Comments on: Five easy improvements to your game http://nitku.net/blog/2009/12/five-easy-improvements-to-your-game/ Interactive Fiction theory and design Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:05:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: David Welbourn http://nitku.net/blog/2009/12/five-easy-improvements-to-your-game/comment-page-1/#comment-1030 David Welbourn Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:56:18 +0000 http://nitku.net/blog/?p=205#comment-1030 Bullseye. Indeed, these are all easy fixes to almost any IF game and they're all certainly worth doing. Inform 7 games seem to be especially vulnerable to GET ALL; I noticed that rather quickly. Your call for turning VERBOSE on right away reminds me of the end of http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/starters/Beginner.txt -- dated 1997, so it's hardly a new idea, and shouldn't be that controversial. For what it's worth, I can think of two reasons to turn BRIEF mode on in a game. One, you're replaying a game you know really well, and you're just trying to reach a particular point as quickly as possible. Two, you've just entered a maze. In BRIEF mode, it's more obvious that you've entered a completely new room instead of one you've already visited. Bullseye. Indeed, these are all easy fixes to almost any IF game and they’re all certainly worth doing. Inform 7 games seem to be especially vulnerable to GET ALL; I noticed that rather quickly.

Your call for turning VERBOSE on right away reminds me of the end of http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/starters/Beginner.txt — dated 1997, so it’s hardly a new idea, and shouldn’t be that controversial.

For what it’s worth, I can think of two reasons to turn BRIEF mode on in a game. One, you’re replaying a game you know really well, and you’re just trying to reach a particular point as quickly as possible. Two, you’ve just entered a maze. In BRIEF mode, it’s more obvious that you’ve entered a completely new room instead of one you’ve already visited.

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