Collaborative authorship, was Re: Marketing


Wed, 06 Dec 1995 20:52:49 +0100

Ivan Cockrum (ivanc@cis.compuserve.com) wrote:
> However, another important aspect of the software industry to
> consider is the need for diversified talents. Not everyone need be
> both a creator and a programmer, and in professional circles,
> usually a game designer works with a programmer to help create the
> designer's vision.
>
> In your particular circumstances, with your strength as a writer, it
> shouldn't be necessary for you to learn a programming language.
> Perhaps you could find someone with whom to work, who is already
> proficient with programming IF, but hasn't got your experience or
> ability with writing?
>
> I think a large part of why the IF community has become so
> cloistered is because so many people involved in it are working on
> their own. Notable exceptions are the guys at Adventions, who work
> as a team, and turn out reliably consistent games. And of course
> the same was true for Infocom.

Well, again this is a point I'd like to address in the FAQ, so any comments
are welcome.

I think much of the problem that we face with such specialisation and
multiple-authors is the fact that, with some exceptions undoubtedly, the IF
community (i.e., the membership of raif) never actually physically meet.
Even when two authors are trying to collaborate on a game and both can write
and code, the creative process is stifled somewhat by this lack of personal
contact (no rude jokes please 8). It is in fact quite difficult to bounce
ideas off each other via e-mail -- the Internet's fast, but not fast enough.
Mind you, I have been/am doing this for a game, so it's not impossible.

Perhaps due to the current authoring systems, perhaps not, the processes of
writing and programming IF are closely linked and, I'd imagine, not easily
separable. I'm not saying it's impossible to collaborate on IF. If it was,
we wouldn't have "Shades of Gray" or "Path to Fortune". I've not played PtF
yet, but SoG was, IMO, identifiable by its origins -- the game felt very
episodic, though this is not always a bad thing.

The Adventions games are indeed up there with the best of 'em, but I think
(and I may be wrong here) that each game was written by one Dave (although I
suspect with heavy input from the other). Also, the Adventions team have
real life contact (again I may be wrong).

Anyone else?

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