Re: Marketing, was Re: Can I make money by writing IF?

["Matthew Amster" <mamster@pomona.edu>]

On 29 Nov 1995 18:52:52 GMT, 
David Baggett  <dmb@lf.ai.mit.edu> wrote:

>In my opinion, there are many excellent graphics games out there.  I've
>cited Full Throttle before.  I think it's a step in the right direction for
>graphical IF.  No, the puzzles aren't that hard.  The setting is not
>extreme.  The characters are not wonderfully novel.  But it's a solid work
>of interactive fiction, and it makes good use both of a graphical interface
>and of pretty pictures and good voice acting.

I'd throw in Day of the Tentacle and Sam n' Max.  Both had good 
characterization, good voices, and were just damn fun to play.  The puzzles 
were generally simple and satisfying, and the stories held together 
overall.  It's not the same experience as playing Jigsaw, but worth 
enjoying for what it is.  Not all graphic IF has to be at the level of 
Return to Zork.

And there are elements in graphic games that are more satisfying 
(heresy!).  It's hard to imagine the giant fish sequence from Sam n' Max 
being executed well in a text game--it was too fun to watch.  Naturally, 
text games do some things better than graphical ones, too.

>Text IF is just a different way of using words to tell a story.  I don't
>think you need puzzles, and I'm sure that though most of our games are
>almost structurally indistinguishable (!) we've barely scratched the
>surface.

I'm still undecided on the importance of puzzles.  I find it satisfying to 
solve puzzles, but after playing puzzle games for years, I'm still not much 
better at solving them and tend to get stuck and turn to the hints 
quickly.

"A Change in the Weather" is what really got me rethinking the role of 
puzzles.  As Andrew freely admitted, the game was unfair, time-dependent, 
and locked the player into an unforgiving sequence of tasks.  It was also 
tremendously well-written and worth playing again and again to try to get 
closer to the answer.  (I finished it using the walkthrough, but only after 
restarting at least thirty times.)  Because the game was small, the author 
was able to pay excruciating attention to detail:  the moment of light, the 
ability to experience the tree in many different ways, etc.

I'm not suggesting that we see more games just like Weather, as this might 
put Andrew Plotkin's life in danger.  You can't get more traditional than 
John's Fire Witch, and that was one of my favorites, too.  But I agree with 
Dave that we need to see more experimentation along the lines of MST3K 
Detective and Weather.

Currently I'm at work on a project that's a long way from completion but 
incorporates more obvious political overtones than any game I've played.  
If you don't agree with my views, you may very well dislike the game 
(although I try not to beat the player over the head).  This doesn't bother 
me.  Just as I wouldn't try to write a novel that reaches the widest 
possible audience, I don't feel like putting out another Zork clone just so 
everyone on the newsgroup will play it.

Having said that, I do hope you'll play my game, which will appear sometime 
next year.  I'm not even go to try to pin down a date.

Wow, that was rambling.  Aside to Kevin Wilson:  despite its reputed 
machismo, I will certainly buy a copy of Avalon.  If it's good, I might 
even try to convince you to write another game.

Matthew