Re: Genres


Mon, 31 Jul 1995 08:58:12 GMT

<baf.806821604@laraby.tiac.net> <3v9326$mc1@globe.indirect.com> <GDR11.95Jul30173942@ouse.cl.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 03:18:46 BST
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gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk (Gareth Rees) wrote:

>> I'm curious as to what other genres people would think would do well.

> I once was thinking seriously about writing a game based on Patrick
> McGoohan's cult television series "The Prisoner" (copyright? what's
> that?).

Gosh! Isn't it amazing that, given the huge number of newsgroups, there's
such a large overlap between the three I read, comp.sys.acorn.games, rec.
arts/games.int-fiction and alt.tv.prisoner!

Yes! I am doing a Prisoneresque game! Of course, it's not going to use all
the real 'Prisoner' props, for reasons of stifled creativity as much as
copyright. The important - and most difficult - part is to recreate the
brilliant atmosphere of the TV series.

It's called 'Just Visiting'. At the start, you enter the Village ('cept
it's not called that) because you're visiting your mother, and it's like the
prison square in Monopoly - geddit? Geddit? Huh.

It's written in Inform, and it'll be a long time before it's finished -
I've got many, many other projects to do at the same time. At the moment,
I'm just finishing the prologue, which I've been working on for months, on
and off. Unfortunately, I put two NPCs in, both of whom can move around
independently and react to each other's - and your - actions, and it's been
dead nasty to code.

What I do intend to add to the main game is a bunch of randomly-occurring
'scenarios' which can make some escape routes possible/impossible/easier/
harder - it should feel like the episodic nature of The Prisoner. This,
combined with the comparatively high number of multiple-solution problems
should give a little replayability. Any ideas?

It may appear some time this decade.

BCNU, AjC

-- 
Vfa'g ebg-guvegrra er-nyyl tb'bq? fnvq Cthulhu.