Implied Lines
An interesting conversation began in response to last week’s entry entitled Geodesic Hypertext. The top commenter was Nathan Matais, that author of the aforementioned hypertext passed on a link to a very interesting hypertext, Galatea. Galetea was awarded “best of show” at the 2000 Interactive Fiction Art Show. Curiously, it is the story of the experience of an art show. It is also a work in such a show. In the story, you converse with Galatea, who is a work of art. From the introduction:
Much traditional Interactive Fiction offers exploration and interaction with an imagined environment. Galatea offers a conversation. The title character has moods, background, and memory; how she treats you will depend on how you choose to treat her. There is no single plot, and no one pathway through the story. The endings are numerous. Galatea accepts imperative commands in natural language. You can order your character to LOOK, EXAMINE THE PEDESTAL, or TOUCH an item. Assorted other verbs are implemented as well.
(I wonder if “To Win, Simply Play” would do well in this kind of storytelling envionment? Right now, I am converting the thing into a more blog-like interface, in order to make the sections easier to edit)
It is this kind of interface that Nathan has suggested can provide what I was wondering about as an “implied line” in writing. If I am playing the story game to you, and I say to you. “There is a sponge in front of you” You can respond by saying “I’ll squeeze the water out of it!” because my statement that there is a cup of coffee draws an implied line to the fact that it is important, or at least that it can be explored further in some way.
A few months ago, I took an interest in what it would take to make a composition like this one. I discovered this kind of interactive fiction all over again. I was thinking about ways to “finish” my own hypertext in a way that would employ all the stuff I had learned. Inform From the Beginning is an excellent jumping-off point for anyone who would begin writing an interactive fiction like Galatea.
Galatea is the exception to a general rule, for me anyway, that many of these kinds of interactive fictions lose their appeal by drowning the reader in a series of GO WEST and GO NORTH until complete disorientation and confusion is accheived. I almost always end up using a walkthrough, even in games like Myst, because the kind of problem solving skills that a reader uses are not exactly the same as the ones used with a puzzle. I am terrible with puzzles, but I like to read.
How can an interactive fiction use “implied lines” so that the thing reads less like a puzzle? How can this be done while avoiding a completely predictable story?