New Media Communication @ Tunxis CC - Spring 2007

Things to think about when we talk about games:

• boundary — all games have boundaries, rules to play by
• complexity — in games, complexity is often hidden
• emergence — the way that game designers set the player up along the way
• goals — all games have goals and are goal-driven

Interactive Fiction
a/k/a

• IF
• Text Adventure (Game)
• Computer-Mediated Narrative

This type of fiction has been around since the 1980s. They were the first “commercial” computer games. Most authoring systems and older works of Interactive Fiction have become freeware.

Zork was one of the first and best known interactive fiction games. In order to really get anywhere in the game, the player had to create a map. As the game is played, the map is drawn out.

This reminds me a lot of Harold and his Purple Crayon. He created his world, made his choices, and drew his own damn map. He controlled the outcome of his story. Now, of course, Professor Timmons brings up Harold and the Purple Crayon. Let it be noted that it occurred to me before he mentioned it. I’m learning dammit!

Simple definition of interactive fiction: Reading text and pressing keys on your keyboard.

The programmer of the game controls the boundaries.

Inform — Interactive Fiction software.

Playing Pong. We have some visual boundaries, which are the borders of the screen. We have the paddles. There are feedback elements. The annoying buzz/beep noise is one form of feedback. The score shown on the screen is another element of feedback. Feedback is obviously an important part of the game.

A lot of stuff about game design is covered quite well by this entry in my new media journal, which is actually just a brief one with links. In fact, Part 4 has been released since I first published that entry.