Playing Interactive Fiction
Read a few lines or paragraphs describing a simulated world. Type a
command. The computer first tries to figure out what you want to do,
and then checks to see whether you can do it. The computer prints out
some more text, describing whether or to what extent your action has
affected the simulated world. (See transcripts and
examples of interactive fiction.)
Interactive fiction requires the text-analysis skills of a literary
scholar and the relentless puzzle-solving drive of a computer hacker.
People tend to love it or hate it. Those who hate it sometimes say it
makes them think too much.
See Also:
Studying Interactive Fiction
History of Interactive
Fiction
"In the mid 1970's Will Crowther, a programmer
and an amateur caver, having just gone through a divorce, was looking
for a way to connect with his two young children. Over the course of
a few weekends he slapped together a text based cave exploration
game that featured a sort of guide/narrator who talked in full
sentences and who understood simple two word commands that
came really close to natural English.... Some time later Stanford graduate
student Don Woods came along, and he came across an
unfinished copy of this game on a mainframe computer. He expanded it
and released it on the Internet."
| Annotated
Bibliography of Interactive Fiction (TEXT Technology)
"Those scholars who consider IF as something more than an
amusement often cast it as a form of postmodern narrative; yet
unlike hypertext, IF does not neatly embody any pre-existing
literary theories..."
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| Foundations
of IF
"[I]nteractive fiction has developed... from being a
simulation of some other experience (namely, the exploration of
an underground cave), to being a new way to present an experience
that cannot be narrated in any other manner."
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Other Resources about Playing IF
Writing Interactive Fiction
Designing interactive fiction involves both computer programming and
storytelling skill. Designers with any ambition must spend considerable
time fiddling with the mundane technical details of coding objects
and behaviors, while also creating characters, dialogue, and narrative
elements
that can be pieced together in multiple different ways.
A particularly exciting development in interactive fiction is the
release of Inform
7, a complete package for writing, debugging, mapping,
and publishing interative fiction games playable on a wide range of
platforms, including PCs, Macs, and handhelds. Inform 7 code is designed
to resemble ordinary English, and is thus an excellent choice for verbal
thinkers who are not trained as programmers.
The pages that
follow are intended to provide some sense of the challenges and
rewards
of writing interactive fiction.
| Creating the
Code
- Inform 7
An elegant, beautiful system that lets you use natural
language to write your own text games, which can be played
(for free) on a wide variety of machines, from PCs and Macs
to PDAs and digital phones.
- Older Resources for Inform 6
- Inform
Beginner's Guide
Step-by-step tutorial in the IF programming language
Inform. Begins with a good analysis of the genre, and
walks through the development of three increasingly complex
IF games. (Roger Firth and Sonia Kesserich; edited by Dennis
G. Jerz.)
- Inform
Designer's Manual (free
downloads)
The definitive guide to Inform 6. (Graham Nelson; edited
by Gareth Rees.)
- Cloak of
Darkness (Compares numerous other IF programming languages.)
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| Crafting the
Experience
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Features/Spotlights
Elsewhere on this website...
02 Sep 2001; Matt Hoy and
Dennis G. Jerz , eds.
Scott Adams: Storytelling in Computer
Games
The author of the first commercial computer game ("Adventureland,"
1978) leads a lively discussion on narrative, copyright, and violence.
He also describes his first night playing EverQuest.
posted 06 Mar 2001; by Emily Short
Galatea
(2000)
You come around a corner, away from the noise of the opening.
There is only one exhibit. She stands in the spotlight, with her back
to you: a sweep of pale hair on paler skin, a column of emerald silk
that ends in a pool at her feet. She might be the model in a perfume
ad; the trophy wife at a formal gathering; one of the guests at this
very opening, standing on an empty pedestal in some ironic act of artistic
deconstruction -- You hesitate, about to turn away. Her hand balls into
a fist. "They told me you were coming."
06 Mar 2001;
Dennis G. Jerz
Eliza (1966)
Eliza was the first chatterbot -- a computer program
that mimics human conversation. In only about 200 lines of computer
code, Eliza models the behavior of a psychiatrist (or, more specifically,
the "active listening" strategies of a touchy-feely 1960s
Rogerian therapist).
01 Feb 2001; by Emily Short
Metamorphoses
You wake to stillness. The hammering, banging, and shouting
that kept you awake half the night are gone. The air is cold, and something
smells burnt. Your master's experiments must be finished, but with what
result?
15 Sep 2000; by Dennis G. Jerz
PICK UP AX (Review)
PICK UP AX is a three-character stage play, set in Silicon
Valley around 1980, in which the characters play an "Adventure"
clone. Much as Shakespeare might allude to mythology or appeal to floral
symbolism in order to make a point about human nature, playwright
Anthony Clarvoe uses computer games as a vehicle to show the audience
who his characters are and what they want out of life.
7 Feb 2000; by Dennis
G. Jerz
Nelson's Interactive "The Tempest"
(Review)
The "interactor" takes on the role of the fairy spirit Ariel,
who must perform tricks in order to win his freedom. In theory, it sounds
like a great way to experience Shakespeare's work in a new context.
In practice, however...
Elsewhere on the Web...
6 May, 2000; Wagner James Au (Salon.com)
Will
you tell me a story -- please?
"Lured by the siren song of ever-improving graphics
power, terrified by the risks involved with truly unique ideas in gaming,
the industry is collectively stumbling along a path well-worn by Hollywood."
26 Apr 2001; Laura L. Hogue (UWEC Spectator)
Text-based
computer game lets players interact with story
"Imagine yourself creating a game with a world for other people
to inhabit on your own computer. It is a world without sounds or visuals.
Now, put yourself into the textual world and imagine yourself in that
world and living through the game."
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