Text parser or Point&Click for Interactive Adventure?

[Gord10]

Hello all,
Some of you know I'm working on the sequel of an "adventure game" which was actually more "interactive story" (I'm talking about Lost in the Nightmare). The sequel is going to be an interactive story-ish, too (but I'm thinking of adding several hard puzzles; as the first game was critiqued to be too easy and including so less puzzles for an adventure game).
Anyway; there is something in my mind since I played Trilby's Notes. I disliked the text parser control type at first; it was something I wasn't used to. But later, I realized it was a really good way of control; I saw it really helps the atmosphere.

And now I'm thinking of using the text parser system in Lost in the Nightmare 2. It will have some pro's and con's:
+It will force "courage" the player to think about the situation that s/he is inside. I mean; in a point&click adventure, when you are tied to a chair to be tortured, the thing that player would do is to click every possible spot and use the inventory items in all possible ways. But in a text parser; the player thinks what to do in real. Even though the options are limited with the imaginary of the author, it is quite wide what could be done. "beg", "move chair", "talk about lost money", "swear", "count"... cough...
-It is necessary for the developer to think and apply in the game the all verbs what could be done in the situation. Or the game loses its all impress.
-And many player might find it hard to type text instead of clicking.

Anyway; I'm thinking of turning all the game control into text parser. I'm at very beginning of the development of Lost in the Nightmare 2, and the decisions I will have are really important for the all process of the game. So I'm asking your thoughts about it; I will need your opinions.

[Radiant]

As a possible middle road, http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=27206.0.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Another possible middle road was a thread that Bernie started - can't find it myself, sorry - about a project of his, which combined the parser with a point and click interface - similar to an experiment of mine, actually. Think "Gateway", or "Spellcasting 101", or such games. Radiant's suggestion is closer to the graphical adventure - this one is closer to text adventure.

[Gord10]

Thanks for your replies. The examples look good; but I don't think such a complex looking and large GUI would suit into a horror game (for instance; there wasn't any GUI sprites in Call of Cthulhu: The Dark Corners of Earth). It is important the make the players feel like that they are not playing a game, but they are inside the story. So I don't think I will use that kind of control in my game.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Well, it ultimately depends on the game. Darkseed and Phantasmagoria had a very simple interface, but Phantasmagoria 1's interface (frame around the main window, inventory, and so on) wasn't exactly unintrusive. Gabriel Knight 1 had lots of options, and managed to use a layout that made it so it didn't interfere with anything. The Dark Eye had the most simple, intuative and (arguably) original interface I've ever seen.

If anything, if presented with the proper layout, Radiant's GUI might make them feel more like they are inside the game world, considering the many, many, many ways they can interact with it. If, of course, you decide to go point and click.

[GarageGothic]

Parser seemed to work well in Trilby's Note, as you say, but also the AGI horror game Enclosure. I'm a big fan of text parsers, because usually the puzzles make much more sense than in point-n-click games (since you need to type the right words and can't just click wildly). Of course this requires the designer to take that fact into consideration and create reasonably obvious solutions!

If you do go for the text parser, make sure to beta test the game intensely. And make your testers keep lists of all the words and commands they tried, which made sense in the situation but didn't work. There's nothing more frustrating than knowing exactly what you want to do but not knowing how to tell it to the game (i.e. the final puzzle in LSL2).

[2ma2]

For me, the parser is the ultimate interface, but the puzzles NEED to be much more obvious than in a graphical GUI. I personally loathe many IF games since they have the whackiest solutions to puzzles and make the mistake that a puzzle might be to obvious for the player and then make the hints simply too weak. I am however a huge fan of the interactive fiction base, and love a good game immersion, much that you speak of. The riddance of GUI might make the immersion even greater, but with a parser, the immersion can also be totally ruined by an inane scripting, and that means HEAVY work with the parser. I honestly can't imagine how people must have slaved with the scripting back in the old days.

[magintz]

2ma2 made a game called "What Time is it?" but it never really got past the demo. In his initial make of it he had a verb option. It was a standard point and click interface but wouild allow custom commands to be entered. He later removed it so he didn't have to code a ridiculous amount of actions I believe.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Of course, you could have an interface similar to Larry 7 - verb-coin style with the ability to let you add your own verbs.

[2ma2]

I used that function in WTII. You click and add your own verb. Then I got rid of it, since it was as useful as pie. Fun but tedious in the long run.

WTII did got very much past the demo. The whole galore is somewhere for noone to see