{"id":339,"date":"2014-05-04T21:43:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T04:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/?p=339"},"modified":"2014-05-05T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T21:59:09","slug":"joey-jones-on-best-use-of-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/?p=339","title":{"rendered":"Joey Jones on Best Use of Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joey\u00a0Jones\u00a0is the co-author of philosophy romp The Chinese Room<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0Calm<\/a>,\u00a0a post-apocalyptic tea-drinking simulator. Interested in pushing the boundaries of parser fiction, he was behind the meta-fictional\u00a0IFDB Spelunking<\/a>\u00a0and is currently working on a much expanded re-release of the adverb-only blank verse game,\u00a0Danse Nocturne<\/a>. His interests include literature, foraging, and the abolition of paid employment.<\/p>\n

The Best Use of Innovation finalists were\u00a0Trapped in Time, Final Girl, 18 Cadence, Sorcery!, Ex Nihilo\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Castle of the Red Prince.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trapped in Time\u00a0<\/b><\/em>(Simon Christiansen)<\/b><\/h2>\n

The conceit of repeating the story until you figure out the way forward is common in\u00a0time travel games (there was that one in the IFComp a few years back, no?). What\u00a0is innovative about Trapped in Time<\/a> is its central conceit of adding numbers to the\u00a0section header to gain new options in prior-visited locations. This mechanic imbues\u00a0each revisited section with fresh possibilities that wouldn’t be there if you had ‘If\u00a0You’ve Died and Come Back Again Turn To Page 12’ at the end of every other page.<\/p>\n

The reader is faced with a surprise when they first repeat the story with new options,\u00a0although no real wrong turn van be taken, there is still a non-trivial cost to looping\u00a0back through everything, so the mechanic rewards a certain amount of forethought\u00a0and canniness, figuring out at which points to use ones new power to add up the\u00a0number differently.<\/p>\n

There is, however, a difference between innovation and novelty. The innovative\u00a0pushes forward the boundaries of possibility for a medium, whilst the merely novel\u00a0exhausts all the ground it opens up. Another time-travel game with the same mechanic\u00a0would be tiresome unless it was done very well, but the true innovation is in opening\u00a0the possibilities of manipulating the section numbers in numbered branching stories to\u00a0reach new content. Is it fertile territory? Was it all done thirty years ago but has since\u00a0been forgotten? Is it fine just to be novel? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.<\/p>\n

Sorcery!\u00a0<\/b><\/em>(Steve Jackson,\u00a0inkle)<\/b><\/h2>\n

The story from which Sorcery!<\/a> is taken is a moderately grim swords and\u00a0sorcery tale with hidden poo jokes and a world design based in the idea of an\u00a0adversarial dungeon master, setting the player up to fail. With the ability to redo any\u00a0section, Inkle\u2019s Sorcery!<\/i> is a lot fairer as a system, and as such the writing\u00a0is able to remain true to the spirit of the original without being quite so frustrating.\u00a0While the substance of the story is competently handled genre writing, the system that\u00a0enables the story to take place is highly innovative.<\/p>\n

When it comes to story platform, their different forms of presentation encourage\u00a0different kinds of storytelling. What a lot of the more contemporary platforms (like\u00a0Inkle, Varytale and StoryNexus) do is the divide up of their games up into self-contained scenes of various sizes in which multiple interactions can take place. This\u00a0is opposed to having the entire game scroll down on one screen (as is the norm in\u00a0parser fiction and Undum hypertext stories) or have each choice take up a single\u00a0screen (typical in most other hypertext games, like those made in Twine). This kind\u00a0of structure is used to great effect in Sorcery!<\/i> through its presentation of\u00a0storylets, the map, and the interface for the different mechanics.<\/p>\n

The storylets (I’m sure Inkle have their own terminology for this, but that’s what I’m\u00a0calling them) are different locations, most typically conversations and environmental\u00a0encounters, in which the player usually has at least two or three regular choices, with\u00a0more added if they’ve met certain conditions. While most scenes can resolve with\u00a0different outcomes, whatever the outcome, each storylet is a self-contained island\u00a0of interaction. This modular design, along with the map layout, allows a prodigious\u00a0amount of content to be easily made without worrying too much about the problem of\u00a0combinatorial explosion.<\/p>\n

The map screen is the structure that binds the whole of Sorcery!<\/i> together.\u00a0The tale is one of a journey, and suitably enough there is a world map across which\u00a0you\u2019ll meander, and after each section you must make a choice as to where to drag\u00a0your little figure to next. The dizzying wash of passes, mines and villages are made\u00a0comprehendible every time you travel, giving you a consistent visual reminder as to\u00a0your progress on your quest, as well as rationally tying the different storylets together.\u00a0Also, it helps make highly arbitrary choices feel less arbitrary: on a single hypertext\u00a0screen \u2018Do You Go Left or Right?\u2019 is an uninteresting choice, but looking on a map\u00a0and thinking \u2018I have to be heading north and this looks like the quickest route\u2019, makes\u00a0the choice more fun even if you know that ultimately either way is eventually going to\u00a0get you where you want to go.<\/p>\n

Finally, there are a number of unique persistent mechanical elements that enrich the\u00a0game. Given the source material, spells and random combat were necessary, and\u00a0every attempt has been made to make these less tiresome by turning them into mini-games capitalising on the tactile element of the touch-screen design. The combat itself\u00a0was a nice solution, a sort of guessing game where you might read the procedurally\u00a0generated battle messages for some kind of clue; there was almost always some\u00a0useful spell to use in any given situation, and though there was a long-term resource\u00a0management element to the stamina, it was fairly easy to maintain and so the player\u00a0needn\u2019t be overly conservative in their use of spells to solve problems. While these\u00a0mechanics (along with the obligatory inventory that I\u2019ve heard Jon Ingold say he\u2019d\u00a0rather have done without) aren\u2019t so very innovative in and of themselves, they present<\/p>\n

themselves as elegant solutions to the problem of translating the classic text into\u00a0something more palatable to modern sensibilities and, indeed, modern smart-phone\u00a0and tablet technology.<\/p>\n

Final Girl\u00a0<\/b><\/em>(Hanon Ondricek)<\/b><\/h2>\n

Any medium constrains the kind of stories that can be told within it, with innovative\u00a0works pushing the boundaries of what was previously considered possible. Still,\u00a0within the realm of the possible, there are those games that gel well with their medium\u00a0and others that strain against its limitations. It’d be difficult to imagine Final Girl<\/a>\u00a0working quite as well in another medium, but yet there were clearly aspects of it that\u00a0felt shoehorned in to fit the strictures of the StoryNexus platform.<\/p>\n

The main features of StoryNexus are locations where different challenges can be\u00a0undertaken and, in some places, a randomised deck of cards which can be drawn for\u00a0random events. There\u2019s also a persistent sidebar of equipment, knowledge and stats.\u00a0The story is a film-inspired, slightly satirical slasher horror game (more Scream <\/i>than Scary Movie<\/i>) <\/i>in which you play the eponymous Final Girl, the one\u00a0<\/i>that survives to the end. Most of the game is spent wandering around a lake, either\u00a0trying to figure out who the killer is, or arming yourself for a final confrontation. The\u00a0set of locations with challenges was an easy fit for the exploratory sections, though\u00a0it necessitated a certain amount of repetition and grinding to increase stats (a danger\u00a0inherent in the platform, requiring careful design or a richer array of ways to increase\u00a0one\u2019s skills).<\/p>\n

The randomised deck was used for certain travelling sections, but given the limited\u00a0number of cards available to draw, a system that was designed to enable random\u00a0turns of luck quickly becomes tiresome, especially in those sections where the stalker\u00a0continuously attacks. The main random element that did work is the reshuffling of\u00a0victims between each game: the killer and where each person can be found changes\u00a0from game to game, allowing a fair bit more replayability: or more rather, making it\u00a0less tiresome when you inevitably have to restart after dying for the third time.<\/p>\n

One of the stronger elements of the platform is the sidebar, a sort of expanded\u00a0character sheet. It allows the player to review what they currently know at a glance.\u00a0As much of the core game involves unmasking bodies, this is a good thing for\u00a0solving the mystery, as the current list of suspects and victims can be seen easily at\u00a0any given time, as well as being able to equip different weapons and outfits.<\/p>\n

So far, so interesting, but is it innovative<\/i>? Definitely: Final Girl<\/i> tells\u00a0a story of exploration and dread, weaving in a commentary on the nature of horror\u00a0films; the telling of this story emerges out of the novel structure of the game as a\u00a0StoryNexus-bound creation. In forcing a medium more naturally suited to creating\u00a0text-based MMOs, Ondricek has pushed a few inches forward into fresh ludo-narrative terrain.<\/p>\n

Castle of the Red Prince\u00a0<\/b><\/em>(CEJ Pacian)<\/b><\/h2>\n

Castle of The Red Prince<\/a> is a cleverly constructed parser game based around\u00a0exploration. Rather than exploring using the Go verb, one explores using the Examine\u00a0verb, zooming in on locations, scanning about as if you had the greatest telescope in\u00a0the kingdom and were standing from an excellent vantage point.<\/p>\n

The tyranny of examining haunts the author of parser-based interactive fiction.\u00a0They want to describe a rich and compelling world, but they don\u2019t want to spend\u00a0hours writing more detailed descriptions for present but irrelevant scenery. Some\u00a0have suggested getting rid of the verb altogether. Pacian goes completely the other\u00a0direction, and gets rid of moving and only<\/i> has examining. This is a simple but\u00a0incredibly effective solution, and its effect is rather striking. Whilst the core game-play of most parser games involves the exploration of discrete locations joined by\u00a0cardinal directions, the landscape in Castle of The Red Prince<\/i> is fluid and\u00a0navigation is only a matter of focusing on a different part of the world. This allows for\u00a0the removal of so many tedious in-between steps that are an inevitable by-product of\u00a0typical parser game design, in which the player explores and scan their eyes quickly\u00a0over, the same locations over and over as they pass back and forth. By cutting out on\u00a0the extraneous aspects of the play experience, Castle of The Red Prince<\/i> leads\u00a0to a smoother play, with less junk turns spent between gaining new information and\u00a0being in the right place to act on it.<\/p>\n

Essentially, Pacian takes the everything-in-scope sensibilities of a one-room game\u00a0like Shade<\/i> and applies them to a fantasy game of exploration. It\u2019ll be\u00a0interesting to see whether this technique will be used to good effect by any future\u00a0authors.<\/p>\n

Ex Nihilo\u00a0<\/b><\/em>(Juhana Leinonen)<\/b><\/h2>\n

Ex Nihilo<\/a> is an interesting browser-based experiment in Vorple, in which the\u00a0reader picks the path for a deity through a linear but visually compelling hypertext\u00a0progression. They discover that there is a mirror entity, they are not alone and may\u00a0say one thing to this other being. So far, so odd. The innovation here is that the game,\u00a0hooked up to a server, stores the player’s final response and there’s some sort of\u00a0mechanism for spitting it out at other players. The consequence is that the player and\u00a0protagonist both encounter the sudden presence of an unexpected other at the same\u00a0time. While the piece is short and relatively limited in scope, this unity of theme and\u00a0structure elevates the piece from the status of a technical demo to an accomplished\u00a0interactive poem, where the important interactivity is between disconnected strangers.<\/p>\n

The poem spreads itself out across a draggable page, and at the end of it, you can\u00a0see how your mirror deity developed in tandem. As such, there are a number of\u00a0innovative elements to unpack here. First, the story can be enjoyed partially by\u00a0exploring a 2D plane, rather than the typical sequence of discrete pages or continuous\u00a0transcripts. One can imagine a story being written that can be spread out in any\u00a0direction across the screen; indeed the map in Sorcery!<\/i> serves a similar\u00a0kind of function. Secondly, there’s the dual story development. Perhaps one day\u00a0we’ll see a hypertext game where the actions of secondary characters can be seen\u00a0develop independently on the screen as you make your own choices, their tales\u00a0interweaving and branching off from your own. The two gods develop in tandem,\u00a0and the presentation of this dual focus neatly takes the player away from the typical\u00a0single-protagonist focus of most hypertext games.<\/p>\n

18 Cadence<\/b><\/em> (Aaron Reed)<\/b><\/h2>\n

In stark contrast to all the other nominees, 18 Cadence<\/a> is a different kind of\u00a0interactive story altogether. The set up is as follows: you\u2019ve got 100 years of family life,\u00a0following everyone who has ever lived in every room of this one house, along with\u00a0various significant items. Any number of these thousands of story elements can be\u00a0pulled as text snippet onto a cutting board and re-arranged to make a history, or more\u00a0often, a kind of narrative poem.<\/p>\n

The game, depending on your tastes, can be played as an interactive historical-narrative construction game, or it can be played like fridge magnet poetry on the\u00a0theme of family life.* It\u2019s a construction set for creating stories out of a collection of\u00a0times, rooms, and specific moments within them. The reader is cast as editor, and is\u00a0encouraged to try and makes sense of the vast wash of history. It is presented in an\u00a0elegant graphical interface, with the scalpel and text snippets spread out like you\u2019re\u00a0making a particularly poignant ransom note.<\/p>\n

Unlike other games here, where the stories struggle up against their mediums, Reed\u00a0has outright just developed a fresh system of presentation for this specific game.\u00a0Indeed, \u2018game\u2019 is probably the wrong word. 18 Cadence<\/i> isn\u2019t a game or\u00a0really a story: it\u2019s a toolkit for creating stories and poems out of a vast but specific\u00a0history. It\u2019s broad in content, and each snippet is able to be altered into several\u00a0different forms, modulated by time, object and location, to create an incredible\u00a0array of potential sentences. It\u2019s not just innovative; it\u2019s an entirely different form of\u00a0interactive story: it\u2019s a toolkit for creation.<\/p>\n

As a play experience, it\u2019s a mixed success. It depends how interested you can get\u00a0about the lives it briefly alludes to. The ability to share your stories and view those\u00a0of others is one of its strongest features, giving a mild social element, and something\u00a0rewarding to see for those players that don\u2019t have the stamina to trek through a\u00a0hundred years of domestic life. But as a signpost to other possibilities\u2026<\/p>\n

* It would definitely be possible to make 18 Cadence: the Fridge Edition<\/i>. It\u2019s\u00a0a platform interactive fiction authors have traditionally shied away from, but I think\u00a0there are vistas of (very niche interest) possibility here. If you\u2019re reading this, Aaron Reed, call me and we can make this happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joey\u00a0Jones\u00a0is the co-author of philosophy romp The Chinese Room,\u00a0and\u00a0Calm,\u00a0a post-apocalyptic tea-drinking simulator. Interested in pushing the boundaries of parser fiction, he was behind the meta-fictional\u00a0IFDB Spelunking\u00a0and is currently working on a much expanded re-release of the adverb-only blank verse game,\u00a0Danse Nocturne. His interests include literature, foraging, and the abolition of paid employment. The Best Use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,2],"tags":[105,55,56,153,124,154,151,152,58,37,71,114,150,149,115],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348,"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xyzzyawards.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}