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Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

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Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#41

Post by krisoft »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #39
krisoft wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a different genre with different strengths and weaknesses. I think it is best to illustrate through concrete titles: Counterfeit Monkey by Emily Short [1]: It is a parser based puzzle game. (Parser based means that there is a "command line" where you type in what you want to do.) In the game you play a smuggler who wants to steal some high tech plans from the island of Atlantis. You see, the Atlantans developed…

So, boiled down: The medium allows low cost creation. Low cost creation allows lots of experiments. Lots of experiments leads to some weird but wonderful concepts. Perhaps throw in that humans seem to be good at abstraction and then the lack of graphics doesn't matter sooo much that it can't be overcome with a great concept? Is that about it?

Sounds about right.

I feel a bit wobbly about your question though. Would you ask someone who is hiking in a forest why they are not surfing on a beach instead? Interactive fiction is not a faulty game where the graphics is somehow missing. It is a different experience. Some days you entertain yourself with this, other days with that.

a thought provoking question: why would you read a novel where you can’t influence what is going to happen? What is the appeal in that? :)

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#42

Post by danielmarkbruce »

krisoft wrote: post #41
danielmarkbruce wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, boiled down: The medium allows low cost creation. Low cost creation allows lots of experiments. Lots of experiments leads to some weird but wonderful concepts. Perhaps throw in that humans seem to be good at abstraction and then the lack of graphics doesn't matter sooo much that it can't be overcome with a great concept? Is that about it?

Sounds about right. I feel a bit wobbly about your question though. Would you ask someone who is hiking in a forest why they are not surfing on a beach instead? Interactive fiction is not a faulty game where the graphics is somehow missing. It is a different experience. Some days you entertain yourself with this, other days with that. a thought provoking question: why would you read a novel where you can’t influence…

In my mind a graphics based game was strictly better. Your example is more obvious in that it has a choice but no one would say one is strictly better (even a surfer).

So I was wondering what I was missing. Because the graphics based game can't be strictly better if people are playing these text based games. My mental model and the evidence didn't match.

I think I have a better handle on it now, your explanation above was a good one.

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#43

Post by krisoft »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #42
krisoft wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds about right. I feel a bit wobbly about your question though. Would you ask someone who is hiking in a forest why they are not surfing on a beach instead? Interactive fiction is not a faulty game where the graphics is somehow missing. It is a different experience. Some days you entertain yourself with this, other days with that. a thought provoking question: why would you read a novel where you can’t influence…

In my mind a graphics based game was strictly better. Your example is more obvious in that it has a choice but no one would say one is strictly better (even a surfer). So I was wondering what I was missing. Because the graphics based game can't be strictly better if people are playing these text based games. My mental model and the evidence didn't match. I think I have a better handle on it now, your explanation abov…

Thank you for asking the questions! It really helped me clarifying my thoughts too.

If you are interested in how these games look like / play, but don’t want to invest too much effort into it you can take a peek at a game play video: https://youtu.be/fFqg5gAbeAw

This one is someone playing Overboard. In this game you play an actress in the roaring twenties who just thrown her husband overboard from a trans-atlantic ship. Your goal is to get away with the murder before the ship docks in New York. (Perhaps by framing someone else.)

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#44

Post by RodgerTheGreat »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #42
krisoft wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds about right. I feel a bit wobbly about your question though. Would you ask someone who is hiking in a forest why they are not surfing on a beach instead? Interactive fiction is not a faulty game where the graphics is somehow missing. It is a different experience. Some days you entertain yourself with this, other days with that. a thought provoking question: why would you read a novel where you can’t influence…

In my mind a graphics based game was strictly better. Your example is more obvious in that it has a choice but no one would say one is strictly better (even a surfer). So I was wondering what I was missing. Because the graphics based game can't be strictly better if people are playing these text based games. My mental model and the evidence didn't match. I think I have a better handle on it now, your explanation abov…

To expand on this a bit, even when it comes to graphics, more complex isn't necessarily "better".

Sometimes a simpler presentation helps focus on what matters most. Sometimes leaving things to the audience's imagination is more impactful than showing them explicitly. Relying on "closure" from the audience is a common technique in horror, for example.

Sometimes interactive fiction can express abstract concepts or subtle detail through prose which would be tremendously difficult to convey visually. The IF titles "9:05" and "Spider and Web" do very interesting things with unreliable narrators, for example. Less can be more.

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#46

Post by cxr »

I have no special insight about if this is a forever hobby project for you or not, but whether you have commercial plans doesn't really matter, it doesn't make what I'm about to say more relevant, only slightly more enticing, maybe.

Dungeons have a limited audience. Meanwhile, I am positive that the next evolution of chat platforms like Slack are going to be the ones that grow better features for building. Chat bots are a manifestation of this demand. The dominant platform in the future will be the one that has first-class support for crafting scriptable/interactive objects and creating virtual spaces that you can move between, reminiscent of online worlds like Second Life, except leaning more heavily on text. In essence, the future of chat are MUSHes/MOOs.

To really drive this home, look at the story of Slack itself. It was created when Butterfield was trying to make a game platform (for the second time), and then they pivoted when after productizing their internal tool and it became wildly successful. I'd wager you're using Slack, Discord, IRC, or something in that vein for coordinating development right now. When your primary focus at the moment is already the development of a multi-user platform for conveying text, that's silly. Consider scratching your own itch and experimenting with an internal build that is focused on facilitating broader social interaction than what MUDs aim for.

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#48

Post by mycall »

unwiredben wrote: post #47

I'm surprised that there aren't more aliases: "take" didn't work, but "get" did, for example. Picking the right word from a description was odd, "get sharp sword" didn't work, but "get sword" did.

A built in thesaurus should be able to handle this type of issue.

Re: Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

#50

Post by gego »

...one thing you might look into is the dual-use (less fun more business) side of branching narratives for (intranet) learning e.g. personnel onboarding, teaching, interactive manual design and so on... it might make it (more?) financially feasible while secretly financing our love for text adventures ;) shoot me a PM if you want to toss some ideas
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