Urgent An Interactive Fiction Experiment Mike Caloud, Joey Hammer Fall 2006

Introduction Experimental Interactive Fiction (Shade, Galatea, etc.) Experimental Interactive Fiction (Shade, Galatea, etc.) Building custom software system to support the unique needs of the story Building custom software system to support the unique needs of the story – Need real-time clock – Graph of nodes with randomized edges (for the story system) Joey – Interaction and User Interface systems Joey – Interaction and User Interface systems Mike – Narrative architecture Mike – Narrative architecture Presentation is a walkthrough! Presentation is a walkthrough!

The Story – Prologue Summary The player character (PC) is a student waiting for the school bus. Realizing he doesn’t have a pen to take the test with, he runs across the street to a pharmacy find a pen.

The Story - Gameplay 2 minutes to walk through the store and find a pen Example: In the Shipping Supply Aisle Packing tape, 50 envelopes in a box, tubes of brown wrapping paper all piled on top of each other. Popping the bubble wrap would be fun, but you'd probably draw attention. Come to think of it, you do have a package you need to send.

The Story - Gameplay Packing tape, 50 envelopes in a box, tubes of brown wrapping paper all piled on top of each other. Popping the bubble wrap would be fun, but you'd probably draw attention. Come to think of it, you do have a package you need to send. That tape would be useful, so you put it in your pocket. With no prompting the player’s character decides to steal the tape

The Story - Gameplay The player character has a compulsion to steal – Cheap sunglasses, decks of cards, cans of cat food Leaving the pharmacy with stolen items to catch bus…player loses Player finds a pen, but has no stolen items…player wins – Hard to accomplish, if player can’t stop character from stealing

The Story – Navigation The character only describes the products around him The character only describes the products around him That tape would be useful, so you put it in your pocket. You can see cheap sunglasses and cans of cat food over there. > Move to sunglasses Navigation – not a grid Navigation – not a grid Compulsion reinforced by perceiving the world only through products Compulsion reinforced by perceiving the world only through products

The Story – Narrative Data Structures The “store layout” is a graph where relationships are randomly defined

The Story – Narrative Data Structures AisleUnitAdmin – builds relationship graph AisleUnit – “Store Section” Pickup – Item(s) that can be pilfered

DEMO!!! YAY!!!

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