Hi kieth.
It's not really a matter of making specifically cyoa games, rather of just
making games that it's possible to progress through by combat mechanics, and
with puzzles that don't require the ridiculously open ended parza of
something like inform.
This doesn't mean no parza, indeed a basic parza has some advantages (it's
far easier to type and program than a full menue choice style for one
thing), just that rather than the parza being seen as this great and
wondrous natural language thing most interactive fiction fans say it is,
it's treated like the controls to any game, so must be as clear as possible.
To me, having a full parza is like having a joypad with 500 buttons and not
being told the right ones, while a simple parza with just use, examine, put
examain etc, like the one eamon had is like a straight forward control
scheme.
Then there is the matter of combat mechanics. Decent stat combat involves a
few choices of action, whether to use a spell or a healing item, when to use
limited use items like potions, somtimes extra combat moves or choices of
weapons, ---- indeed some can get really! complex and tacticla. A good
tactical fight however can enhance the game and let you progress without
haivng to face puzzles, much as in a D&D game, a good gm will use the game
mechanics to create tention during the battle and description of the game,
rather than just treating the dice rolling as the be all and end all of a
game.
Take the zork troll as an example. There is absolutely no way to influence
the fight, jsut a random roll, and a chance of death. This makes the fight
utterly uninteresting. If however you had various choices and options, ----
and could for instance stay out of the troll's reach while hitting him with
arrows, or run in for a quick attack then run away again, ie, more
accurately simulate the real! experience of a fight so that the better and
more battle aware fighter won, not just the one the dice favoured, then
you'd have a far more fun and interesting encounter.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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