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I enjoy thinking about the future of IF. I see it as a gaming/storytelling medium with a simultaneously huge potential but still vast chasms to cross before it

I enjoy thinking about the future of IF. I see it as a gaming/storytelling medium with a simultaneously huge potential but still vast chasms to cross before it gets there. NLP etc. has great potential to improve the parsing capabilities, to be sure, but it's not obvious to me that that will dramatically improve the experience. Is `pick up the shiny brass thing` really better than `GET LAMP`? IMO, it might make IF more accessible to non-techy, non-text parser gamers, but that's about it. I think the next leap for IF games will involve non-linear stories that are better suited to the medium. The success of games like "Papers, Please" in particular has sparked my imagination in this area.

willvarfar 8y ago
I recall a Ludum Dare entrant which was an android app that pretended to be a walkie-talkie to control some security operatives you were telling to search a building to investigate some noises. Very spooky. And a very good use of some basic voice parsing and NLP.
- reificator 8y ago
  Link please? That is an incredibly ambitious concept for a game jam, but it sounds like they pulled it off?
  - klodolph 8y ago
    Game jams are literally the best time to try risky concepts. If it fails, you’ve spent only a small amount of time, and there’s a good chance that people will play your game and give you feedback. I can’t think of a better time to take a risk. (Note: Parent comment edited risky -> ambitious.)
    - reificator 8y ago
      I didn't mean it was a risk in any negative sense. I was just looking for the word "ambitious" and couldn't find it in my sleep deprived state... Seriously, I'm so tired I looked up "ballsy thesaurus" and clicked related words for probably five minutes before I gave up looking and just typed 'risky' hoping it'd be good enough.
  - willvarfar 8y ago
    Googling found it http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=8342 http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid... The gameplay video is awesome. But perhaps not so much NLP... this was 2012! Was it really that long ago? And my memory was fuzzy. But just imagine what could be possible!
PaulHoule 8y ago
Inform 7 lets you write games in a language that reads like English even if it doesn't write like English.
alchemism 8y ago
The most memorable IF I’ve played through was one[1] in which you were a captured spy being interrogated in semi-linear fashion. The game was a retelling of your capture, where every wrong choice amounted to ‘It could not have happened that way, go back and tell me what you really did.’ The only way to win was to slip one lie into the retelling, and then when the game catches up to the present moment... [1]Spider and Web
- gjm11 8y ago
  Written by Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin, the person whose blog post about ZIL this is all a discussion of.
Zanni 8y ago
Struggling with the limitations of the parser was one of the recurring frustrations with Infocom games. "GET LAMP" is fine, but anything more complex quickly becomes challenging. I remember getting stuck in "The Lurking Horror" because I couldn't figure out how to climb down off a ledge, despite having a ladder. Use ladder? Climb ladder? Climb down? Climb down with ladder? Climb ledge with ladder?
- Drdrdrq 8y ago
  So... What was it? :)

willvarfar 8y ago

I recall a Ludum Dare entrant which was an android app that pretended to be a walkie-talkie to control some security operatives you were telling to search a building to investigate some noises. Very spooky. And a very good use of some basic voice parsing and NLP.

reificator 8y ago
Link please? That is an incredibly ambitious concept for a game jam, but it sounds like they pulled it off?
- klodolph 8y ago
  Game jams are literally the best time to try risky concepts. If it fails, you’ve spent only a small amount of time, and there’s a good chance that people will play your game and give you feedback. I can’t think of a better time to take a risk. (Note: Parent comment edited risky -> ambitious.)
  - reificator 8y ago
    I didn't mean it was a risk in any negative sense. I was just looking for the word "ambitious" and couldn't find it in my sleep deprived state... Seriously, I'm so tired I looked up "ballsy thesaurus" and clicked related words for probably five minutes before I gave up looking and just typed 'risky' hoping it'd be good enough.
- willvarfar 8y ago
  Googling found it http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=8342 http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid... The gameplay video is awesome. But perhaps not so much NLP... this was 2012! Was it really that long ago? And my memory was fuzzy. But just imagine what could be possible!

PaulHoule 8y ago

Inform 7 lets you write games in a language that reads like English even if it doesn't write like English.

alchemism 8y ago

The most memorable IF I’ve played through was one[1] in which you were a captured spy being interrogated in semi-linear fashion. The game was a retelling of your capture, where every wrong choice amounted to ‘It could not have happened that way, go back and tell me what you really did.’ The only way to win was to slip one lie into the retelling, and then when the game catches up to the present moment... [1]Spider and Web

gjm11 8y ago
Written by Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin, the person whose blog post about ZIL this is all a discussion of.

Zanni 8y ago

Struggling with the limitations of the parser was one of the recurring frustrations with Infocom games. "GET LAMP" is fine, but anything more complex quickly becomes challenging. I remember getting stuck in "The Lurking Horror" because I couldn't figure out how to climb down off a ledge, despite having a ladder. Use ladder? Climb ladder? Climb down? Climb down with ladder? Climb ledge with ladder?

Drdrdrq 8y ago
So... What was it? :)