Adventure Game Studio

Originally made for OROW V, Chatroom is an experimental conversation simulator for AGS.

Changes from OROW version:
- Slightly changed both Roger's and Luke's AI
- Added more responses from Luke
- Fixed several bugs, including the game-crashing one
- Minor graphical overhaul

Download Here (4.4 MB)  (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=1059) (640x480 @ 16bit)
Game's Database Page (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1059)

As with most parser games, I know they tend to be frustrating, so thanks to all who tried out this game during OROW. I tried to have it tested as many times as possible, but in the end, I know I won't be able to tackle every response every player tries.

I know the game isn't perfect, so if you find any errors, have any suggestions regarding the AI, or ask any questions to Luke that you think should have a different response, feel free to tell me, and I will try my best to work it out.

Thanks for playing!

I have started playing, such a nice game indeed. This chatting idea works really good in this game. Good work!

It's my favourite game of the OROW,althougth Too less re-playability

Spoiler

Genial terminator-battlestar galactica-style game idea

[close]

And gave me a genial idea to incorporate chats in normal Adventure games!

love it love it love it love it.  Going to write an uber-positive review on my little blog, which is read by a world-wide readership of over 3 people!  Maybe even 4!!!!!!  Every little bit counts though, right?  :D

While the idea of simulating a chatroom was really appealing to me, I was actually a little shocked that it had a plot to go with it (more because I wanted to test the AI rather than try to 'solve' it and get to the end).

Without going into much detail, the ending was...

Spoiler

really good and ironic on many hilarious levels

[close]

but I felt that the fact that it ended that way led to a lot of plot holes in the dialogue, the biggest one being...

Spoiler

I discovered Luke was actually a bot after he answered with THE SAME RESPONSE THREE TIMES despite whether it related to my questions about food or not:

What's your favorite food?
I've got enough food to last me for six months

Is that food good?
I've got enough food to last me for six months

What is food?
I've got enough food to last me for six months

[close]

It's a really good attempt at AI, but I kinda wish I'd have known there was a story attached, so I didn't go balls first into calling Roger nasty names to get him riled up.

Sure, but remember that this is after all an AI we're talking about here (in reality).  I was able to suspend my disbelief in that small sense.

And you've got to admit,

Spoiler

Finding out that you, the main character, are the actual bot when you kill Luke at the end

[close]

is a very awesome dark plot twist.

That was really nice. On average, the AI does well, even if the questions you ask can't be too precise, as shown by the "food" example above. I could see the ending coming from miles away but it was still a very entertaining short game. It would be a nice thing to implement in a bigger game.

Hey, that was quite good! He kept saying "uhh" a lot though. Oh well.

I finally solved it. What a great game. :) For me one of the interesting AGS-games of the last weeks. Very nice final sequence - I really like games like this.

I felt that the text parser worked well, and that the AI was fairly solid. If I was in Luke's situation, I'd probably have given the responses he did (especially the hmms and uhhs :)). I saw the ending coming from long away, but still felt very sad when it happened.

Easily my favorite game from that group of OROW.

What an amazing game! It really kept me hanging! If only it would have been a little longer... :)

I am going to Bump this up (I hope no one minds) More people should play this game! Awesome! Best text parser game ever!!! I loved it.  ;D

Thanks for the bump--always happy to get more publicity.

One of these days I feel like I should go back to this game and thoroughly play-test it to double, triple, or even quadruple the available text responses.

That'd be cool.. or maybe make a Chatroom2, different story, up to the challenge? lol

Spoiler

I think if you're delibrately mean to Luke, like if you keep telling him you're a bot. He should sign off. Game Over.

I asked Luke if he had water because I was worried about him with the phone lines being down and he said he didn't have any. It sounded fake.

I also wanted to know why the bots wanted to kill humans but I could never get a response.

[close]

Just played the game and I enjoyed it. very different but perhaps a little limited. I felt I really wanted more interaction and more stuff to talk about. Anyway, this is a really good read and could give you some ideas:

http://qntm.org/?difference

This game is really fun. I loved the music too. I played it in the dark and felt like I really was in a Post-Apocolyptic future! I would have loved to learn more about the bots and the war and all of what happened. I was trying to get more out of Luke about those details but he'd rather of talked about art school. Anyway, I'm awaiting a sequel. Or a prequel. It's fun to go into actual chatrooms and pretend that you really are from a dark future, it really freaks people out and makes for funny chats.

Quote from: magintz on Tue 21/04/2009 14:43:56
Just played the game and I enjoyed it. very different but perhaps a little limited. I felt I really wanted more interaction and more stuff to talk about. Anyway, this is a really good read and could give you some ideas:

http://qntm.org/?difference

Wow, I forgot about that article. I think I read it years and years ago (and subconsciously used it as my inspiration).

Yes, I agree the game is limited, and I really wish I had the time go back and fix it up, but thank you for playing regardless.