Re: Working away...


27 Jun 1995 18:13:31 GMT

In article <3so4fh$89j@Owl.nstn.ca> Jean-Henri Duteau,
nstn1433@fox.nstn.ca writes:
>How do you force a IF player to do something without making him realize
>he's being forced.

Aye, there's the rub. In my inexperienced opinion, this is where a well
structured plot and puzzles come into play. In other words, you seemingly
let the character do anything they want, but eliminate all options except
what *you* want them to do, by using puzzles that require information or
items from other parts of the game. The game universe is non-linear, but
the steps needed to solve the game aren't.

Look to other games to see how this is done. In Planetfall, for example,
you need key cards to get around the complex. You only get these cards by
going certain places, and you need certain cards to get *there*. The
player is drawn through a more-or-less linear plot by the puzzles, even
though they have "free will".

You mentioned another option: ""Sorry, the forest ends abruptly and you
can't go any further." There's other, more acceptable (to me anyway) ways
to say the same thing. In Curses, if you try to leave the attic, you get
something like "You've missed the point entirely!". Or in Unnkulian
Unventure, you are psychologically kept from going north to the city due
to the way you were raised; remember that the user of the game is playing
a character in the story, so things the user might do are not necessarily
what the character is willing or able to do.

I guess I'm rambling, but hopefully some of these ideas will help. Good
Luck!

- Jeff