Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction From: librik@netcom.com (David Librik) Subject: Scott Adams: How to write Adventure games Date: Tue, 13 Jun 1995 04:25:36 GMT A few weeks ago, someone here mentioned the fact that Scott Adams, the creator of personal computer Adventures, wrote a column for Softside magazine in 1980 and 1981. He did: it was called SAY YOHO, for reasons that any player of Pirate's Adventure will immediately know. Most of the columns in the series were fairly technical or dealt with immediate problems in the industry. Two of them, however, contained very insightful material on how he writes and judges interactive fiction. I've excerpted the interesting bits below for your reading and discussion pleasure. Share and enjoy. - David Librik librik@cs.Berkeley.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------- SAY YOHO by Scott Adams 1/81 This month let's look at the rules I use to write what I consider a good compunovel. I feel that any compunovel will need to follow these rules fairly closely to become a success, though like any rules there are always exceptions. 1) LOGICAL CONSISTENCY Is the compunovel logical? This is of course a very basic point that any compunovel writer needs to adhere to very closely or the results can be really disastrous. Simple things like whether when exiting a room to the easy you can get back by then going west are important and can completely ruin the feel of an otherwise fun program! (Unless of course it is in a logical place such as a maze or maybe lost in a desert and so on.) Also very important: Do the responses fit the actions? If you drink a flask of water it would be extremely illogical to then develop a case of sunstroke and die. If a particular response doesn't fit the requested action, then there should be some sort of logical reason why not. An example might be the reason you developed sunstroke in the above because the water had a specific drug in it. Whatever the reason is, though, it should become obvious to the player and not remain a secret with the author, or the believability of the game will suffer! 2) EXOTIC KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE UNNECESSARY Knowledge that is not common or readily available should not be required to complete a game (though it might be required for special scoring). The main purpose of playing a compunovel is more to overcome obstacles and problems by using intelligence than by knowing something someone else doesn't. Example: Needing to know the Russian word for cow before milking said beastie. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. If a compunovel was designed to educate in a particular field, then it would be acceptable to force the player to learn what is needed. Also, if a piece of knowledge is widespread and easy to find out, it would be acceptable, such as knowing Morse Code. 3) ITEMS AND LOCATIONS SHOULD FIT THE PLOT A dragon and magic words are quite appropriate in a fantasy adventure, but would be greatly out of place in a nuclear reactor! 4) MULTI LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY All problems and obstacles to overcome should not be of the same degree of difficulty or the player will become extremely bored or extremely frustrated. One obvious exception to this rule is when the program is written for a specific age group. 5) MORE WAYS TO SKIN THE CAT Whenever it is possible (usually memory is a constraint here), try to have more than one way to reach a desired goal as not all people think alike! Also along this line, it is a good idea to provide responses to all the different things a player might enter. (This is probably one of the easiest rules to lay down and one of the hardest to follow!) 6) NO SUDDEN DEATH SYNDROME Unless the plot is specifically written to need it (like DEATH DREADNAUGHT), is it not a good idea to capriciously kill off players without giving them some sort of warning ahead of time. This allows the clever player a chance to escape the doom the author has envisioned for them! So that sums it up for this month. If anyone out in the real world has any additional rules they think are valid, drop me a line! And oh yes, Adventure 10 is now out! Now, I'll just 'til next month, SAY YOHO ......... (BYE)! ONE LINE ADVENTURE by Phillip Case 0 CLS:PRINT"ADVENTURE VISIBLE ITEMS: TREES OBVIOUS EXITS: EAST WEST ";STRING$(30,"-"):INPUT"TELL ME";A$:IFA$<>"E",0ELSEPRINT@0,"I'M IN A CAVE.";:PRINT@79,"NOTHING";:PRINT@143,"NONE",;:PRINT@263,"" ;:INPUTA$:IFASC(A$)=72ANDMID$(A$,4)="P",PRINT"YOU WIN!!"ELSE0 ONE LINE REVIEW by Scott Adams (See Say Yoho column this month.) RULE 1, usually; RULE 2, yes; RULE 3, yes, RULE 4, well maybe; RULE 5, hardly; RULE 6, yes; RATING 5/6 = 84% (not bad for one line!); SAY YOHO, and we gone ..... ------------------------------------------------------------------- SAY YOHO by Scott Adams 3/81 [discussion of save-game bug on the Apple 2 deleted] I have been asked many times how I develop an Adventure. Well, my usual procedure is as follows: 1) First I pick a topic that I want to cover, such as Dracula or the Old West. 2) Then I decide whether I want to do a treasure expedition or have some sort of specific mission to perform. (The treasure-finding type of Adventure is usually easier to write, but not by a lot.) 3) Next I lay out some terrain to cover and put in a simple skeleton of problems and obstacles to overcome. Also I dot the landscape with obvious items and objects which belong there, such as coconuts in palm trees, etc. 4) By this time, I usually have some interesting problems laid out which I then incorporate into the structure. 5) At this point I'm usually ready to enter the structure into the computer and start play-testing. The Adventure is probably about 50 percent of its final size at this time. 6) Finally, the play-testing by myself and other gives me numerous ideas of how to fill in the holes in the final structure and an Adventure is born! How long this process takes ranges from one year, in the case of "Adventureland", to only one week for "Mystery Fun House". On the average, an Adventure will take about a month to finish, and anywhere from three hours to three months to play! I hope this has given you some insight into Adventure creating. Until next month, may all your adventures be fun and safe. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Other articles included: an enthusiastic cheer for Infocom's just-released "Zork" (which Adams had played back in his mainframe days, as DUNGEON), a description of his new adventure system "Odyssey" -- apparently intented to move into Infocom's arena with heavy use of the new microcomputer floppy disk technology, it never saw the light of day -- and a reference to Adams' rule of software pricing: how much would movie tickets cost for the same number of hours of enjoyment? - David Librik librik@cs.Berkeley.edu