Re: A few questions


08 May 1995 10:25:54 GMT

fringe@onramp.net wrote:
> Would anyone be interested in interactive fiction that is really good
> fiction?

When you say, `Interactive Fiction', do you mean computer fiction in the
fashion of `adventure games', i.e., games that try to simulate a world
and allow the player to interact with it in complex ways? Or are you
thinking more of `hypertext fiction', i.e., branching or non-linear
stories that allow the player some flexibility in choosing which
branches to follow or which order to read the material?

If you are talking about the former, then I think everyone would be
interested in this kind of interactive fiction. Interactive stories
which derive their interest not from puzzles but from complex plots that
arise dynamically out of the interactions of the characters, are the
holy grail of IF authors.

But the reason why these stories don't exist, or why attempts to produce
them have been unsuccessful, is not because IF authors are so interested
in puzzle solving that they don't want to write anything else, but
rather because writing good fiction in the adventure game side of IF is
very difficult.

At least the puzzle approach works and people have a good idea how to
make it a success; I don't think anyone knows how to make less
puzzle-oriented approaches work well.

> Those of you who create IF for computers, what tools do you use?

People who write text-only adventure game IF use TADS or Inform; see the
FAQ for this newsgroup (archived at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/
rec.arts.int-fiction.FAQ).

People who write literary hypertext speak highly of Eastgate Systems'
program "StorySpace". Eastgate Systems have a Web page describing their
products and offering teasers to some of the hypertext fiction they
publish (http://www.eastgate.com/~eastgate/).

--
Gareth Rees