>A typical Bugs Bunny cartoon involves Bugs in a running battle with
>Fudd. Fudd sets a trap for Bugs, but Bugs escapes and turns the tables;
>then Fudd tries something else, and so it continues.
>So in "Toonesia", Bud could have appeared much closer to the start and
>the player could have made several attempts to deal with him.
>Similarly, Dizzy could have had some kind of money-making scheme which
>the player would subvert (or perhaps be tricked into taking part). Even
>better would have been to involve Bud, Dizzy and Taz in interactions
>among themselves.
Excellant points (as are the ones that I deleted in this followup.) I
think my mistake was that I started off by asking myself, "How can I fit
these characters into an IF game?" I should have asked, "How can I write
an IF game to fit these characters?"
I also think that having the other characters constantly tricking Elmo
Fuld would fix a problem that I have with Toonesia that nobody has
mentioned: In the cartoons, Elmer is a passive character. But by making
Elmo the player's character, I forced him to be a more active character
than he might otherwise be--and a more inventive one. If I had made my
NPCs more active, they would have brought problems to Elmo to solve,
allowing his character to be more passive (but still giving the player
plenty to do.) As it is, Elmo is the one going to them.
-Jacob Weinstein