When I read this quote in the "Dear Old People: Old Game Talk" thread, it triggered an idea that has lingered beneath the surface of my brain for some time that says we need more pure adventure games on the OHR.FnrrfYgmSchnish in the Dear Old People thread wrote:I also remember making a game with a town called "Biggiefries" (...that's basically all I remember of this one, I don't think I got much of this one done) and one with Yoshi in it, but I don't remember anything about it aside from being able to accidentally burn yourself to death if you checked a hot stove in a kitchen somewhere (which would give you the message "ouch! stove hot 'n' roasty!" and do 1 HP of damage) -- I don't think this one ever got finished.
When we play RPGs, we expect to save villages, kill monsters, and grow our stats to levels after endless battles with slimes that would translate to mega superpowers, if our experiences were anything similar in real life. Sometimes that means hitting the "use" key and ingesting whatever the game tells us to ingest. Our only real sense of choice is to walk where we want to walk and interact with whatever hides an NPC. The rest is scripted. There's some adventure there, but no real sense of danger or victory. Not at the map level, at any rate.
With side-scrollers, we often get the reverse of that. The environment puts us in constant danger, but the story's progress rarely develops in the action--we usually have to watch it unfold in cut scenes, or sometimes not at all. The adventure is a catharsis for beating up on evil. There isn't much to learn from it.
The adventure game can meld both forms together to create a compelling narrative that still rewards a player's choice (or punishes him). But even present-day point-and-click games are funneled through a narrative and, while a bit more open, still remains contained by the story's arc and not by the player's choice.
So, I'd like to propose a brief sidebar from our regular activities to fill Slime Salad with a glut of new, short games that put the emphasis on puzzles, exploration, and adventure based on the player's choices and discoveries.
I'd like to propose the Flavor Text Adventure Contest.
What is it?
Its purpose is to advance the narrative by promoting player choice, where items may reveal multiple interactions and consequences, positive or negative. Its purpose is to reward exploration or punish it. Its purpose is to give its designers a canvas for telling a branching narrative with multiple endings. Its purpose is to elevate the player's options for choice.
What are the expectations?
Yes, we'll consider this section the rules.
One of the elements that breathes life into an adventure RPG is its interaction with objects, what we now call "flavor text." A solid adventure title will be full of flavor text. But here's the rub, and this brings us back to the quote from FnrrfYgmSchnish above, the flavor text, although can at times be singular and constant, should be fit with an interactive menu that gives the player interactive options. Taking the above example, let's consider this scenario:
The Standard Way:
Protagonist approaches the oven. Protagonist "uses" oven. Protagonist takes one-point in damage.
The Flavor Text Adventure Way:
Protagonist approaches the oven. Protagonist "uses" oven. Choice menu appears:
-Look at Oven
-Touch Oven
-Place Item in Oven
-Stick Head in Oven
-Open Oven
-Punch Oven
-Test Oven Temperature
-Use Oven
Depending on selection, a new series of choices may appear:
-Look at Oven
"The oven is old. It's possible the kitchen was constructed around it. The wiring is faulty. I'd be afraid to use it."
-Touch Oven
(if off)
"The oven feels like rust wants to escape to the surface and infect its body. I wonder if I should call someone to get rid of it."
(if on)
"The electricity pouring through its body is now entering my body. Never mind the food it cooks; it's cooking me. I shouldn't have touched it. I might die. This is all in my head of course. I can't speak."
-Place Item in Oven
Opens another menu full of active inventory.
-Stick Head in Oven
"Yep, I don't know what else to do, so I'm going to end my adventure. Sigh. I hope whoever finds me knows what to do with a cooked head."
(game over)
-Open Oven
"Hmm, somebody left a roasted turkey in here. Thanksgiving was months ago."
(new options open for interacting with turkey)
-Punch Oven
"Satisfying!"
(Plays sound effect. Toughness goes up.)
-Test Oven Temperature
(if off)
"Room temperature."
(if on)
"Room temperature. Hmm, that's not right. Does this thing even work?"
-Use Oven
(item placed -- lose item temporarily)
"Okay, I hope I don't burn this."
(no item placed -- opens inventory menu)
"Maybe I should put something in it first."
You get the idea.
The main rule is to create an interactive environment that promotes choices and consequences. What you do with that is up to you.
Does it have to be an RPG?
No.
But I would recommend one of these four options:
-Tile-based adventure story in the vain of T4R4D1DDL3 or Castle on the Night Land
-Interactive text adventure like Bufanda: A Tale of Three Ghosts
-Parser or Mouse-based adventure like Space Quest
-The Interactive Storybook (or other interactive fiction types)
The games should be short, but have a point to them. If our usual games are novel-length, these games should be short stories or novelettes.
How will they be judged?
Average score, similar to how we do things in the Heart of the OHR contest.
When should they be finished?
I want to dialogue about this first, but I think the end of the month is reasonable. Maybe in July. No firm deadline yet. I don't want to encourage procrastination, so start now, do your best, and we can discuss deadlines based on interest and average production speed.
What do you guys think? Are you in or are you lame?
Oh, in the tradition of Heart of the OHR, you can recycle, rebuild, finish, or modify existing projects if you want. So, don't worry about file age. If you rerelease something that's already been finished, make sure we know which content is new.
Okay, so discuss.