Re: A few questions


27 Apr 1995 19:05:54 GMT

fringe@onramp.net wrote:
> (stuff deleted)
> gaming. I like a good game myself! But if you heard of an IF title in which
> every choice led somewhere interesting, and no matter how you played it would
> give you a good story, would you be interested? The reward here would be the
> same reward you get from reading a book, only this book changes every time you
> read it. No puzzles, no games.
>
I totally agree with you on this subject. Puzzles are fun, but a very
powerful and slightly different medium could be created around actually trying
to make stories, places, and people, instead of games. I think this could be
generally to more than IF, even. Imagine a video game built around it being
fun to continuously play, as opposed to being about winning.
Anyway, my opinion is that carefully used graphics, sounds, and music
could add a lot to an IF built around a story. But the focus should be on the
text, or else the text would be a burden and not the highlight.
I've heard from posts on this group that The Legend Lives focuses on
literary quality, but alas, I have not gotten around to trying it out yet.

> Would text and illustrations be enough to make it commercially viable, or do
> you think the flash of animation and/or digitized video would be needed?
>
Commercial viability requires a lot nowadays, but freeware/shareware
internet distribution can really get around. I have no idea how many people pay
shareware fees (since I've never finished any programming projects enough for
distribution, and some project I would want to do freeware anyway), but if your
question about commercial viability was about making money, maybe enough people
would like something and pay shareware fees. I don't know.
My guess that text/pictures won't cut it commercially is based on the
games I see out there nowadays.

- Tom Palmer