I think "quest logs" could be handled a little more fluidly. Like there could be one character you could always ask "status" or something and they could say, "Well, I think where we are is, next we gotta ..." or something like that. In a futuristic type game, maybe there would be an uplink back to HQ for status or something. There should be enough NPCs in the game to build that feature "in game" and not in some jarring out of the box method.

I think all my cryptids were like levels 4 and 5 so maybe I got sidetracked on that part.

I suppose there are many ways to do this. The most "integrated" one would be to not write it from the narrator's POV, but have the PC carry a notebook with him (or journal?) where he writes stuff down.

"I went to the gynecologist today for a check up. What a waste of time that was, since I'm not female. Guess I'll need to go visit Dr. Quackintosh instead."

Well, at least with something less ridiculous written in it...

[quote="RealNC"]Well, for your next game, you might want to introduce a "quest log" command, heh. That would be a first for a text adventure. The game would give the player a brief summary of the story so far, written in a way that makes it apparent what is to be done next. This will help picking the game up again even months later.

It's also a good opportunity at some extra jokes and opinions about the various happenings in the game from the narrator's point of view.[/quote]

I do, in theory, hate quest logs, because my goal is to make a game so GRIPPING that a person can't put it down. But that is not how life works. So I will compromise: I will effort to make the game gripping, but I will also support some sort of active quest log.

I just need to call them something other than "quests" because that is kinda RPGy. Maybe "tasks"? "Chores"?

Getting six or seven moderately trained cryptids is probably enough to do the trick. One to level 3, maybe? The rest to level 2?

Quest lists are also a good idea.

[quote="RealNC"]Well, for your next game, you might want to introduce a "quest log" command, heh. That would be a first for a text adventure.[/quote]
I [i]think[/i] King of Shreds and Patches had something like that. "To-do lists" like those in AMFV or LASH could be interpreted as such, but I admit that I was one of the people who got stuck in AMFV when it stopped telling me to do. I concur that it'd be good to see this kind of feature in more games, though.

Well, for your next game, you might want to introduce a "quest log" command, heh. That would be a first for a text adventure. The game would give the player a brief summary of the story so far, written in a way that makes it apparent what is to be done next. This will help picking the game up again even months later.

It's also a good opportunity at some extra jokes and opinions about the various happenings in the game from the narrator's point of view.

I didn't finish it because I took a break from playing it and then forgot where I was in the game. I remember where I was (leveling up cryptids) but I forgot where I was supposed to go after that.

Shit, now I feel bad.

[quote]I'm actually waiting for a Zork rival of some kind to hit Kickstarter: Wasteland, Shadowrun, Wings, and other classics have been re-created to be true to their origins, so maybe a new pure IF version remake of Zork?[/quote]

I have often entertained adding a graphical component to the Hugo port of Zork. However, that is someone else's intellecutal property, and I don't really mean Activision. It belongs to the guys who made it back in 1979 and such. And although a headline like "Zork Re-Imagined With CGA, EGA and VGA Graphic Modes" would be the sort of thing to get onto Metafilter and get me a hundred Twitter followers and so forth, it isn't my game. It belongs to the wonderful people at Infocom.

I am surprised there isn't already an Infocom Kickstarter project.

In theory, I would love to be involved in a project where I worked with some of the Infocom people as a programmer. But I have found that I really get restless when I am not doing the writing and coding and art to a game. I mean, if Dave "Hollywood" Anderson said to me, "Hey, yo, I really want to do one more game and would like to do it with you... are you in? Let's go to dennys" Well, of course. Of course that would be awesome. But I bet if they all do such a thing they will have their own takes on how the coding gets done.

Personally though, there are big problems with the games I have made. I know Flack and Pinner didn't get to the end of Cryptozookeeper. That's fucked up! That is pretty fucked up on my part, and I have spent the last year doing some soul-searching as to why something that I feel had the jokes I liked didn't make people want to come all over themselves in order to finish the thing. I think that is even more important to address than third-party betatesting, I just can't pay for that.

David Crane is working on a new 2D successor to Pitfall and is asking for $900k.

The sky's the limit, Jonsey!

Awesome that your working with Mike Sousa again: played through No Time to Squeal recently and was floored by the writing (review coming soon(ish)!).

I'm actually waiting for a Zork rival of some kind to hit Kickstarter: Wasteland, Shadowrun, Wings, and other classics have been re-created to be true to their origins, so maybe a new pure IF version remake of Zork?

It was kind of you to think of me, Retro!

There are two projects I am involved with. One is a project with Mike Sousa. That was going along well, then I got sidetracked with life, but I am attempting to re-ignite it.

The second one is a text game / RPG in the style of Wasteland or Bard's Tale, using Hugo. I want to sell the resulting game.

My plan is to start a Kickstarter for it, but to take the money and use it for external betatesting. Either a betatesting company, or else take the money and pay regular people to play through. I would start it at something like $2000. As you said, the Williamsburg people raised $1950, and I think I could match that total.

I am a ways off, however! I wouldn't expect any new output from myself until 2013 or 2014.

:(

Double Fine raised $3,300,000 through Kickstarter to fund an adventure game.

Andrew Plotkin (Spider & Web, Dreamhold) raised $31,000 to work on a text game, write an open source frotz interpreter for iOS, and improve the Glulx VM.
(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zarf/hadean-lands-interactive-fiction-for-the-iphone?ref=live)

Mark Stephen raised $16,700 to create an interactive fiction / story book title for the iPad
(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1139274522/seven-fables-v10-tales-from-a-distant-island?ref=live)

An enthusiast from Williamsburg raised $1,950 to create an IF game that recreates a colonial city.
(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1743562321/the-historical-williamsburg-living-narrative?ref=live)

And someone, somewhere, managed to raise $14,800 to develop and manufacture a Colossal Cave board game.
(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/765522088/colossal-cave-the-board-game?ref=live)

With IF appearing to have some level of interest and support, maybe its time Robb gave a bit of serious thought to starting and managing his own Kickstarter campaign?