But then the game is in a sort of limbo. I wanted a feel of
claustrophobia, and the time limit helped produce that. In addition, the
player still *feels* time passing. Night may not fall, but if you play
the game until, say, 300 turns have passed, would you not be surprised
that the Coast Guard hadn't shown up yet?
> >I believe that the second charge leveled at Undertow is the serious
> >flaw in the game. As I was writing the game, I quickly realized that I
> >wouldn't be able to handle a huge amount of possible reactions among
> >the NPCs and the players. [...] I'm open to
> >any suggestions as to how to improve this flaw.
>
> Write a different game. That probably sounds harsh, but you just can't
> do a murder mystery without allowing for extensive interaction with the
> suspects... and, as you point out, that much interaction just isn't
> feasible within the time frame we're talking about.
You're right, that does sound harsh. You're basically saying that my
attempt was not worth making because I wasn't going to be able to model a
huge amount of actions/reactions among NPCs. That's true of *any* game.
I'm going to run into a limit at some point. The length of this game made
me reach that limit much faster. And what is "that much interaction" to
you is not what is "that much interaction" is to me.
Taking your advice, I should never attempt anything I won't be able to
produce perfectly.
Stephen
-- Stephen Granade sgranade@phy.duke.edu Duke University, Dept. of Physics 1-919-660-2549 Box 90305, Durham N.C. 27708-0305, USA