intfiction.org

Minimalism. The shorter and simpler the more interesting.

You can create really great situations with a very small amount of text. The more you write, the more bored your audience will be, unless you're Shakespeare (actually maybe not even then). Also the player should have a clear idea what to do, and don't overload the player with details in the beginning, keep it simple, and keep the map simple too.

Everything depends on the game, of course, but I'm a big fan of what ektemple mentioned above, the "single scenery object" that sucks all relevant nouns into a singularity of polite refusal and back-to-business.

That's for starters. I think it's critical, though, to have picky testers who slam against boundaries and to pay attention to what they attempt in these rooms. Depending on the game, there may be very reasonable attempts (or solutions) that involve basic fixtures, surfaces, or even just the presumption that you can store something in a fridge or cupboard. If the game justifies deeper responses to such things, be sure to include them.

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I think not allowing somebody to enter the bathroom is jarring and rather bizarre. However, it really isn't hard to 'include' the bathroom in a way that makes it clear it's not important to the story.

>enter bathroom
It's a pretty typical bathroom decorated in inoffensive shades of blue. Do you need to use the bathroom?

>use bathroom
After you're done taking care of things, and have finished washing your hands, you leave the bathroom.

HALLWAY

or something like that. The bathroom is there, and it works, but clearly there's nothing important in it. Nevertheless, exploring the bathroom doesn't break the mood of the story.

I don't know, if I saw that my reaction would be "Why is the bathroom implemented? There must be something useful I can do in there." Perhaps along the lines of (mild spoiler for Raising the Flag on Mount Yo Momma)



Though perhaps the lack of objects in the description would get me to not do anything. But that leads to another problem -- this solution basically requires a bland description of the bathroom, and that can be jarring if the description of the rest of the house is detailed and vivid.

I don't know, the more I think about it the more I think that maybe the solution is not to include the bathroom at all. In read-only fiction, you don't hear so much about the bathroom, because going to the bathroom is mundane and unremarkable for the most part, and it doesn't break our suspension of disbelief if a character never goes all day -- that's the sort of thing that would have to be brought to our attention. Ditto for IF; if I have things to do in the house, I'm not going to stop and say, "Hey! There's no bathroom!"

Or maybe you get to the bathroom by xyzzy. That's how mine works.

Ever since I was a kid, that has bothered me about the game Clue.