Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship v1.1 - Part 5 by Kevin Wilson Originally published on CompuServe/Internet Supplied by both Graham Cluley and Richard Hunt @~Continued from Issue 40 10 -----An indepth look at my 9 Favorites (ct'd)----- 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 opportunity 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. Build-up: Perhaps the war for freedom (or whatever) has been going on for a while 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: He's almost captured. Or he is captured, then threatened with torture. Watch Star Wars for ideas. [Thanks, S.G.] 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 her ways and sacrifices herself for the player. 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. Build-up: 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 set up 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. Build-up: 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 consistent information on it. (Someday, when I'm a big rich game writer, I'll just fly there and visit, heheh.) The action doesn't necessarily 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. And here we have a new atmosphere for the guide. This was written by Stephen Granade and submitted to me. I enjoyed it, so here it is, with my own embellishments added in. Humor - This is not necessarily a separate atmosphere, but one that can be mixed with the others. There are two ways to go about it. One, try to make everything humorous, a la THGTTG. While this can be very, very funny, it can also be very, very unfunny. People have different senses of humor, so it's hard to write something that even a majority of people will find funny. Two, use humor as a reward for exploring. When the PC does something clever but unworkable in trying to solve a puzzle, respond with something clever. Conversely, if the PC does something abysmally stupid, zing him. For example: The lab shows signs of a recent battle, as if the scientists who work here had been fighting for their lives. Charred lab benches form a barricade of sorts in the southeast corner. The thick metal door on the north wall is pitted, as if an incredibly corrosive acid had been splashed against it. An open doorway leads west. > EXAMINE DOOR The door possesses sturdy metal bars which hold the thing shut. A sign on the door reads, "Alien Hospitality Suite." > OPEN DOOR You slide the bars back, then start to open the door. As you do, tentacles reach out and grab you! Before you can react, they have dragged you into the dark, putrid-smelling room behind the door. There you are slowly decapitated, and your body used as a breeding ground for aliens! Just kidding, you can't slide the bars back at all. You get the idea. Let your imagination run wild. After all, most every game needs its moment of levity. Perhaps the player has a loyal friend who follows him everywhere, muttering acerbic comments about their adventures under his breath...[Stephen's part ends. My comments on humor follow.] Other notable techniques include puns, one-liners, Rube Goldberg scenarios, and silly situations. Picture the player out on a ledge, chasing after his winning lottery ticket. The wind blows the window shut, and.... After awhile, three punk rockers assemble below you. They hold up their cigarette lighters and chant "jump, jump, jump!" You are tempted, if only for a moment, to take their advice...and aim for them. Somewhat later, a firetruck arrives, along with a police car. Unfortunately, the ladder they brought is too short, so they radio in for a longer one, and join the police over at Don's Donut World for a Crueller and coffee. By now, there is a large crowd gathered below, hoping to see a gory spectacle. Two pigeons have decided to build a nest in your hair, and you have this terrible urge to go to the bathroom. For the sake of the crowd below, you hold it in. See? Humor can be a really fun tool to work with. I originally left a humor section out of the guide because I didn't feel I could do it justice. Stephan's done a great job though, and I think he deserves a round of applause. Thank you Stephan. Much obliged to you for that great example. I am always looking for submissions for the guide. Anything on game writing that would fit in with the tone of it will be considered, and most likely, used. 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. @~More next issue - o -