
Show HN: My IFComp entry that aims to be 'Skyrim rendered in text' - filiph
https://egamebook.com/vermin/v/ifcomp/
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csydas
It's a cute little tool; though I guess I'm somewhat confused; is the "Show"
here the egamebook site itself or is it your entry to the Interactive Fiction
Competition?

Because while your story is fun and overall well done, the system it's running
on is pretty interesting to me; I was desperately clicking around the top
level of the site looking for the option to make one for myself and play
around with the scripting, and only after searching for what IFComp stood for
did I start to get that this is a one off-entry I guess?

If I am wrong, please correct me and point me to where I can play around with
the system you've made, because it has nice flow to it.

~~~
lambda_tango
Not OP, but the system is described at [0], and apparently hasn't been
released yet. Code for this particular story appears to be available at [1],
although:

> This code depends on package:egamebook which is not yet open source. Until
> that happens, you won't be able to build this project unless you're part of
> the development team (reach out to filiphracek@ if you're interested).

[0] [https://egamebook.com/](https://egamebook.com/)

[1] [https://github.com/filiph/edgehead](https://github.com/filiph/edgehead)

~~~
filiph
This is correct. Both these things (the game and the system) are kind of big,
at least in terms of time invested, but what I released yesterday was the
game. Technically, it's also the system's first major release (there was
another small game 2 years ago [0]).

If anyone wants to hack on this, I'm open to giving them access to the
egamebook repo, somehow (I wish there was a github per-user privacy
setting...). I just don't yet have the documentation and time to make a full
open-source release — not at the quality I'd expect from a project like this.

[0]: [https://egamebook.com/lochness/](https://egamebook.com/lochness/)

~~~
csydas
I appreciate your response, as well as lambda_tango's.

Not sure if it matters, but consider this my interest in this project as a
user. I unfortunately am next to useless when it comes to programming, but I
could easily see this being wonderful as a platform or integrated into plenty
of existing platforms as a plugin. It's a very slick presentation and works
well for what it's meaning to do.

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treerock
Looks fun. I really want keyboard controls though.

~~~
filiph
Curious: what do you expect as keyboard controls. I've had this on my TODO
list for ages and I have my own idea of what they should be, but I'd love to
capture the expectations first, so that I don't break them.

~~~
treerock
Mainly I saw there were number next to each option. I therefore expected to be
able to hit the same number on the keyboard to make that choice, but it wasn't
working. I believe this is what they call a false affordance[1].

[1]:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#False_affordances](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance#False_affordances)

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falsedan
> _The system behind this game has been in the making for 7 years._

What are the parts of this system, and what were the blockers? The game is
turgid, and the buttons are too big (the unchosen options should disappear on
each decision point).

~~~
filiph
Sorry you found the game turgid. What exactly does that mean? Are you
referring to the writing, the design, the illustrations, the mechanics? I'm
mapping the scatter of opinions on the game and precise explanations help me.

You're asking about the parts of the system. The noteworthy are:

* a STRIPS planner for the NPCs in the game that has to deal with stochastic actions

* an NLG subsystem

* all the usual game OOP stuff that would work with the above (immutable objects with semantics)

* a layered storytelling framework

But if you're asking about the 7 years, it's mostly a lot of pivots. The
layered storytelling framework was an idea that I had for a very different
game last year, for example.

If I knew exactly what I'm building, it would take about 6 months of work,
even with my limited free time. But that's not accounting for all the things I
had to learn-by-doing along the way.

~~~
tarboreus
I disagree about the "bigness" of the buttons, thought the presentation was
notably pleasant. Leaving the old choices was helpful, I scrolled back once or
twice to check something and it makes the game feel like you're reading a
novel, which is cool. Also, the prose was a little purpleish, which is
_exactly_ what you want for a low fantasy Hawardesque fantasy novel (or game),
so no complaints there. I think "turgid" is perhaps overstating it.

~~~
falsedan
> _the prose was a little purpleish, which is exactly what you want for a low
> fantasy Hawardesque fantasy novel (or game)_

No no no, you go big or you go home. You can't be a little bit _The Eye of
Argon_.

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aw3c2
When I hear that my mind tingles with dread about the needed time investment
;) How big/long is the game?

I love the presentation!

~~~
treerock
There is a walkthrough available.

[https://egamebook.com/vermin/v/ifcomp/ifcomp_submission/Insi...](https://egamebook.com/vermin/v/ifcomp/ifcomp_submission/Insignificant%20Little%20Vermin%20Walkthrough.pdf)

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hobofan
> "I'll live," she says.

This has to be some kind of running gag :D

