Category: interactive fiction

Moods in conversation

Question from Conrad Cook:

I’m wondering how you mesh variable tracking with conversation.
You’ve mentioned _Alabaster_ tracks a lot of variables, and I can
conceptualize how that would be reflected in, for example, the
artwork. But I’ve been wrestling for a while with how to use the
conversation to move the NPC’s variables, and how to have those
variables be reflected in the course of the conversation, and so far
I’m not winning that wrestling match.

Alabaster’s source is available, so it’s possible just to look at what’s going on there — but possibly more difficult to suss out exactly what the plan is throughout the source. A technical discussion follows.

Continue reading “Moods in conversation”

Walker & Silhouette

Latest playing: CEJ Pacian’s brand-new game about an unlikely crime-fighting duo. It’s keyword-driven, a la Blue Lacuna but more so; that means it’s easy, but not so easy that there aren’t any puzzles at all. I think it took me 30-45 minutes to play, but I could be misestimating that. There’s mystery, there’s wacky setting, there’s light romance. Looking back over the experience, I think it’s best if you don’t know very much about what to expect (like I didn’t), so I won’t give much more detail than that. I liked it.

More on Boston PAX

As zarf notes over here, we’ve submitted some panel suggestions to PAX East (and other people are welcome to do more). That’s Boston, March 26-28, 2010. Definitely planning to be there, besides me: J. Robinson Wheeler, Robb Sherwin, Aaron Reed, Andrew Plotkin, Mark Musante, Jeremy Freese, Juhana Leinonen, Jonathan Blask, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Jacqueline Lott Ashwell, Dave Cornelson, John Cater, David Welbourn, Iain Merrick, Jesse McGrew, Christopher Armstrong, Nick Montfort (part of the weekend); possibly Stephen Granade, Mike Rubin, and Jim Munroe; Jason Scott, almost certainly premiering Get Lamp.