A new forum game?

[WHAM]

Hi everyone!

Wasn't quite sure if this is for general or rumpus, so I went rumpus room just to be safe.

I've been fairly quiet for quite a while now, been sort of embarrassed by my "King Sim" project failure and not having released anything new in ages and so on... However, through participating in MAGS, I've become a bit more active on the forums again, and I was wondering...

Anyone still remember this forum game?
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=44156.0

I started reading through the old posts and enjoyed it very much. Planning the game out and then watching as people discussed next moves and potential dangers, speculated on events and characters and worked together to make an interesting and fun adventure was a ton of fun and I kind of want to try doing that again.

Having learned from the King Sim not to be TOO open and sprawling with my adventure design, I was thinking I might have what it takes to create a new forum adventure. Question is: do people want to play it?

Let me know if you are interested and if you have any wishes or suggestions as to how the game might work. If a few people show interest, I think the mods might approve of me going back to the competitions and activities board to start up a new forum game (though I'll have to check, just to be safe).

So far I have a rough story idea in my head, along with a few special mechanics and key story elements, and I plan to go back to Sci-fi of sorts, so no more fantasy kingdoms for now at least.

Thanks for reading and do let me know what you think!

-WHAM

[AnasAbdin]

I'm in.

[selmiak]

>start it already 

[Ghost]

Will fish still be involved? Can we have more lemurs? Is being a non-treat now an option? Get it started!

[WHAM]

Anything is within the realm of possibility.

[Baron]

I too have enjoyed your many instances of interactive fiction, and I would gladly participate in another one.

Which reminds me, I've got to resurrect my own attempt at it one of these days....

[Wyz]

I've enjoyed the previous ones so why not. I rarely give input but I love reading/watching them.

Which reminds me, I once had one but then life happened.

[WHAM]

Which reminds me, I once had one but then life happened.

I remember this. I was a bit envious of the more hand-drawn look of your version. I could never trust myself to reproduce characters even remotely similiar to previous images, so I had to go the way of copy & paste.

Looks like we have enough players to get a game started. I'll check in with the mods about opening the thread in the activities board. It'll take me at least a few more weeks to get started, though, so don't expect anything too soon.

[Ryan Timothy B]

I would be very interested in watching or even participating in your forum adventure game. They have all been enjoyable.

Let me know if you are interested and if you have any wishes or suggestions as to how the game might work.

I've said it long ago and I'll say it again, one thing that has always bothered me was the rudimentary or basic input commands of the late forum games of yours.

For instance when a person says "Sit at desk, turn on desk lamp, read notepad" you would tell them to be more vague, asking them to do one action at a time instead of you just completing that longer array of actions in one update. Obviously up to your designing desires if something were to happen midway through the action list of commands.

Also the voting system frustrated me a little as well. For example: when one person says "Pick up bullet casing" and another says "Read note on wall" it becomes less interesting if we can only do the most voted interaction instead of you just "parsing" all the basic interaction suggestions.

I love how Baron does his game where he does nearly all commands that were suggested while he was absent since his last update. So if a person suggests that you open the closet door and two people suggest to pick up two different items, with the commands given in that order. Me as the game maker knowing that a monster is in the closet, I would reverse the order and have the character pick up the two items and then open the closet door. Or do it in whatever order you as the game maker feels would make a more interesting situation.

Doing all types of commands each update would save you work, and then eliminating the voting system for basic commands saves the frustration of us having to resuggest the same old same old until we all grow tired - and again saves you work.

[WHAM]

@Ryan: You make a valid point, and allowing multiple commands would allow the game to certainly move faster. However, faster means more work for me and removes a certain element of challenge from the game.

I always designed the forum games with both visible and hidden mechanics and use things like actual dice rolls in the background to determine results of some events (such as combat in the first game). In your example, allowing the players to pick up all items in a room before confronting the monster in the closet means that, if any of the items might be useful in fighting said monster, we have just eliminated the challenge from the monster encounter. It calls for a slightly different game design and forces me, as a designer, to ensure that the shotgun and the monster are further apart to avoid such overlap as described above, instead of having the order of events as the deciding mechanic.

As such, when the players have to vote to decide what is most pressing and most important right now, it creates some additional challenge in the decision making process and as a game designer, I like that idea more.

However, reading through the original thread, the issue was mostly that there were only 1-3 players playing and voting at a time for most of the game, and this leaves very little to vote on, so I think I will eliminate the voting for as long as the player count remains reasonably low, instead running 3 most voted or first posted commands at a time, with votes giving an action precedence in case of conflicting commands (example: 1 person posts "shoot the dude in the hat" followed by 2 people posting "talk to the dude in the hat about leather jackets" would result in a nice leather-based chat and not a shootout).

[Ryan Timothy B]

However, reading through the original thread, the issue was mostly that there were only 1-3 players playing and voting at a time for most of the game, and this leaves very little to vote on, so I think I will eliminate the voting for as long as the player count remains reasonably low, instead running 3 most voted or first posted commands at a time, with votes giving an action precedence in case of conflicting commands (example: 1 person posts "shoot the dude in the hat" followed by 2 people posting "talk to the dude in the hat about leather jackets" would result in a nice leather-based chat and not a shootout).

That sounds great. I look forward to it!

And you're thinking something sci-fi? Sounds awesome.

[WHAM]

I've been toying around with a new visual style, but have also gotten feedback somewhat to the tune of "nooo, don't change it, the old style was good!", so I thought I'd post here to see what people think. The old game itself went through a slight style change halfway through, so any new style is not set in stone anyway, as I might adapt the style on the fly.



I think both the old and the "new" style can work well, but the big bobbleheads do give the visual style a more comical feel. What say you, fellow forumgoers?

[Crimson Wizard]

I think both the old and the "new" style can work well, but the big bobbleheads do give the visual style a more comical feel.

In the old game I found they give more dramatic and sinister feel. Maybe because characters looked more fragile.

[kconan]

I've been toying around with a new visual style, but have also gotten feedback somewhat to the tune of "nooo, don't change it, the old style was good!", so I thought I'd post here to see what people think.

Nooo, don't change it, the old style was good!

The older style is grittier.  If the tone is more easy comedy, then go for the new style.  If it is like last time, then stick with the old one.

[WHAM]

I just realized that it seems I have basically just re-drawn the same clothes, but with reverse colours...
I was going to design a couple of other outfits as well anyway, but still... man...

Well, so far it seems all the votes on and off the forums go towards: keep the old style, so I guess I'll continue prepping the graphics based on that.

About the game being comical or not: it's basically up to the players. The first game was mostly a serious story in my head, but the events to which the game led due to player commands resulted in some humorous and memorable moments, and that's never a bad thing.

I'll try something similiar this time as well, there will be a serious underlying story to discover, or the players can go wild and sell fine leather jackets!

[Ghost]

there will be a serious underlying story to discover, or the players can go wild and sell fine leather jackets!

"I though I'd never need you again, old friend. But it's time to rise once more. Come. Onwards. There are many post to be made."

Ghost unearths his Book Of Pun.

[Cassiebsg]

Don't know the old style, but I like V.2 the best.
Good luck with the game!

PS - Funny enough when I first read the topic of this thread, I thought "Why does he need a New Forum Name?"

[Bulbapuck]

I think you should go with whatever style you're most comfortable with, considering you have to wing it often it seems natural to have a style in which you're always comfortable drawing whatever in. If I had to make a choice however I'd say that "New A" seems the best looking to my eye.

Whatever style it is I'm definetily participating this time. I wish I hadn't missed the last one, so much fun to read through ^^

[WHAM]

We are now embracing the old style, hopefully you guys will enjoy the game.

By the by, it's started and you can find it here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52685.msg636521022

[WHAM]

I gathered the old forum game (the first one) into a nifty imgur -gallery, in case someone wants to re-read the whole thing.

http://imgur.com/gallery/a234j