Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship v1.1 by Kevin Wilson Originally published on CompuServe/Internet Supplied by both Graham Cluley and Richard Hunt Part One 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. Oh yes, before we can even do that, there are some people I want to thank: [ Version 1.1 - Fixed some grammatical errors, added a humor atmosphere, added a few magazine addresses, etc. Mostly cleaned things up a bit. Also added the first game section, which is refined from postings I made to the Net.] ---- /===================================\ |-------------------------------------| |- This guide is dedicated to the -| |- memory of Infocom. Although they -| |- live on, it'll never be the same. -| |-------------------------------------| \===================================/ ---- Stephen Granade - Most of the humor atmosphere description is his. He made some excellent suggestions and pointed out the lack of magazines at the end. Heheh, whoops. Activision - Even though I gave them such a hard time in this guide, the folks at Activision looked over it, and decided not to sue. Thanks, guys. Origin - For making some of the best classic games around. Ultima 4 is a timeless game that really had an interesting twist in a tired out field. The moral conflicts involved really brought things to life for me. I just hope they get back to the moral dilemma, and, at the same time, try to support a few more computers. Ultima 7 was constipatedly slow on mine. The gang at rec.arts.int-fiction - For putting up with my high blown ideas, crazy schemes, and aggressive advertising. I only hope that everyone is so forgiving. ---- Onwards... 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 concentrates on 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. Most of the authorship systems are available on ftp.gmd.de. 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 ..Bringing it all together...Writing your first game.* 15 .........................................Betatesting. 16 ..............The gimmick and its place in your game. 17 ....Packaging your game with an eye for registration. 18 ................Marketing and distributing your game. Afterword and closing comments.......................... Useful Addresses........................................* An advertisement for Vertigo Software................... * - Changed since version 1.0 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, as a great man once said, "I yam what I yam." 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 games. You may also notice that I refer to movies and TV to point out dramatic techniques that I like. I try to keep the information in this guide new and entertaining. I also suggest that you look at the Inform manual before writing a game. It covers several basic strategies that I leave out, since it already exists elsewhere. I mostly concentrate on the actual elements of writing and style that make a good game. I hope you enjoy it. Many game authors tend to forget that fiction authors have several thousand years headstart on us. Literature is far more advanced than game authorship, so feel free to borrow techniques until we are able to define our own artform more clearly. 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? @~To be continued next issue - o -