New features in IF.


27 Oct 1995 01:00:43 GMT

Here are two features that may be interesting to have in some IF games:
1. A way of going to any part of the game instantly and play from that
point on. In books we can read some chapters ahead, or go to a
page where our favorite quotation is. I've wanted to play parts of
some IF games after the games has been over, but without keeping
saved files I'd have to play the game again until I reach the part I
liked.
An IF game is not linear like a book or movie, also the player and
game could be in many different states at any point in the game.
This means one can't just have a forward/rewind instruction because
there are many possible paths one could have taken.
Two solutions are:
a. Have the game save the state of the game as it is played. Kind of
recording your path as you walk on the street. You could have
taken many paths, but saved the one you took and can go over that
one path again (in the movie) and not other possible paths.
b. The player would have the capability of configuring the game
so he/she could be at any point of the game with any object and
play from there.

2. A way for the player to participate in conversation between NPCs. For
example. NPC1 is talking to NPC2 and we want the player to be able to
get in the conversation.
One solution is to have a system that pauses for a specified amount of
time after NPC1 said something to NPC2, giving the player the chance
to say something before NPC2 does, before NPC2 replies to NPC1.

I realize having natural language conversation between NPCs and player
is still out of reach, but thinking about it now might someone an idea. :)

Alfredo