Why my room descriptions are so small

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Example (from "The Golden French Fry"):

In a small apple orchard Score:
55 / 250
You are walking through an orchard of trees. Several apples are
visible above
(some of them ripe enough to eat). They are shrouded in green leaves,
many of
them falling down to the ground (as if cursed). In fact, the trees
appear dis-
eased and ugly suddenly! What's going on here? You feel weaker by the
minute.
Perhaps you should wander back north, where it is safer...
The only viable exits (unless you can climb) are north and west.
♪ A smaller road heads west. ♪
Obvious exits: < north west >

>

This is a large room description for me. Why? I enjoy writing room
descriptions with 3-6 sentences in them.

The Golden French Fry is located at:

http://www.geocities.com/dunric/westfront.html

(scroll down to where it says "The Golden French Fry" to download the
game [version 1.26])

Paul

 

[merk]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

"Paul Allen Panks" <dunric@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f26111c2.0411220928.af8a6d8@posting.google.com...
> Example (from "The Golden French Fry"):

> This is a large room description for me. Why? I enjoy writing room
> descriptions with 3-6 sentences in them.

But do you feel that you're growing, as an IF author? Are your recent games
better than your early ones (honest question -- I've only played Ninja and
French Fry)? Instead of just deciding to use color versus no color or 3-line
descriptions versus six lines? Do you read players' comments and learn from
them? You have an abundance of enthusiasm, and criticism hasn't prevented
you from enjoying what you do.

I was impressed that you took my beta feedback and improved French Fry.
Still, you've written a game for a very limited market. It can be improved
to become a solid, more playable game, but when all is said and done, you
haven't really tried anything different. It's a wacky, pseudo-surreal game
with stock puzzles, terse text, and a generic story. I think you have the
talent to do more. You might enjoy putting more story into your games. Or
you might enjoy writing more text. Or you might enjoy learning a new
programming language to make your games more accessible. You won't know
until you try...

> The Golden French Fry is located at:

I have some additional thoughts for you, regarding version 1.26. I'll try to
email you about it over the next couple of days.

---- Mike.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

"Paul Allen Panks" <dunric@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f26111c2.0411220928.af8a6d8@posting.google.com...
> Example (from "The Golden French Fry"):
>

[snip]

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that was just a flimsy excuse to plug one
of your games again.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

In article <f26111c2.0411220928.af8a6d8@posting.google.com>,
Paul Allen Panks <dunric@yahoo.com> wrote:
>This is a large room description for me. Why? I enjoy writing room
>descriptions with 3-6 sentences in them.

Well, then I guess that you should continue doing so. But I would be
more interested in knowing *why* you prefer 3-6 sentence descriptions.
--
Magnus Olsson (mol@df.lth.se)
PGP Public Key available at http://www.df.lth.se/~mol

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

On 22 Nov 2004 19:40:26 GMT, Magnus Olsson <mol@df.lth.se> wrote:

> In article <f26111c2.0411220928.af8a6d8@posting.google.com>,
> Paul Allen Panks <dunric@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> This is a large room description for me. Why? I enjoy writing room
>> descriptions with 3-6 sentences in them.
>
> Well, then I guess that you should continue doing so. But I would be
> more interested in knowing *why* you prefer 3-6 sentence descriptions.

I'm not. It's a flimsy excuse to post _yet again_ concerning one of his
games. I mean, jeez. Sheddap already.

Has the issue of your short room descriptions ever come up before,
anywhere, Paul?

best,
james cunningham

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

"Merk" <sid-ney-merk@hot-mail.com (remove dashes)> wrote in message news:<qSrod.102053$tU4.74061@okepread06>...
> "Paul Allen Panks" <dunric@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:f26111c2.0411220928.af8a6d8@posting.google.com...
> > Example (from "The Golden French Fry"):
>
> > This is a large room description for me. Why? I enjoy writing room
> > descriptions with 3-6 sentences in them.
>
> But do you feel that you're growing, as an IF author? Are your recent games
> better than your early ones (honest question -- I've only played Ninja and
> French Fry)? Instead of just deciding to use color versus no color or 3-line
> descriptions versus six lines? Do you read players' comments and learn from
> them? You have an abundance of enthusiasm, and criticism hasn't prevented
> you from enjoying what you do.
>
> I was impressed that you took my beta feedback and improved French Fry.
> Still, you've written a game for a very limited market. It can be improved
> to become a solid, more playable game, but when all is said and done, you
> haven't really tried anything different. It's a wacky, pseudo-surreal game
> with stock puzzles, terse text, and a generic story. I think you have the
> talent to do more. You might enjoy putting more story into your games. Or
> you might enjoy writing more text. Or you might enjoy learning a new
> programming language to make your games more accessible. You won't know
> until you try...
>
> > The Golden French Fry is located at:
>
> I have some additional thoughts for you, regarding version 1.26. I'll try to
> email you about it over the next couple of days.
>
> ---- Mike.

In a few of my others games (such as HLA Adventure):

http://members.tripod.com/~panks/hlaadv.html

the room descriptions are a bit longer than what I normally do. And in
Westfront PC:

http://www.geocities.com/dunric/westfront.html

the room descriptions are about medium. In my other (non-Windows)
adventure games:

http://www.geocities.com/dunric/pauladv.html

they are of varying degrees in size and scope.

I have written well over 30 adventure games (on a variety of computing
platforms), but they are by no means my only games. There is also
Golgatha (a small VGA maze/adventure game), Twilight (a small VGA RPG
demo), Conquest of Attica (a VGA conquest simulation), Orbit Zone (a
space colonization game, in VGA), Progue (a rogue-like dungeon game)
and others.

Paul