Re: Fine writing in IF


19 Jan 1995 02:07:18 GMT

In a previous article, gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk (Gareth Rees) says:

>What do the readers of rec.arts.int-fiction think about this issue? My
>own feeling is that it's sufficiently difficult to produce clear, sharp,
>crisp, accurate, terse, lively prose for all the functional text in an
>advanture game that it's not worth trying to write beautiful descriptive
>passage that the player is likely either to skip and hurry on towards
>the next puzzle, or else scour for clues and then discard when none are
>found.

My own approach has been to try to make even the lively prose be
descriptive, whilst balancing my "artistic sensibilities" against
a player's frustration level, i.e. will a player become disgusted
with my game b/c the descriptions are too bloated?

If we want interactive fiction to be an art form, we must find the
art within the form. It may not be worth it to add beautiful descriptive
passages to the game, but it gives me a sense of satisfaction and
completeness. If I can achieve this feeling without frustrating the
player, then to me it is worth the effort.

Stephen

-- 
Stephen Granade         | armchair rocket scientist graffiti existentialist
sgranade@obu.arknet.edu | deconstruction primitive performance photo-realist
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