intfiction.org

Yeah, that's fair enough. I still think that the vast bulk of commands - directions, examination, taking/dropping - are predictable from game to game, except in clearly experimental works.

I think a lot of what you're describing is what I'd categorize at author error - if not a bug, then definitely a deficiency in implementation or design. I think if players know the genre expectations, then they're better prepared to deal with these; their frustration should be with the game, not themselves. That is, it's not your fault that "attack stormtroopers" produced an unsatisfactory result; that's a design issue, and should be reported. On the other hand, expecting players to examine objects is not a design flaw, at least in genre terms - it's totally fair play.

Similar for the new commands - I see a lot of new verbs added because they're appropriate natural language, but few where the effect would be ruined if they were included in a list of game verbs. Most of the turn comes from applying the verb with an unusual object, or in a lateral thinking kind of way.

I don't think a tutorial has to promise the player will now have no problems at all interacting with IF - pretty much everyone does at some point, due to a variety of factors. But I do think we can give new players a base line to start from. Zarf's intro to IF card is the vast majority of gameplay in the vast majority of games, and there should be a way to convey that, while also indicating areas where the player will need to experiment a bit (and where the authors need to be extra-diligent).

I think those baselines make it easier to handle learning a new author's style, because you have some idea of the general possibilities. When I read an IF game, I actually type a fair number of experimental commands, but there's a few areas where I'm confident there will be clues - about movement, object importance, goals, etc.

I have no illusions that tutorial are a universal solution, but they can help, and they can help train players as to what it's reasonable to expect. Ideally, of course, each author crafts their own tutorial geared to their own game, which trains players both in IF conventions and in authorial choice. It would be well-written, smoothly integrated, and flexible to suit various levels of gameplay. (In other news: I want a pony.)

I totally agree to all of that.

News flash: I want a pony, too. One that rides the same as a lot of other poinies. With ribbons.

For what it's worth, the play-IF card tries to convey that experimentation is necessary. It says it explicitly, but also implies it by having a bunch of verbs that *are* a little unusual. I didn't want to limit it to a bare-minimum subset -- that would have been misleading.

Also, while I agree that a truly surprising verb is rare in typical IF play, the process of learning the *distinctive* verbs of a game is a mainstay of IF experience. I think it's an important part of the game experience, even when the game is explicit about prompting you.

I went in one direction with this in Heliopause, which supports lots of unusual verbs, and another in the Hadean demo, which has just two.

Veering a little bit off topic, does anyone think it would be a good idea for the I7-generated Quixe and Parchment pages to include Crazy Uncle Zarf's IF card, whether as a link to a PDF, a jquery-style pop-up, or in some other way?

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Glimmr: Advanced Graphics for I7
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I can't think of many situations where it would ever be a bad idea to display Zarf's IF instruction card. Perhaps if there were some author who feels it's a misleading card to have prefixed to their particular game? Particular if the commands are nonstandard or there is already a built-in tutorial. I suppose that's how adding things at the terp level could be controversial, but I can't see how it could really inconvenience much, since you could easily edit i7's autogenerated page after the fact to suppress the card.

Maybe give it a 'show_IF_card' boolean variable which is easy to flip off early in the page's source, without having to decipher any of the flow of execution... that is, short of a preference checkmark in the IDE itself, which would probably be ideal.

Paul.

Including the card as a publication option would be a good idea, as would having the card and Emily's PDF be included in the side panel of both index.html and play.html.

Yes, I was assuming that it would be listed alongside the many other release options that put links or features on the web page. You can already add a link to the file to website template by just saying "release along with a file called 'IF Card.pdf', but if we think that the card is useful to newbies--and it sounds like it has already shown itself to be--it seems like we ought to consider giving it official status, like the longer PDF intro to IF has.

I also think it's worth thinking of slicker ways to integrate it than just a link to a PDF. Essentially, it's the equivalent of those concise splash-screen tutorials that so many Flash games use. One idea would be putting it in a greybox-style javascript pop-up, so that it can easily be brought up as needed during play, without a download. Something like that would, I think, increase the chances that new players will actually refer to it as they play.

--Erik

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Glimmr: Advanced Graphics for I7
blog | download | bug-tracker

That's a fantastic idea, Erik. I've just made a UserVoice suggestion for this idea.

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Aaron Reed - Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7 - Smarter Parser