Game writing covers more than just the text, of course, but I wanted to focus on prose for this thread. Writing has all but disappeared from games, replaced by graphics and sound. there''s no need to say ''you see a sword'' when you can just show the player a sword. Likewise, there''s no need to say ''a chill wind blows'' when you can cause the same effect with a decent wav file. But it''s still easier to have text distinctions (ancient/rusty/dull/well-used sword) than it is to draw pictures for each. Writing allows subtlety that modern graphics can''t compete with. Images convey the information much faster. Large pieces of text also restrain the pacing, since it takes longer to read a paragraph than it does to glance over an image. Zork wouldn''t work as a real-time game. But combining the strengths of text (compactness, subtlety) with the strengths of images (quickly conveying information). Hmm.... Any game in which there is a significant amount of text to read will be ignored by the youth market. I''m wondering if there is a sufficient niche market in the older audience to cater to. On a second (but related) topic, I recently downloaded the Html Text Adventure Game System (HTADS). It builds old school text adventure games but supports HTML 3 output (formatted text, internal hyperlinks, tables, static images). With a little hacking you could probably incorporate some animations (I''m thinking MNG here). And it handles sound files. So there''s a free engine available that produces executables. It allows for static graphics, sounds, and text. It would not allow a dynamic mouse controlled football game, but it would handle a large adventure game. You could support both mouse driven and text driven input, but no character walking around on the screen. Is it a worthwhile challenge? Is there a sufficient niche market? Would it be useful as a demonstration of writing / game design skills while my programming skills improve? (Ok, I write with the skill and subtlety of a brick, but you know what I mean ) What do you think?

quote:Original post by Landfish

Games are turning into a visual medium.

Of course. Far more effort is expended in producing visuals, and that''s where the bulk of the market will be from now on.
A game that features a lot of prose is at best a niche market game, and I don''t see any of the major publishers or distributors accepting a game heavy with text.

One might be able to go the indie route and sell it cross platfrom for the Mac and Linux folks, but it''s not a strong bet.

quote:
The weakness of prose in terms of gaming is that prose is by nature static, wheras a screenplay or stage play are up to interpretation by the actors and director. It''s that flexibility that I feel (as a producer) makes prose writing a style inappropriate for what this medium is becoming.

This I don''t understand. Maybe I''m using the wrong words. Prose = large chunks of written text, right? A program can determine which chunks of text to display in the same manner that it determines which graphics to display.

True, graphics are more compact than text. They deliver information faster to the end user. A pure text interface is useless for a strategy game, for example. You can''t scroll across a board.

But text does offer subtlety that today''s graphics don''t. Which is what I was trying to point out in the sword example of my original post.

To ignore graphics where they do a better job is poor design. But I am wondering about mixing the two. Luckily, HTADS allows for both text and pics (and sound).

In order to do something interesting I think you''d have to stray far from the traditional text adventure format. No more going north, north, east, get book. But it would be hard to stray from an adventure / RPG setting.

With a few extensions for better conversation code, user interface, and a simple combat system, you have something that works as a precursor to an RPG and demonstrates skills at planning, writing, and design. Just not the programming.

Maybe there''s something else I''m missing, feel free to enlighten me.

Hmm, seems like I''m bugging the "games with writting as heritage" thing, oh well. To beat a dead fish further...

*grabs the flame retardant thingie*

I agree that in many counts FF3 was basically an illustrated novel. Sure you could fight monsters, whatever, but the main focus of the game was the story. Writing was one of the most important things in it.

Was prose very important in it? Um, not really. Whenever they could use graphics or visuals to describe what was going on they did. The actual text, or prose, of the game was fairly simple. It was just there to do it''s job, conveying the characters dialogue, and pretty much nothing else.

So I guess what I''m saying is that currently, I don''t think games are taking a lot from prose. I have played some text adventure games though, and those were cool. I think it''s definitely a worthwhile endevour to go try and make a prose filled game.

Well, I''m sleepy and the ladybug beasts are getting restless. Again, please don''t hurt me

-Firecat

No arguments from me, AP.

Graphics present data faster and in a more compact (screen) space than text. Text I think, can provide more subtleties and detail (and more compact disk space).

Graphics would be better at presenting how something looks, while text could be used for a description of intangibles - the history, or significance to society.

Example:
Fred is wearing a green jacket.
Graphics are the way to go -> show me the green jacket.

Fred is the prime minister of Foo.
Text because there''s no clear definition of what a prime minister looks like.

So a game that is heavy on text would be one that emphasizes the intangibles. Which fits nicely with having a necessarily slower pace. (Which may not be sellable, I know) No textQuake.

Or heck, maybe I''m just getting old

Maybe more later on text vs sound

Hello !

I think this subject is really interesting and I agree with JSwing. But it sounds utopic to think that a game with large amount of text could have some success now. Video games should follow the same way than artistic media : more and more visual. But an interesting fact is that we can see more and more oral speechs in films. So, even with a great audiovisual technology, one can''t deny the power of words.
In order to extends the debate : Have anybody ever worked on language comprehension programs ? I have a dream of creating a program which could understand written sentences and respond from his own. I think this could be a great evolution in RPG video games and I''d like to know if someone has tried something in this way.

bye,

Didier

P.S.: I hope my (poor) english is readable (it''s my first post here) !