After my failure to resolve the inconsistencies in
Cloak of Darkness as a test for new IF systems, i started wondering about a new
example demo standard for modern IF systems.
From time to time, many people pop up with emergent new IF systems. Some give up, some plod along and some get going, and it would be really great if there was an
example demo standard that could be used as material.
So what i had in mind was a
kit that consisted of bunch of text files and media including a game specification. There would be no code and the material would not be predisposed toward any specific kind of engine. The kit could be hosted somewhere like the IFDB, the IF archive, the IFWiki or even somewhere like the IFTF.
The kit would contain:
- game specification
- story text files; locations, descriptions, objects etc.
- map layout diagram
- location pictures
- object pictures or icons (3D models?)
- event sounds
- scene graphics, animations? audio?
- background music/sound
- title picture
- title music/audio
- credits (eg HTML with links)
- logo
- recommended color themes
- fonts (or recommendations thereof)
- dialog voice?
A lot of the above wouldn't necessarily be there for version #1 and not all things would apply to all systems, but they could be added to the kit. Some things could be optional and people could contribute updates such as improved pictures, more pictures, sounds etc.
There have been a lot of great mini games, things done for competitions etc. I was wondering if an author out there would be interested in donating (subject to attribution) a work for this purpose. It would have to be something quite small; perhaps only a handful of locations, a few objects at most and a
very simple game specification that's not necessarily dumbed down, but is
easy to understand.
If anyone's interested, I'll try to get something working and build the
debut kit.
Any takers?