My Piece of Interactive Fiction

So currently the title of my piece of interactive fiction is "The Island of Return." I can't say that I am completely satisfied with the name yet so it's apt to change.

I originally used RPG Maker AX but unfortunately I was unable to do what I wanted to do with the free version(it allowed you to do almost everything the paid version did except there were space constrains that I could not deal with) so I switched to Twine. Unfortunately the puzzles had to be removed but I replaced them with a different concept that may work even better.

The Plot of "The Island of Return" begins with you abruptly being saved by seemingly mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by a man named Michael. I wrote the story in a way that regardless if you are male or female  the story works so that it is supposed to be you as the main character. The main character has amnesia. I know it may seem overused but there is a good reason for it. The story continues by making several choices that can lead you to an early end or get to the true story you read a letter which ends up leading you into a labyrinth that should be able to help get you off of this island. Throughout the labyrinth you will be required to avoid traps and make a series of choices that could cost the main character his or her life. By answering the questions correctly you have visions that until you make it til the end of the story will seem rather random and confusing, at least that was my aim.  The only way to make it to the end is to make all the right choices. Honestly some of the choices may not make sense at the time but it all comes together. I don't want to reveal the ending here but once I am completely done with my piece I will post it in this blog for everyone to try. I am looking at there being between 6 to 10 endings depending on how I decide to layout certain choices. Good luck getting them all.

And if you do decide to play it...May the odds be ever in your favor!

Visual Novels

Visual novels are my personal favorite when it comes to works of Interactive Fiction. Visual Novels make up about 70 percent of all videogame sales in Japan. Do not let this deceive you though. Visual Novels are not your typical type of videogame and not all visual novels are videogames either.

Your average visual novel usually consists of alot of text (obviously), some sort of background music or noise that sets the mood for the part you are reading, decisions you can make that affect either the ending or some part of the story, and visuals that are usually the characters that are talking in the foreground and scenery in the background.  

In recent years, there have been many visual novels that are considered videogames. Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney was the first visual novel I ever experienced. In the game, you take the role of a young defense lawyer that just joins this new law firm. The game has three main elements: the story part, the investigation section, and the court room. The story part is similar to most other visual novels. It's mainly reading and making decisions that affect certain story elements. The investigation section is where you have to go over the crime scene and other places that the accused may have possibly gone so that you can look for clues to use during the court room section. Finally, the court room section is where, like in a normal court case, you have to prove that your client is innocent by using the clues you found to contradict or prove the witness is telling the truth.

Many companies are also porting their existing visual novels to game consoles. The most popular console for visual novels is the Playstation Vita. My guess for why they would pick the Vita would be because it is a portable gaming so it would allow people the ability to read them on the go as apposed to sitting a computer to read them.

Ingress update: So I realized after getting destroyed by the Enlightened this week that numbers are everything in Ingress. So if you plan on taking over an area with multiple portals, find some friends and take some fields. 

Alternate Reality Games

Alternate reality games are created by using the real world as a base for the entire game. Over the last decade or so, the internet has given people the ability to interact with a great number of people. Because of this, alternate reality games of become more numerous and it has expanded the possibilities of them.

 For example, Ingress uses a person's smart phone or tablet to allow them to participate in a very large in-depth mix of capture the flag and risk. GPS is also a huge component of Ingress meaning that this game would not be able to have the success that it does now a couple years ago. The fact that millions of people are all playing the same game together or against the other faction is kind of mind blowing. 

Let me delve a little deeper into the mechanics and story of Ingress. There are two different factions: the Enlightened and the Resistance. The Enlightened believe that their actions will push humanity into the next stage of evolution. The Resistance thinks the Enlightened's actions are causing the enslavement of humanity and want to protect human freedoms. The objective of each faction is to get control of the most land. To do this people can make portals but they must link together at least three portals in order to actually control any land. The catch is that your faction has to control each of those portals. The enemy can destroy and take control of one of you portals so protecting your portals is also a high priority. Hacking portals gives you the items the players needs to attack the enemies or protect their own portals.

The game became even more reality because of the huge following it has. The fact that there are Ingress conventions and other types of group meetings just shows you how much this game is really ground in reality.

The technology increase really allowed alternate reality games to fulfill its potential. I am really excited to see what is in the future of alternate reality games with the uses of the oculus rift and google glass or other similar medium. 

House of Leaves

So where to begin with House of Leaves. It is a book written by Mark Danielewski, about a guy named Johnny Truant, who finds a book written by a man named Zampano, about a movie called the Navidson Record (a movie that does not exist), which is then read by Johnny Truant. Truant also talks about different parts of his life during this reading so it is essentially two different stories going on at the same time. It is very interesting how the stories are intertwined.

This story begins with how Johnny Truant ended up finding Zampano's writings in the first place. The first chapter starts into what was in the Navidson report. This movie is about Will Navidson's family moving into a house and Will's trouble coping with normalcy. Placing cameras throughout the house to record everything so that he would be able to capture specific moments of his family. They eventually go on vacation but upon returning find a room that was not there before they left. Will measures the inside and the outside of the house and realizes the outside is larger than the inside. This is when things really start to get interesting but you will just have to read the rest for yourself.

The interactivity of this book changes throughout the experience. Initially it is how the reader decides to read the two stories and the footnotes. Later on, you are required to interact with the book differently. Sometimes by turning the book and reading clockwise or upside down. In other cases, a mirror was needed to read it properly. Just interacting with the point wasn't even the only strange part. There were parts that had empty brackets, pages with a few or no words at all. Even the index was rather odd. It had the words that were in the book and the pages they were located on but there are many words in the index that just say DNE or does not exist by them.

Everything about this book screams creepy and I love it. From the story itself to the makeup of the book, the chaos never seems to end. To be honest I have not completely finished the book yet but there is no question that I am going to complete this obscure yet captivating masterpiece.

Galatea

Galatea, written by Emily Short, is a piece of interactive fiction that the entire game takes place in a single room. In this room is a statue that is alive or animated as the text states. The game is basically a text based conversation that allows you to also examine your surroundings. Apparently there are 70 different endings to be discovered throughout Galatea. The objective of the game seems to be that you want to get to know Galatea and earn her trust.

During my first play-through, I went more of the obvious route of asking questions almost strictly off of the responses that were given by Galatea. I found out that she fell in love with her creator and he also fell for her. I unfortunately mentioned about the topic of her being in love with him a little too early and was pushed into one of the endings. She talked about their situation and that it all changed once she became animated. (see image below)

On my second play-through I thought I would try almost an opposite approach. I decided to ask Galatea more about herself and try to become friends. I starting asking questions about different things but it all lead back to the artist. I decided to just continue to listen to her which led to another ending. She talked about that she was created in a studio in Cyprus. The rest of this ending has Galatea talking about different things she wants to know and experience. The character you control basically decides to become her teacher. I am posting the ending a the bottom of this article if you care to read rest of the ending. (see image below)

I looked through some of the other endings that can be unlocked and I definitely got some of the more tame endings. I even saw an ending that Galatea becomes mortal. Overall I really enjoyed my experience with Galatea. I had some trouble initially figuring out how to navigate through the game. Asking questions took me the longest to get acquainted with. The story is great and you actually want to get Galatea to open up and gain her trust.

Opening Sequence

Love ending

Teacher ending
   

Maybe Make Some Change

Normally I would come up with some sort of witty title but this particular piece was very serious. Before I get into the story of the game, let me discuss some of the game's mechanics. "Maybe Make Some Change" uses a two word parser. The first word must be one of the seven words that you can unlock throughout your play-through. The second word must be one of the yellow words that are displayed in the text.

The game starts you off telling you the basics. You are soldier and can only do what do what you already know how to do. Unfortunately, the only thing you know how to do at the beginning is shoot. The game starts you off in Afghanistan. The player sees a hajji (slur for middle-eastern man) ahead of the troop. The game requires you to "shoot hajji." Then you have to continually shoot the same person but described with different nouns until you learn threaten. Throughout this game, eventually words such as hug, calm, hear, warn, and miss are learned. The user is then thrown into different situations in which you answer basically the same question but it is worded differently. During this period, each sequence has the character speaking to a different person. During this phase, using the words on the people you are speaking with causes the word to disappear permanently. An example of this would be "hug uncle". Once you eliminate all of the words but shoot. Then you have to react one last time. After this you see Facebook messages from the soldier's Dad and his squad mate. The most powerful part of this story is finding out that it actually is not a story. The ending of "Maybe Make Some Change" is an article that talks about the real events that this game was based.

This piece definitely classifies as interactive fiction. "Maybe Make Some Change" puts you in the shoes of a soldier that was actually in this situation. It also requires you to make the same decision regardless of if you want to of not. The user must input to move the story forward. The voice clips and sound effects help immerse the user into the experience.

I really enjoyed this piece. Throughout my blog I referred to this as a game but honestly it is more like an empathy simulator, putting you into the shoes of this soldier and even the Middle-Eastern man's wife in a smaller way.

The Sweet Old Mr. Plimpton's Last Performance.

Today we are going in a different direction from my previous posts. "Mr. Plimpton's Revenge", "The Sweet Old Etcetera", and "The Last Performance" do not fall into your cookie cutter types of Interactive Fiction.

"Mr. Plimpton's Revenge" is a type of Interactive Fiction that utilizes Google Maps and several websites to show you the path that the author takes on his journey. He uses fifteen different entries each happening in different locations. Many of these locations are in the Pittsburgh area but some are in Harrisburg, New York, and Baltimore. Throughout the entries he posts the websites, phone numbers, pictures, or addresses of the locations that the event occurred.

The story of "Mr. Plimpton's Revenge" begins at the University of Pittsburgh campus travels to many different places. The author starts by acting as a chauffeur for Mr. Plimpton and ends up meeting him in many unlikely places. The author also seems to be a bit of a drug user. Honestly, I would love to hear the story of when they dropped acid in Chinatown and rode to the top of the World Trade Center.

The other two pieces of Interactive Fiction that I looked at were "The Sweet Old Etcetera" and "The Last Performance." In my opinion, both of these pieces should be generalized as art more so than literature or Interactive Fiction. "The Last Performance" had more text but, from my experience, the wording was rather nonsensical and I could not determine any sort of plot. The whole experience was set up like a dance. I also could not determine when this piece ended. It seems to continuously repeat. On the other hand, "The Sweet Old Etcetera" was setup to look like a painting. The further one goes the more beautiful the painting becomes. This one also was hard to follow. See below for a sample of this piece.

Of the three pieces I definitely enjoyed "Mr. Plimpton's Revenge" the most. I still think the others were good; I personally enjoyed the artistic part of them but the literary aspect had me lost.



Sample of "The Sweet Old Etcetera"
 

It's 9:05! Your late for someone else's job!

9:05 is probably my favorite piece of interactive fiction that I have played thus far. The best parts of this piece in my opinion were the language, the story, and the multiple endings.

The language is very easy to use. The parser accepts many different variations of the same phrases. For example, leave bed, exit bed, and get out of bed are all capable of getting you out of bed. The only part of the game that was a little tricky was when you had to remove your watch and clothes and also drop them to allow your character to get into the shower but otherwise it was a very smooth experience.

The story starts you out in bed and your phone rings. If you decide to answer it, a man yells at you and tells you your presentation was supposed to be at 9:00 a.m. and basically that your boss is probably going to fire you. This is where the game gets interesting. If you decide to look under the bed you find a corpse of the man that owns the house that you just slept in. If you want to leave the house you have to get a shower at some point. Then you are free to leave. If you choose to do so make sure you grabbed the wallet and keys so you can unlock the car door. Once you get in the car and drive you can either go to work or drive off into the distance.

This story has four possible endings. I ended up getting three out of the four endings. The first was the ending where you end up getting arrested for going to work and posing as Hadley. Next, if you decide to just keep driving on the highway, you will end up dying in a fiery car crash. The final ending that I found was an ending that you had to basically wait out the clock but end up dying from internal injuries from the previous night.(see screenshot below).

I highly recommend 9:05 to anyone wanting to try Interactive Fiction, beginner or experienced veteran. Even though it was fairly short, the multiple endings will keep you coming back for more.


Screenshot of successfully getting the death by internal injuries ending.

The beginning of the adventure

My attempting to get the ending by waiting to die.

This is Not a Book is Possibly the Best Book

What comes to mind when thinking about examples of Interactive Fiction. Some may think of text based adventures, Japanese visual novels, or many other things. "This is not a book" is basically the definition of Interactive Fiction. Every page of this book is a new interaction.

The book begins by preparing the user for a unique journey that he/she will have never experienced before by trying to prepare you mentally to venture forward. This book like most Interactive Fiction requires a bit of imagination. Unlike other works, "This is not a book" takes it to the next level. It requires the reader to do minor requests from writing down your current thoughts to some more extreme requests like tearing pages out of the book, losing it for a week, or even messing up multiple parts of the book. To some people violating the book feels dirty or even taboo. Many of the pages ask you to tear out pages of the book and physically do things to them. Some of the pages require you to maybe step out of your comfort zone. One example is to take a book you enjoy and read it out loud in public. Drawing in this book is also a very regular occurrence. For instance, on pages eight and nine, there is a background of the ocean and the book says to add imagery to the scene.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to experience something fresh and different from the norm. This is not a book that you can just curl up next to the fire and read for hours. It requires you to go out and experience to world and your own mind.  The story is also different from any other book. "This is not a book" does have a story but everyone will have the one. That is the beauty of this piece, everyone starts with the same book but ends up with a book that nobody else can. 

The Guide to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an older text base piece of interactive fiction that dates back to 1984. If you science fiction with a slice of comedy peaks your interest this is the game for you. This game seems to have a fairly liberal language reader, also know as a parser, so it is not nearly as strict as some of the other works of interactive fiction at the time. The descriptions within the game are also more thorough compared to other works. I found the small graphical touch in the 30th anniversary version was enough to help the experience while keeping the game feeling like a text based interactive fiction.

The game starts with your character waking up in bed. From what I can gather he seems to be hungover or possibly still drunk from the night before. This conclusion is derived from the fact that when you get out of bed everything you try to touch or react to act as if they are moving strangely. The learning curve was a little higher than I expected being that I was killed by a yellow bulldozer that flattens your character's house before I was finished examining the contents of the room.

During my second attempt I managed to put on the gown that is on the chair beside the bed. Once I accomplished that I opened the pockets and took what I assumed to be some sort of instant hangover cure. Finally I was able to exit the room and the house without the door dodging my movements. I attempted to stop the bulldozer but inevitably got hit by a brick in the back of the head and died.

Eventually, after dying many times, I managed to get to the Pub with a guy named Ford, drank some beers, and eventually ended up on a spaceship after using Ford's small black device.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy overall was extremely fun and entertaining. I would not recommend this to a person that is brand new to the world of interactive fiction. The main reason being that many times throughout the game you only have so many turns to accomplish your goal unlike games such as Zork where trial and error have no penalty for the most part. If your not familiar with the Hitchhiker series or are new to interactive fiction, you will die alot.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Opening

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Continued Play

Zork Experience

zork capture 1

zork capture 2

What Is Interactive Fiction?

Interactive Fiction is a different way of experiencing writing than the traditional linear writing or books. Traditional books have a "set in stone" way of experiencing it meaning that every person will have basically the same experience. A large amount of Interactive Fiction experience is the opposite. Some reasons for this is that Interactive Fiction can have many features. For example, many pieces of Interactive Fiction require you to make choices throughout the experience resulting in different events that affect the story slightly or as much as changing the ending of the story. By having these choices implemented into the story it can cause several to even hundreds of different experiences depending on the piece. Bee requires the user to choose from a list of options what to do next. Depending on your choices you can end up with 4 different endings but even if you get the same ending as another user, your experience will be different.

Adventure and Zork are a strictly text based type of Interactive Fiction. They play like an adventure or some people even think they should be categorized as games. The user has to type in what they want to do next in order to progress in the story. Usually this type of Interactive Fiction is nonlinear and allows you to do what you want in the order that you want to do it.

Some other pieces, such as Yung Hae-Chang Heavy Industries' DAKOTA, are not choice based as many pieces of Interactive Fiction but the experience differs from traditional text by implementing music and flashes this words in an interesting pattern that goes with the music. Some others use music to help immerse the user into the experience and set the tone. Umineko no naku koro ni is a japanese visual novel that does exactly this plus pictures of scenery and each of the characters.

Basically Interactive Fiction is not categorized as one genre or type, it is a large variety of things that change the way that you experience text. Some people may disagree but I feel as if Interactive Fiction should be categorized as any type of writing that changes the normal experience for the user. This could be anything from using one of your senses that you usually do not use while reading or something that gives you options by allowing the user to participate.