Computers extension, v2

“Computers” is an extension I wrote some time ago, but the hiatus of the extension website meant that it wasn’t posted, so I didn’t announce it. However, it’s available now, and may interest some people.

The extension provides kinds for generic computers, as well as more specific implementations for desktops and laptops; some generic support for removable storage devices such as USB drives, CDs, and disks; and several kinds of software, including email and search engine programs, menus and operating systems, and password locks. (The behavior of the email and search portions are similar to those of the computers in Floatpoint.)

So, for example, we could set up a laptop with a password lockdown and an email delivery system thus:

Include Computers by Emily Short.

Conference room is a room. The conference table is a thing in the Conference Room. The small laptop is a laptop on the conference table.

The small laptop runs a password lock program called laptop security. Laptop security is privately-named. The password of laptop security is “mulderxox”.

The small laptop runs an email program called laptop email. Laptop email is privately-named.

The message table of laptop email is Table of Laptop Messages.

Table of Laptop Messages
topic message arrival time read answered description
“memo” “Memo” 9:00 AM false false “Your boss would like to see you in his office right away.”
“SPAM” “SPAM” — false false “Money for you from Nigeria!”
with 10 blank rows.

At 9:10 AM:
deliver “SPAM” to laptop email.

Test me with “turn on laptop / x laptop / x screen / type mulderxox / read memo / read spam / z / z / z / z / z / x screen / read spam / reply to spam”.

Version 2 fixes a couple of stupid little bugs and also introduces two new examples, one simple one demonstrating a computer with a removable drive, where the drive’s presence adjusts what can be found with the search engine, and a more complex one demonstrating the implementation of an ATM that must be accessed using both a debit card and a PIN, and has several different input modes.

Version 2 is available here.

Storytelling via roller coaster

There are people who review theme park rides. Did you know this? I didn’t, until a recent trip to Universal Studios.

Here are some general things I learned on this trip:

— Rides are getting more narrative than I remember from childhood; though possibly I just don’t remember very well. I suppose I recall the Pinocchio and Peter Pan rides at Disneyland as trying to tell or at least illustrate a story, with ride events corresponding to the major parts of the movies, but others were simply about immersing the rider in a certain kind of environment. All the Universal Studios rides tried to present a cohesive story, even if it was a very short one.

— Spitting water at the audience in judicious quantities is the cutting edge of awesome. Bonus points if it’s because someone in the story just sneezed.

— Blowing air on the back of the neck is also big.

Three particular cases of story-ride:

Continue reading “Storytelling via roller coaster”

Homer in Silicon and other Casual Stuff

On Delicious Emily’s Holiday Season, a time-management game with a romantic subplot in which you can actually make choices for the character. I can see this may have set them up for some problems about sequels down the road, but I was pleased with it, and it made a good occasion to talk some more about the interplay of gameplay and romance.

Speaking of casual games with developed plots, I am seriously disappointed by Jojo’s Fashion Show: World Tour. I’m guessing someone else took over the franchise after the tragic dissolution of Gamelab. But the dialogue doesn’t snap, the characters are dull, the fashions are less attractively drawn, and the gameplay is neither as challenging nor as interesting. There’s a portion where you can create your own items of clothing to go into the show, which sounded like it might be another attempt at the product-mixing concepts in Chocolatier: Decadence by Design and Passport to Perfume. But once again, this isn’t actually as interesting a mechanic as it could be. You’re always creating clothing to match a specific style, applying colors and patterns to a very limited selection of silhouettes: the result is that it’s hard to make an outfit that is a resounding failure, and fairly easy to come up with something worth a large number of points; and the process of doing this is all about experimenting with the colors and patterns until you’ve hit as many of the style features as you can. Perhaps this is an attempt to keep the game from being too difficult, but the results are (in my opinion) kind of limp. I’m still waiting for a tycoon or time management game where you design your own products but the gameplay on both sides really crackles. (This is — or could be — basically a deck-building problem.)