: (That doesn't mean that _all_ I-F should be written in teams; far from it.
: If you can get a co-author that you work well with, who can understand the
: game as well as you do, then I'd say go for it. But remember, I-F is the
: absolute last holdout for the lone programmer/author -- all other forms of
: computer and video entertainment require the combined efforts of large
: teams. But I-F directly discourages it. That's what I like about it.)
I'd have to agree with that. Although my game has taken years to write
and probably years more will pass before it's done, it'll be a fairly
unified product of one person, not a committee. And I think there's
something to be said for fiction created by the vision of one person,
not a bunch of people hashing out ideas. Then again perhaps I tell
myself that because I'm not a very good team player when it comes to
creating stuff... I want the thing to be my product - and I'll take the
blame and the credit for it.
It's also rather nice that IF is, as you say, one of the few areas of
computer entertainment where you can turn out a professional product solo.
In fact, I can't think of many committee games really. Some people have
mentioned Shades of Grey, which I haven't played. I know the Infocom games
were largely written by one or two people, though how the collaborative
process worked with two+ people I don't know. I seem to recall reading in
interviews that the Imps worked fairly independently, while bouncing
ideas for feedback purposes off each other. Anyone have any insights on
this?
- Neil K.
-- Neil K. Guy * neilg@sfu.ca * tela@tela.bc.ca 49N 16' 123W 7' * Vancouver, BC, Canada