 7. Disaster: This one says Vanquished power, and a victorious power or messenger. It seems to me that I'm not looking at this the same way. I didn't think there were any victors in a disaster, although I guess that Polti is referring to the disaster itself, or some sort of metaphorical Nature. Famine, storms, floods, planets being demolished to make way for galactic bypasses...good stuff. Make the player a firefighter, or a rescue pilot, or even a super hero. Then, give them some people to save, or a way to avert the whole disaster. 8. Revolt: For this, you need a Tyrant, and some conspirators. Stir in some peasants, evil guards, and shake well. Or maybe the middle class has finally had enough of our bureaucratic government, and the player is a cop protecting the system that he doesn't even believe in anymore. And who says that a text adventure has to be set around a human? Maybe the player is an alien, trying to overthrow our government? All sorts of different angles. 9. Daring Enterprise: This involves a Bold Leader (tm), a Goal, and an Adversary. I would say that this plot has a lot of potential for text adventures. Pick your setting at will. The goal? Nearly anything. I could see the player as the captain of a colonizing ship bound for Mars with a traitor on board, and a meteor storm ahead. This one has the added bonus of having a built-in sequel. :) 10. Abduction: An abductee, abductor, and someone who is responsible for the abductee (maybe the abductee themself). This plot would suggest a rescue or an escape. Personally though, I would find a game from the viewpoint of a kidnapper in poor taste. So, I would set it from the abductee or guardian's viewpoint. Watch yourselves if you use this plot. There's a lot of censorship floating around these days. (Thanks Tipper. :P ) 11. Enigma: You need an interrogator, a seeker, and a problem. Two words, _The Prisoner_. This was the greatest example I've ever seen of this plot, even though I only saw one or two episodes. (I hope to rectify this someday and see the whole thing.) _Amnesia_ was the text adventure version of this plot. However. Everything I've heard suggests that this plot is bad form for a game. Look at _Hacker_. No instructions, and just that stupid login prompt. This plot starts too slowly. Maybe you can develop into this plot, but don't start with it. 12. Obtaining: There are two or more opposing parties, a sought-after object, and an optional arbitrator. Gee. Here's an original plot. Go fetch the ring, Bilbo. Bring back the holy Salmon, Mortimer. We need the _______ of Unearthly might, Fred, can you get it for us? Tried and true on one hand, overused on the other. 13. Familial Hatred: Here you need two family members that (well duh) hate each other. That's what familial hatred means, after all. Anyways, here's another subplot for ya. The trick with this one is that you have to overlay it onto some exciting story or another. Just plain old hatred doesn't cut it as a storyline. 14. Familial Rivalry: Preferred kinsman, rejected kinsman, object of their desire. Shades of _Hollywood Hijinx_ here folks. I'm sure that you guys can do better with this one. (Although, I did like the atomic Chihuahua. That was fun, stomping and smashing things.) 15. Murderous Adultery: Exactly why this is in a seperate category from adultery I may never know. I don't always agree with Polti, but he did have several great ideas. Anyways, you have two adulterers, and the betrayed party or parties. This is a classic for murder mysteries all over the world. 16. Madness: Madman, and a victim. Well then, I don't see why the madman can't be his own victim, struggling against the slow fall into insanity. Maybe he's the victim of some exotic poison, working away at his mind. I still like the split personality murder plot, myself. Or any other sort of debilitating madness that the player must overcome. Or how's about this? The player is catatonic, aware only of some fantasy world inside his own mind that is slowly becoming hostile to him. Either he has to escape to the real world, or find a way to truly enter his world before his family pulls the plug on him. I like madness, it's a good plot. 17. Fatal Imprudence: Sort of like fatal stupidity. The ambassador to the USSR accidentally leaves a compromising document in a briefcase that is stolen, or a guard watching the crown jewels falls asleep and well, you get the idea. For this one, you need an Imprudent person and a victim or lost object. 18. Involuntary Crimes of Love: I suppose this could be classified as Not-quite-Murderous Adultery. Or maybe the lovers are forced to kill someone who stumbles in on their little affair. Use your imagination. 19. Kinsman kills unrecognized kinsman: Whoa, Oedipus Rex. Killer, unrecognized victim, and a revealer. Another mystery plot or a nice subplot that adds a poignant touch to any game. 20. Self Sacrifice for an Ideal: Hero, Ideal, thing or person sacrificed. Just think of the Civil War, thousands of people gave their lives to free the slaves in the south, even though they weren't really affected by the slavery. Or the American Revolution's quest for freedom. There have been innumerable causes throughout history, and many many more that you could use as the motivation for a heroic sacrifice. 21. Self sacrifice for Kindred: Hero, Kinsman, person or thing sacrificed. Not neccessarily a blood relation, just someone the sacrificer really cares for and relates to. It need not be the player that does the sacrificing, it could be an NPC sacrificing themselves for the player's benefit, or for the benefit of another NPC. 22. All Sacrifice for Passion: Lover, object of passion, person or object sacrificed. Reminds me of _Romeo and Juliet_. This is an excellent plot, but it needs to be garnished with other subplots as well to make a really good game. Really, all plots need that sort of enhancement. 23. Sacrifice of Loved ones: Hero, beloved victim, and a need for sacrifice. I'm not really sure what would possess someone to give up someone they love, but I'm sure you guys will come up with something clever. Oh, wait, maybe something about a mercy killing, or maybe the loved one is needed in a greater cause or something. 24. Rivalry between superior and inferior: Superior, inferior, object of rivalry. Maybe a boss and an employee are both out for the same girl, or an aristocrat and a commoner both seek the same public office, etc. It's not too difficult to think of other stories for this plot. 25. Adultery: deceived spouse, two adulterers. Ah, goody, yet ANOTHER adulterous plot. This guy really has a one track mind. I'll bet he's got incest in here somewhere, by George. 26. Crimes of Love: Lover, beloved, theme of dissolution. Hmm, this sounds like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle or some such movie like that. Lover finds out beloved doesn't love him anymore, so he bumps her off. I hope there's at least one good plot in this last batch of 12, or I'm going to look pretty silly. 27. Discovery of dishonor of a loved one: Ponder. Could've sworn he used this one already. Anyways, just think of _The Scarlet Letter_ here. This might make an interesting story, but if anyone takes a Victorian romance novel and makes it into IF, I'm gonna come a' gunnin' for ya. 28. Obstacles to love: Two Lovers, Obstacle. What sort of obstacle? The tire run? :) Anyhow, this is an element of _Romeo and Juliet_ as well. My plot outline for _The Last Day_ uses this as character motivation. Really, I can't think of anything better to get a player moving than a love interest/promise of nookie in the future. 29. An enemy loved: Beloved enemy, Lover, Hater. More Romeo, but there's a good sci-fi movie that has some of this, called _Enemy Mine_. Well, _I_ liked it, anyway. Not neccessarily love, maybe strong friendship or comraderie instead. An inter-racial friendship in the deep South 10-20 years ago. Or, in some places, even today. The hater is going to take his bigotry out on the enemy and lover though, I guar-on-tee it. 30. Ambition: Ambitious person, coveted thing, adversary. Man, he was hard up for ideas toward the end. Ambition is nearly always a facet of some other aspect of a person's makeup. There are a few people who simply lust for power, of course. They are called politicians. If you want to write the _Dave_ of home computing, don't let me stop you. Other ambitions center around money, love/sex, desire to avoid manual labor, etc. Maybe you could write a game about a would-be video game designer who's having trouble breaking into the business. ;) 31. Conflict with a God: Mortal, Immortal. Hmm, lots of possibilities here. You could send the Angel of death after the player in a variety of settings, like New York, or WWI or II. Or maybe you've been hankering to write the IF version of Job? Don't forget the Greek gods, Roman Babylonian, Pagan, and a zillion others. This one is fun because the player is faced at an initial disadvantage and has to work from there. 32. Mistaken Jealousy: Jealous one, object of jealousy, supposed accomplice, author of mistake. Oh boy! _Three's Company_! Seriously, this is an absolutely lame story premise. I suggest you take up writing sitcoms instead of IF. 33. Faulty Judgement: Mistaken one, victim of mistake, author of mistake, guilty party. Hmm...the player is sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit. This sounds like a good start to a prison escape game, where you have to prove you didn't do it, or, alternatively, flee the country. 34. Remorse: Culprit, victim, interrogator. _Interview with a Vampire_? The culprit would be confessing a past crime to someone, discussing a victim, or so I would suppose. Of course, I'm not positive on this one. My source gives only a tiny bit of information on it. 35. Recovery of a lost one: Seeker, one found. _The Vanishing_ would be a good example to look at. This figures into most action movies as a sub-plot as well. Unfortunately, it also figures into way too many video games as well. Super Mario Bros., King Kong, Final Fight, the list goes on. 36. Loss of loved ones: Kinsman slain, friendly witness, executioner. The player learns of an uncle, sister, parent, etc. who has been claimed by some exotic death, or killed simply by some street thug. He decides to go see what happened/get revenge on their killer. Having reached the end of the 36 plots, I guess I'll finish off by listing those plots which, in my mind, have the most merit for IF currently. Here goes, in no particular order: Deliverence, Pursuit, Disaster, Daring enterprise, madness, self sacrifice for love/an ideal, an enemy loved, conflict with a god, and loss of loved ones. That's 9 out of 36 that I think have promise. You may disagree with my choices of course, these are just my particulars, based on this article. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll be sure to add it into _Whizzard's Guide to IF Authorship_. :) 10 ---------------An indepth look at my 9 Favorites ------------------------- This part is new. I decided to spend some more time going over my favorite plots. These are the ones that, to me, have the most potential for use in IF. 1) Deliverence: Unfortunate - That blonde bombshell in almost every old detective movie. Scientist's daughter (Mad or otherwise) Mind-controlled innocent. Abused child. Group of Unfortunates- The character's village, city, state, country, world, galaxy, universe, and dimension are all good ones. The character's family too. Threatener- Any army or other natural disaster. Rescuer- The player, of course. Setting the scene: Portray a tranquil setting, with only a faint hint of what is to come. The rescuer may be on vacation, or whatever you like. Hook: Something happens to bring the plight of the unfortunate(s) to the rescuer's attention. It may anything from a murder, to an escaped dying prisoner, all the way up to an alien invasion. Buildup: The rescuer decides to look into the matter. You need to either provide an overwhelming motive for him to get involved, or provide an alternate storyline for the character to follow. Cliffhanger: Create imminent danger to an unfortunate with a puzzle between the rescuer and the rescue. The buzzsaw scene in Hollywood Hijinx was very vaguely an example of this. Plot Twist: The unfortunate has been lying to the rescuer in some manner or another. Either the danger was understated, or (for humorous effect) greatly overstated. Perhaps the unfortunate represents the only true danger to the rescuer. Climax: There should be a confrontation between the rescuer and the threatener, whatever it may be. Be sure to eyeball the section on game endings in this guide for general info. Reveal your plot twists now. Resolution: Either the rescuer successfully completes his rescue, or he flubs it. Or perhaps he discovers the true unfortunate held captive by the phony one. 2) Pursuit: Fugitive from punishment- Ford Harrison (j/k) An unjustly accused convict A persecuted minority of some sort, such as a telepath or space alien. (ET!) A falsely villified person (Re, _The_Running_Man_) Pursuer- Police, secret service, enemy telepaths, air force. Everyone. Setting the scene: Firstly, you need to justify the pursuit. Tell the player who is chasing him and why. Also give the player an idea of any unusual powers or abilities he has, often used in sci-fi versions of this plot. Hook: Perhaps the player's escape from his enemies. Or perhaps a close call with an enemy agent. If the player has powers, give him the chance to use them here. Buildup: The player begins to see signs of a subtle, but vast network that is working against him. The puzzles get more fiendish as pursuit becomes more and more serious. Helicopters and advanced equipment show up more and more until.... Cliffhanger: Something goes wrong. An arranged rendevous doesn't show up, or some device important to the character's efforts fails him. He is left in a dangerous and precarious position. Maybe a friendly person has to bail him out. Perhaps a similar fugitive, either an old hand or a possible love interest. Plot Twist: Friendly fugitive betrays him. Or perhaps is captured trying to protect the character. Maybe the enemy is just a cover for a deeper, more sinister organization planted inside it. Climax: The fugitive confronts the head of the organiztion, tries to rescue his love interest, is captured by that deeper organization, or has to perform something particularly hairy to get away. Resolution: The player wins his freedom or flees to another country or what have you. He also defeats the evil organizatio and rescues his love interest. The player reaches deep inside himself and discovers a new power that was previously dormant or supressed and uses that power to overcome his enemies. Any or all of the above are appropriate. 3) Disaster: Vanquished Power- Mankind Any government Civilization Victorious Power- Mother Nature Atomic War Natural Disaster Pollution Anarchy Messenger- TV/Radio A neighbor A raiding party Setting the scene: Establish the setting, then add some foreshadowing, like an old man with a sign saying 'The End is Near' or something. Create a feeling of tension and suspense for the player. Hook: The unthinkable happens. The end really does come. Hell, even the old man is rather shocked. Earthquakes are a good, current topic for disaster games right now. Atomic war could be fun to write about too, but you'd have to steer clear of anything tying it to Trinity, and watch out for reviews comparing your game to it. Buildup: The survivors emerge from the rubble. Frenzied looting and killing begins. The player has to protect himself (and his family?) I think the game I'm describing here is going to need a warning label for Tipper Gore. Serious themes abound, maybe tempered with humor from a religious cult or crazy old coot. Anyway, the character's goal is either to save lives, or get himself and/or his family to a safe place. He should accomplish this during the buildup. After all, we have nastier things in store for the climax... Cliffhanger: The child is hanging from the edge of the cliff, with a slippery hold on an exposed root. The raiders are shooting at you. The car is teetering on the edge of the bridge. You get the idea. Plot Twist: An unexpected source of the disaster. Secret government experiments gone wrong. I would avoid any sort of dream sequence/ earthquake simulator in virtual reality endings. It cheapens what the player has accomplished. The disaster is real. It has to be. Other plot twists include follow-up disasters (germ warfare), foreign invaders, and betrayal by a friend. Climax: Well, admittedly, a disaster is hard to follow-up by definition. But still, there are ways to do it. Any earthquake sufficiently offshore can generate a tsunami. That would one-up it. An organized, well-armed group of raiders, perhaps military, can be a difficult challenge after the character has settled into a home. Whatever you do here, it should be exciting and fast-paced, with a time limit. Resolution: There are several ways to end a disaster adventure. Most of them involve finally settling down in their safe haven and starting over. Or the rescue team arrives, or the invaders are repulsed. Use your imagination. 4) Daring Enterprise: Bold Leader- The character. He can be: A spaceship captain A military leader A visionary inventor or investor A colonist An engineer Goal- Colonize the planet Get the settlers there alive Build your revolutionary invention Get elected Finish your engineering marvel Successfully complete your project or experiment Adversary- Saboteur The government A politician The elements An alien race Shortage of funds or materials or labor Setting the scene: Define the Daring Enterprise. What the hell is the player trying to do anyways? How can he possibly pull it off? Who is his adversary? Does he know all this? Where is the game taking place? Try to create a tone of excitement and breathless anticipation. The character is excited with his project or he wouldn't be a part of it. His head is filled with ambitious dreams and an idealistic outlook. Hook: Take great enjoyment in destroying his idealistic outlook. Something vital but fairly easily repairable goes wrong. Perhaps it claims the life of his spouse or a dear friend. Perhaps it was on purpose. The player would be rather interested to find that out. Buildup: More and more things start to go wrong with the Big Plan. People are becoming worried and many want to pull out. The player must unify them or all is lost. The player begins to follow a trail of clues that leads him towards the climax. Cliffhanger: His wife steps into an elevator. Suddenly it begins falling the forty stories to the ground. He has only a few moments in which to save her by activating a backup system, shorting out the control box for the runaway elevator, or using some anti-gravity device or another. Other ideas can consist of delayed impending death caused by the things going wrong. Plot Twist: It isn't sabotage. The man who sold them their materials was pawning off shoddy goods that break easily. Climax: The player confronts the source of his difficulties. Justice is tinged with revenge here. Concentrate on fast-paced action. I can't stress this enough. The climax HAS to be the most exciting and stressfulf in order to make a successful game. Resolution: This should involve the completion of the project or invention. Mankind takes a giant step forward thanks to the daring and cleverness of the player. Do a little ego boosting. ;) 5) Madness: Madman- The player. Choose from a wide array of illnesses. Victim- Accidentall murdered person. The player. The madman Madman's loved one. Setting the scene: You don't necessarily have to make mention of the madness, but you had better explain things if its one of the big selling points of your game. I'd like to do a game about a comatose patient lost in his own mind or a fantasy world therein. I would replace the normal status line with and EEG graph like _/\_/\_/\_ that progresses to /\/\/\/\/\ then __________ or some erratic pattern as the patient's condition worsens. The goal would be to either escape your mind, or find a way to remain in the fantasy world permanently (and maybe physically). There are other ideas that could be used for a plot, hundreds actually. I can think of way too many to start listing them here. Again, use your imagination. This guide is only that, a guide. You have to come up with your own ideas. Good luck. Hook: After the player adjusts to his situation, it changes. His idyllic fantasy world becomes an ensnaring nightmare. The police arrive and arrest him for a murder he didn't commit, his other personality did. He finds a suicide note that his other personality wrote (if he's aware of the other personality.) and has to figure out a way to prevent the personality from killing him. Something thrilling and exotic. Madness is something that is endlessly fascinating to us. We just can't make any sense of it, by definition. We study it in all its myriad forms, trying to cure these people who don't perceive reality in the same manner as us. I like to think that there's a madman somewhere looking for a cure for sanity. Your game has to show a reality different from ours, and do it quickly, or the player will get bored and quit. Buildup: Reality and madness roll over him in succeeding waves. He is projected back and forth, torn between two worlds. The madness may either constitute a positive place, or a negative place that is worse than reality. The player has to decide what to do to resolve the rift, because it will slowly destroy his mind, until nothing is left. Or perhaps it's a different type of madness, and events in the fantasy world reflect what is happening in reality, causing the player to commit terrible deeds by accident. Perhaps even a murder, then police pursuit could blend and mesh with images of hideous beings pursuing him, screaming for his soul. Like I said, a fun plot. Cliffhanger: Have the player cross between worlds at particularly stressful moments, leaving his fate in the other world in doubt. Plot Twist: His madness has been caused purposely by someone or something. In a perverse twist, his life has become better since he went mad. Climax: The two worlds come together in a clash. He must decide between the real world and his family or the fantasy world (and a love interest?). Maybe he has some climactic thing to do in each world before he can decide. In any event, if he doesn't manage it, something fatal happens. Resolution: The player's access to one world or the other is cut off, leaving him in the world of his choice. He is a hero wherever he stays, and his family/love interest is at his side. He lives happily ever after. 6) Self Sacrifice for love/ideal: Hero- The player The player's love interest Ideal/Love- Freedom Player's love interest Peace Equality Thing or person sacrificed- Player's love interest Player A golden oppertunity Setting the scene: Define the player's current situation, describing what he's fighting for and why he's doing that. Perhaps you could also describe what he's up against. Hook: An initial battle or event that causes the player to take arms against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Perhaps because of his love interest, or perhaps, in spite of. Buildup: Perhaps the war for freedom (or whatever) has been going on for awhile now, and the rebels finally have the chance to strike a death blow against the oppressive government. Of course, this storyline is anything but original, but then, I've seen some excellent implementations of it. Cliffhanger: I'm not really sure for this plot. Watch Star Wars for ideas. Plot Twist: His love interest is fighting for the other side. Climax: A big confrontation between the player and his love interest. The outcome of this battle will determine the future of our world. The love interest sees the error of their way and sacrifices themself for the plyer. Resolution: The world is safe. The player is sadder, but wiser, and has the satisfaction of having accomplished his purpose. 7) An Enemy Loved: Beloved Enemy- Alien Opposing army member Lover- The player Hater- Other members of the player's army. Members of the human/alien race Setting the scene: Explain where the player is, and let him know about the enemy. Hook: He encounters his enemy in a situation where the war they are in has no real meaning. A fight would mean the death of both of them. Buildup: The two of them learn to survive together, each needing the other's skills and talents. They face natural challenges or disasters together, wild beasts, primitives, etc. They form a friendship eventually. Cliffhanger: The enemy is about to be killed, or the player is hiding from an undefeatable enemy, hoping not to be found, while it searches the bushes around him. Plot Twist: I'm at a loss here. I can't think of anything that can really compete with the inherent irony of this plot. Climax: A rescue force arrives and doesn't approve of the relationship between them. If the two are of the opposite sex, they might even be in love with each other. (Ok, so the 'opposite sex' bit isn't very 90s, I'd hate to try and sell such a controversial game.) Eventually the player has to protect his friend/lover and must choose between rescue and friendship/love. Resolution: Traditionally, the player would reject his society for his loved enemy, but I say let the player make that decision. Don't try to pass moral judgements like that without a good in-story reason. 8) Conflict with a God: Mortal- The player. One of the player's worshippers. Immortal- The player's god. The player. Setting the scene: Define just who the player is, and what his relations with his god/worshipper are. Also setup the character's position in life. Hook: I can see two angles on this. Either the player is being tested or toyed with by his god, or he IS a god, contesting with another god over his worshipper. Either has numerous possibilities. I could see a confrontation between the player and Death. Or a Job-like scenario from Job or God's point of view. I'm sure the player would enjoy the novelty of being a god. Buildup: The worshipper experiences a series of tests of his faith. Or he has to evade Death, which seems to have some grudge against him. Or he has to guide his follower through some tests or hardships. Cliffhanger: Your guess is as good as mine. Plot Twist: His 'god' is really a collection of special effects. Death is after him because he is immortal. The worshipper considers converting to a new religion. Climax: There is a direct mortal-immortal confrontation. The god decides to do things personally rather than rely on agents to do what he wants done. Resolution: Either the worshipper was found lacking, passed the test, or switched religions. This plot is fairly flexible with what you can do with it. 9) Loss of Loved Ones: Kinsman slain- Pick a relative, any relative. Friendly witness- Friend of player Executioner- Assassin Bounty hunter Random slaying I would use this plot as an element in a game rather than basing the game around it. It's an excellent way to add drama to a story, but it's not gripping enough by itself to be a full story. 11 -------------- Developing your game's Atmosphere ------------------------- This is another reprint. Atmosphere is vital to the feel of a text adventure, or even a graphic adventure. But the trouble is, it's also a very tenuous thing to grasp hold of. But, I'll do my best to see if I can decipher some of it both for my own information and anyone who is interested. To do this, I'll look at some specific atmospheres and see how I would create them. Horror: I'll start here because it's one of the easier effects in my mind. First, I'd start out by watching my vocabulary closely. I'd use words like leprous, misshapen, and cancerous. Anything that gives a diseased feel to the story. Then, I'd use a couple of Cliffhangers (see my plot post) to frighten or unnerve the player. Also, I'd have some innocent item produce frightening effects. I'd delve deep into horror stories of all sorts and come up with a suitable Big Nasty (tm). Now, this is only my personal opinion, but I would put the player's personae in danger rather than a companion. Brings it home better. ( still think Horror of Rylvania is great.) Hmm...some sort of wasting curse or slow possession would be fun. Creaking doors, footsteps, I MIGHT use, MAYBE. Probably not. They've become quite hackneyed. I liked one scene in Piranhas 2 where this guy drops his watch into a murky sink and you just know a fish is gonna eat him when he reaches in...but it doesn't. Then, just as he turns around, a fish jumped him. (Flying fish, hilarious stuff.) Scared the hell out of me because I was busy relaxing. I might even plunk the player into a dark room with a nasty, player only hears a slight breathing and a steady scraping of feet that gets closer as he fumbles a match, and then strikes another just in time to illuminate a living corpse's face staring mindlessly at him. It's the little touches that make the big impacts. Next, I'll look at umm... Mysterious - This one is fun. I get images of thick fog and strange lights. Of corpses that have no business being where they are, and of course, sinister men huddling in London alleys with scalpels. (There's a thought, anyone want to write a game about Jack the Ripper? I'd be glad to help with publishing and packaging and such.) Words like tenuous, inexplicable and the ever popular moonlit trip from the tongue. I don't like secret passages in old houses though. My idea of mysterious is this: Something called _Lost in the Fog_. The player is a survivor from the Titanic, adrift, clutching a life preserver. Freezing in the ice cold waters that killed many of the survivors, it seems that death is inevitable. Just then, a bell rings distantly through the fog, and the player can swim for the sound. He finds the sound is coming from an old Spanish Galleon, miraculously afloat. He climbs aboard, and hears footsteps. The player evades the footsteps and searches the ship, discovering that its crew is somehow alive as well. Have they been transported forward in time, or he backwards? One of the player's ancestors is aboard the ship, and will befriend the strange young man who calls his name. But according to legend, the ship went down in a vast vortex that appeared inexplicably in its path. Just then, the player hears a loud rushing sound, and realizes that history can't be changed, but perhaps, just perhaps, it can be avoided. (Also, any Twilight Zone episode (the old series)) Exciting - It's probably inaccurate to describe exciting as an atmosphere, but I want to, so nyah. Vocabulary - Lots of active verbs, words that have connotations of motion, and active, moving sentences. This style would be great for a James Bond styled game. Lots of leaping off cliffs, moving trains, airplanes, skyscrapers, etc. :) Keep things moving is rule number one here. Don't let up except for the odd romantic moment, if then. I can think of at least as many bad guys as I have plots. Big muscle men, Chinese plotters with fu manchu 'staches, sinister Russian agents, and of course, the odd mad genius out to destroy the world. Actually, I'm just joking. I'd never use any of those hackneyed characters. If you can't come up with original ideas, then come up with a new hobby. Originality is something lacking in a lot of games, and that needs to be rectified as soon as possible. Anyways, I'd probably use the odd spy gadget or two though. At least if I were writing a spy game. It might be much more fun to write about a bounty hunter chasing down a mark. In that case, it would all be standard gear. (Notice that I haven't ruled out a hanglider anywhere. I hope to use one in a game someday.) You could have car chases, bombs, gunfights, seduction, skydiving, white water rafting or a high-speed motorboat chase. Lots of fun stuff to do. Exotic - (As if the other atmospheres weren't.) I think the closest Infocom game to come to this was well, actually, none of them. I would consider exotic to be set in a lush tropical forest, or in Jamaica with a mysterious houdoo cult, or on an alien planet where you do more than explore an old station. Instead, I'd want to encounter and study an alien race. How about a game set in a series of parallel universes, all somewhat different? Say, they are all heading towards a similar destruction, and only you can save these multiple worlds. Vocabulary - If it was set in a real place, I would spend a week or two on researching its most bizarre aspects. Otherwise I would spend a week making up consistant information on it. (Someday, when I'm a big rich game writer, I'll just fly there and visit, heheh.) The action doesn't neccessarily have to keep going at all times in this atmosphere. It's okay to have rooms that have no purpose other than interesting descriptions and information. (Although it is better to tie that info into your puzzles.) Puzzles, ESPECIALLY in this atmosphere, should reward the player with new areas to explore. Don't let the commonplace slip into the game, unless it's to contrast it with the strange local customs. Keep the descriptions full of dreamy words and use all five senses here. Smells, tastes, feels, everything you can pack into it to make the player experience being there. Make the Big Nasty (tm) fit the setting appropriately. A crazed, loa-possessed cultist for the houdoo game, a strange snake-god in a lost city, the force behind the imminent destruction of the parallel universes. Just keep the player aware at all times that he is in unfamiliar lands. As you can see from the long descriptions, atmosphere is important for any game. Be sure that you build up a feeling of unity in your descriptions. The language used should tie together the setting and the emotions you wish to evoke. 12 ---------------- The other people in your game, NPCs --------------------- First, another reprint, then I'll expand my views somewhat. 5 Laws of IF NPC Creation: 1. Never, EVER, EVER have an NPC comment on the player's body odor. Why? Damned if I know. This is just one of those rules that everyone blindly follows without questioning. 2. Make 'em unique, even if ya gotta steal 'em from somewhere else. 3. Don't stereotype them please, I find this endlessly annoying. My one exception to this rule is the senile old wizard, who I find endlessly amusing. 4. Make their actions consistant with their personalities. 'Sir Robin charges valiently into battle.' just doesn't make any sense. (For the Monty Python impaired, Sir Robin was King Arthur's cowardly knight.) 5. Give 'em some emotions, and some conflict to sort out. Maybe the NPCs daughter is dying, or they're extremely frightened of the dark and panic blindly when shut into a dark room. Don't let the PC run roughshod over 'em, they have feelings too. If a PC attacks them, they should react according to their personality. Maybe they think it's a joke, maybe they think the PC has gone mad and kill the PC, maybe the police come and arrest the player, or maybe the NPC just dies... NPCs are the backbone of your game. Their unique personalities and quirks will stick in the player's mind far longer than the puzzles you set for him to defeat. What do most people remember, the Wizard of Frobozz, or the key and doormat puzzle. I can't really do a definitive work on NPCs. There are too many possibilities for you to contemplate. Instead, I'll list a few important characteristics below, with a brief sentence on each. 1) Appearance - This gives the player a mental image of the NPC. 2) Speech Mannerisms - Such as a foreign accent, odd speech pattern. 3) Body Language - How the NPC stands, gesticulates, smiles, etc. 4) Motivations - Not neccessarily known to the player. 5) Interests - Shows in their room's furnishings, their belongings. Tells a lot about a person. If you pay attention to these details, your NPCs will be more believable and interesting to the player. Particularly handle #2 and #4, and eveything else will fall into place. Have fun. 13 ----------------- The player's good buddies, pets ------------------------ This is a reprint of another article, this one on pets. 1.) The term pets can apply to any object that follows the player around fairly consistantly. A pet is not necessarily helpful, nor is it necessarily harmful, it just is. Pets are not constrained to living creatures, nor are they even constrained to animate beings. Take, for example, the radio in Wishbringer that gave you advice. 2.) Pets tend to be very versatile objects, frequently their personality will pervade the entire game. (Floyd, of course.) This can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how it is handled. Okay, here are some pet ideas. Let me know if you've seen any used already. 1) The player is a wizard, with an imp familiar that is more often than not leading the player into danger. 2) (A more general idea) The player is a non-human, with a non-human companion. Part of the game is determining how best to use that companion (say, for instance, the player is a rhinocerous, and has a friendly bird that helps them spot danger.) This could also be interesting if you have a human player, but a really exotic pet, like a shapechanging blob of jelly. (see A Boy and his Blob, on Nintendo systems) 3) Heheh, here's a whimsical thought...Remember that cartoon with the frog that would sing and dance, but only when no one else was around? Well, that could be a rather amusing plot device, especially for those who have seen the original cartoon. (Or maybe you find a talking dog with a similar limitation, or a talking....horse?) (everyone sing along...A horse is a) 4) Non-living pets. Robots are the pet of choice in this department, but there are a lot of humorous ideas packed away under this heading. In THGTTG, the aunt's thing almost took on a personality of its own, just by following you around, so maybe there's this certain object that shows up everywhere, like a Monkey's paw, or a cursed ring. That's by no means the only way an item can develop a personality, either. The Jack-of-all-traits in Nord and Bert was quite interesting just because of all the things you could do with it. And the two teleport spots in Starcross. Any item that simply has a number of uses and lingers in the game seems to me to become a sort of pet. 5) Non-living interacting pets. Ok, so you don't buy that bit in #5, well obviously, objects can interract with the player in a number of bizarre ways. Maybe the player is losing his grip on reality as a result of some poison in his body, so items start talking to him and arguing among themselves. His couch plays psychiatrist, his TV plays evangelist, his shoes start remarking about the treatment he's been giving them. ("Oi! Not another puddle! Walk around it you arsehole!") Or perhaps they can just naturally talk. (Via the talking credit card in Time Trax) 14 -------------------------- Betatesting ----------------------------------- I can't emphasize this part of game design enough. You really need a good sized troop of testers. You won't find every bug, not even after the game is released. But do try to get all the really nasty ones out first. Call for volunteers on r.a.i-f, you'll probably get from 10-30 eager beavers. Don't feel threatened. You'll be glad you had so many responses when mail starts bouncing back to you saying no such account, and people flake because of an unexpectedly heavy classload this semester. Take it in stride. Also corner a few of your local friends and tie them to a chair and make them play it for you. You'll get a faster response on bugs that way. I have found that my game will work perfectly unless I let someone else touch the keyboard while it's running. Then, pfft. The very first command one friend entered crashed the game, and he gave me a dirty look. This will happen. Gird your loins for the horrible, demeaning process of debugging. Betatesting is an experiment in puclicly embarrassing yourself. It's got to be done, though, if you want to produce quality games. So cheer up, and keep your mind on the fact that you aren't paying your testers anything except maybe a small registration discount on the game they're testing. Muahahahaha. 15 ------------- The gimmick and its place in your game --------------------- Think of all the old Infocom games and consider how many of them had a gimmick built into the game. Trinity had its pop-up poetry, Seastalker its little radar map, Suspended its six robots, etc. You should put some serious consideration into a gimmick. They cause your game to stand out from the crowd. If anyone comes up with an intriguing gimmick they don't want, pass it along to me. I'm always glad to get ideas, and I give credit where credit is due. 16 ------- Packaging your game with an eye for registration ----------------- Now, what do most people remember about Infocom games? The neat little trinkets and books that came with them, usually. Bear this in mind as you plan your game. You should be planning the more physical aspects of it even as you write it. Find out what packaging will cost as soon as possible. Look at your budget (or lack of one) and decide what you can afford to include. For my first game, I'm planning on strictly printed props like diary pages and flyers. Later, if I get a good response, I may go out on a limb and have a Space Miner's Union Member card done up, or any of a zillion other things I could do. The trick is to keep your costs down and shop around until you find the VERY best buy for your buck. The one cent that you are paying more per copy adds up quickly to equal lost revenue and funds for your next game. Even something as mundane as a rock can become an exotic keepsake if you do things right. Another aspect of packaging is notification of contests and/or newsletters available from your company. I highly recommend contests open only to registered users. It's just one more thing to help convince them that their money would be best invested in your wallet. A newsletter will probably have no immediate benefits. However, you will accumulate a core group of steady customers that you can easily get input from. A company can survive just off a good hardcore user group if it's big enough. 17 --------------- Marketing and distributing your game --------------------- Oh what a tangled web we weave. In the new world economy, you want to be able to gain access to as many dollars, pounds, yen, rubles, and marks as you can. This isn't easy to do. There is a distribution company that says they will send your game out to thousands of BBSes on a CD for just $100 a year (to cover membership). It's called ASP, and I don't think I want anything to do with it. They have some conditions which they slap on you for the privilege of you paying them to distribute your game. You have to include their various legalese files with your game. You cannot cripple it in any way. You may not use any obstrusive regstration reminders in your game. If I'm paying them good money, then I want quality service, no questions asked. More useful to us are the various credit card vendors that will take your credit card orders for a small part of your fee. This strikes me as an excellent strategy to attract impulse shoppers to our games. Get 'em while they're dying to get the free hint book and paper cup included with every copy of your game. Hell, let em order two copies. I'll include all these important info things at the end of this guide. By the way, you'll probably also need to get a P.O Box to serve as a registration sending point. Now, don't neglect your customers. Get orders out in a timely manner, and send a letter of apology to anyone whose order you take too long on. A letter should be enclosed in any event. This is one of the elite of the computer world, a registered user. Be courteous, but try not to kiss up too much. They should feel rewarded for their honesty, not like they're doing you a favor. If your program is good, then it deserves the registration. If you have future projects planned, then try to stick a 'catalog' in with your registered version describing them. Keep track of your registered users, and send out pamphlets when you have another game and some money to spend on them. Good god, what I wouldn't do for a roster of the Zork User's Group, or a list of those people who sent in the warranty cards from Lost Treasures of Infocom 1 and 2. Sadly, the former no longer exists, and Activision has the latter. Too bad they'll never use it in the manner in which it is meant to be used. See if your local computer stores are interested in carrying a few registered versions in stock, but don't hold your breath. I would suggest print advertising if it weren't for the tremendous expense involved. Now that you've jumped those hurdles, you're going to try for some FREE advertising, or nearly so. Contact every magazine listed at the bottom of this guide and offer to send them a registered version to review. Do this only after you have a product that stands up to betatesting and looks as good as you're willing to pay for. Enclose a short note notifying the magazine that they are not eligable for any contest you're running. You're giving them a free sample, it's not fair to let them win the goodies too. Anyway, keep in close contact with them, answer their questions, offer to write articles on the hardships of IF. If you're lucky and your game is good, it'll get some rave reviews. If you get poor reviews, try not to take it too hard. The magazine is just doing its job as it sees fit. Try harder next time, or, if they are violently opposed to text adventures, stop sending them sample copies to review. A text adventure should be judged on merit rather than lack of flashy graphics and sound. Well, if you've gotten this far, congratulations, you did well. You have released a new text adventure out into the hungry waters of the market. Cross your fingers and whisper a quiet prayer to the gods that blessed Zork I really hope that the money starts flowing in, at least enough to make it worth your while. As I said, IF seems to have a small market, but I think if we have enough quality products out there that are well marketed, we might be able to edge our foot back in the door. Keep pushing your game every chance you get. Post it on flyers around your school, or the bulletin board at work. People are always interested in a small 'home-town' company. Work your way up to the point where you can afford trinkets for your packages, and glossy pictures on the box covers. Eventually you may have a respected company, able to leave the difficult whitewater shareware market and move on to the smoother retail market. My best wishes go with you. Afterword and Closing ------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for taking the time to read my guide to writing text adventures. I hope that you've profited from my work. I hope that you've found it somewhat witty and not too boring. I hope that you'll write a text adventure. If you do, send me a copy, would you? I enjoy these sort of things. What follows this is a list of useful places to contact as you are getting your game together. There are also some helpful hints intersoersed in there. Finally, there will be a warning, and then a plug for my own company, Vertigo software. You needn't read it if you don't want to. Goodbye and remember: "Imagination sold and serviced here." A List of Useful Addresses -------------------------------------------------- Most useful addresses you can get from The Shareware Book. It is ftp'able from wuarchive.wustl.edu as /systems/ibmpc/msdos/info/sharebk1.zip. This is a fairly comprehensive guide. Actually, I believe that I will just refer you to it here because I can't hope to match the number of useful addresses he has in this book. Excellent book, but be warned, it will depress you. He takes the standpoint of a hardcore businessman that sells business software. The only mention of text adventures per se is a small blurb in the 'Not Hot' section advising you not to write them. I say write your game, but don't let your hopes get up too high. Also, in regards to the book, I would work my way up to some of the things he describes. Definitely try to find and use an uploading service though. You do want as much distribution as possible. And definitely rig an agreement with some company to handle credit card orders. That's really all I would worry about until you get a magazine review or two, and start to sell some copies. Maybe after awhile you could try and distribute overseas. I'm not too clear on what's involved, but it seems complicated. There are some registration services overseas that you might use, though. Well, that about covers it. All the addresses and phone numbers and such are in this book. Good book. Advertisement Warning ------------------------------------------------------- ***************************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mankind must put an end to War, or War will put an end to Mankind. - John F. Kennedy War has never been pretty. It probably never will be. But you're not worried about that right now. Your name is Frank Leandro, and you're in the middle of a hot poker game. That, of course, is when the grenade comes rolling across the floor. For you see, you're an enlisted man in Vietnam. The year is 1968, and you're about to die. But, as Alexander Smith once wrote, "Death takes away the commonplace of life. " Indeed, you find yourself suddenly caught up in the land of Avalon, where King Arthur was sent after his mortal battle with Mordred. But all is not well in Avalon. Arthur and his knights are fading spirits, while Mordred and Morgan Le Fay play havok with the land. And somehow, you're supposed to use the Holy Grail to restore yourself to life, only Mordred has poisoned it. You've also got to deal with cruel faeries, spiteful squirrels, senile sorcerors, and deadly dragons. Man, being dead is a real pain in the butt. Technical report: NPCS: Currently: 18 Expected: 30+ (There is a host of distinctive beings to interact with.) ROOMS: Currently: 50 Expected: 120+ (Five seperate realms to explore, all unique, all colorful.) COMBAT: Both randomized and item-keyed combat. (Sometimes ya gotta fight dirty...) In addition, there are 3 NPCs that can follow you around, influencing what you see and experience depending on which accompanies you. Add to this the possibility of having 2 companions at once, and the possibilities expand exponentially! Multiple solutions for nearly every puzzle! Take a step down the food chain, or face down the devilish inhabitants of the realm of Faerie. Explore, experiment, experience! In addition, if you register Avalon (at an estimated cost of $25), you will recieve: A beautifully packaged disk containing the latest version of Avalon. A full-color artwork on the cover of the package. A FREE hint book that reveals the darkest secrets of Avalon. You will even discover where Elvis is hiding! All encoded for your safety, with the more blatent spoilers embedded into the game itself. These will cost you points to learn and negate your chances at winning the Avalon Sweepstakes (see below) if you are too free with them! Three pages torn from the Diary of Frank Leandro. Peer into his soul and discover what makes him tick. Several flyers from various pro and anti-war organizations that give you the facts behind the war. A catalogue of upcoming Vertigo Games. All this...AND, you will have a chance to win the Avalon Sweepstakes. For you see, only registered versions contain the password necessary to win. You must win with a perfect score, using no more than 2 spoilers. (WARNING: Some solutions give more points than others. Only by doing everything the hard way can you get a perfect score.) The first person to mail in the password will receive Frank's dogtag and 10% all future Vertigo products! Second place receives 5% off the next 2 Vertigo products they register. As this guide goes to print, the exact conditions are uncertain, so watch for news on r.a.i-f. Finally, if there is interest, I will be publishing a newsletter called _The_Brass_Lantern_, there to 'shed light' on all the intricacies of starting your own software company and writing your own text adventures, not to mention juicy tidbits about future Vertigo developments as they occur, fun bugs to try out, puzzles, original fiction, poetry, and even contests to hold you over until the next Vertigo game is released.