Inform 7 community collaboration.

This is an idea I had when talking with Maga.

The rules:

  1. No deleting other peoples contributions.
  2. Mark your contributions in Your OWN section.
  3. NO FAN FICTION. [size=150]I[/size] will delete any fan fiction I find.
  4. References to other works are allowed, as are parodies and satire, but no plagiarism.

EDIT:This is a kind of meta project.

Post your results on this Forum. Let’s see what we can make people! Be sure to attach the source to the post.

EDIT: The source will be added ASAP.

Cool! This is a great idea. Thanks for posting this.

You’re welcome.

I started something similar a while back. It was going strong, peterorme set up a github for it and we even had the contribution of a short blade from Emily Short! But after a while it just kind of stopped. Not trying to put you off or anything, but you might want to think about how to make this one go further.

[url]https://intfiction.org/t/everybody-if/4906/1]

Interesting – I think the main difference is the fact that this one can be downloaded, added to, and compiled by each individual. I don’t know how well something like that can be stitched together, but probably really well, because each area could alter the protagonist any way the author sees fit. What would be real nice is if a theme starts to appear in the different joints of the story, like the green orb in Heavy Metal tying all of the stories together. This could be a pretty cool Frankenstein when it’s all done.

Already have an idea, Masema :smiley:

I’ll work on this tonight.

Good. I Probably will not add anything myself. This is too see what the community will do with it.

Okay – up to you. What is your time frame on this? I would suggest a very short deadline – maybe put this into the minicomp just posted for the end of the year? If a collaboration won, that would be pretty cool.

I was thinking that this could go as long as people wanted to add to this. To NOT put a time limit on it. Just to see what will happen. Ya know?

Of course we COULD put what’s there into the minicomp. Which I just learned about.

Maybe I’ll check it out.

I think that would be better. If something like this goes on for too long, it will probably die. Plus, there’s less incentive to go all out on something like this if there isn’t an end in sight. For example, I have a pretty good idea, and I know exactly how to tie it into that first room and loop back – but I could make my own game using the idea, and put it in the comp, if I’m going to do the work anyway. I would much rather see a collaborative effort win the comp, a bunch of short stories written by talented people in the community. That would be pretty awesome.

If we had kept adding to it on the forum, I would have gradually continued contributing here… actually I think I still have a “to-do” list for it. Needing to figure out github iced my participation.

I think the problems with an effort like this show in the other thread. People contribute, then wonder if they are adding the majority of the content – then the effort begins to feel less than collaborative, and then people drop off and lose interest, or do their own thing. I am an extremely busy guy, but I will make time for this. Some of the ideas parallel what I’m doing for Spring Thing, so this would be a good way for me to develop some of the systems I want to use for that. However, for that to make sense, I need to see that other people are signing on and the collaboration is going somewhere. I don’t want to create a half hour or so of content, and have that be the majority of the game. I would really like to see a serious collaborative effort go into a comp. That would be good incentive, and the competition then is to bring the level of quality for each section up to the level others are doing, within the time frame.

If I do join, it will probably be for world-building or adding clever responses. That’s the part I enjoy writing most, and it’s the part I’m not able to get to in my own game because I have too much work to do fixing and improving the important mechanical code.

In fact, even if everybody else forgoes interesting puzzles or characters to make a game entirely of easter eggs, I’ll be happy to join in.

Anyway, here’s my idea, in a nutshell, without giving away any of the story I’m working on. A glint of metal in the grass reveals a coin, found in that forest room. This coin, when held for X amount of turns, teleports the player into my story. So, it would be a stand-alone short story that would parallel others. If this takes off, I’ll integrate elements from other stories into mine, to create something that has context. It would be about 1/2 hour long short story, that could be interrupted or dropped at any time to return to the forest room.

What do you think?

That reminds me a bit of C.S. Lewis’s “Wood Between the Worlds”, which is an idea I’ve always wished he had developed further. Now I’m imagining an IF made up of several shorter IFs, linked together magically, with the additional twist that the player can take items and such from one story into another. Was that your intent?

Absolutely. I want control over my section – the protaganist, the NPCs, and the story. I have a clear vision of how the story would fit into a larger framework, and I could tie things in from other stories as we go. What I don’t want to be is the one leading the main story, or to have a serious story be connected to a framework that doesn’t hang together, so my part would stick out like a sore thumb. Masema has to play editor on this one.

I really want to commit to something like this, because there’s a lot of great authors here, and a collaboration could turn out great. I’ll have my part ready, but after thinking about it, my one stipulation on adding it to the collaboration is that at least 2-3 authors agree to turn out a short story for this. I don’t care about prizes if its entered into the comp – send the prize to Graham Nelson, or split it up among everyone involved. I just want to see a good story collection finished.

I think I can come up with something for this.

Shades of Bigger Than You Think and, well, Eamon.

Cool! If masema is good with this direction, then I’m in, too. I’m not ready for jazz IF, but if there’s a structure to this, I’m in. If this is the direction to go, then I’ll get my story written and a rough programmed out fairly quickly. Once everyone who is going to be in this has their stories fairly worked out, we can all PM and come up with some kind of main story together. Then, it’s a matter of working that main story in somehow.

Eamon is a good example as a game. Heavy Metal is a good example of this in movie form. There’s high fantasy, low fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, slapstick, noir, and horror all rolled into one movie. the one thread is the green orb, and that is worked into each story without really affecting the integrity of the story. If we follow this idea, then every author has complete freedom and control over their section of the story, in every way. The one thing we would all have to do is add the main story element, somewhere, into each story, somehow, toward the end.

Anyway, masema – let me know if this is all okay! You’re the captain of this project. If you wanted a different kind of story, maybe something that took its time to be written, and could be added to piecemeal over a long period, then put your foot down now! :smiley: Otherwise, as the drunken, loudmouth oarsmen, I would suggest we go for the minicomp with this.