[auspaco]

I grew up with text-adventures on the vic20/ c64 and my favourite games were the Sierra games that had combined graphics with a text interface. A lot of the time I found more puzzles, and more depth because of trying to find the write command, or phrase it in the right way. Somehow for me at least that helped the immersiveness of the experience.

When the text-interaction disappeared and everything became mouse driven I felt a bit lost... it just didn't have the same depth. The text-interaction gave you the illusion that you could do lots of things, while just clicking on things seemed to remove that. I guess the focus went on graphics and the text-console got in the way of that?

Recently i've been making basic games with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), which is quite powerful - for example here's just one of the demo levels that ships with it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEi7o2Z10aY

I was wondering about combining modern graphics (like a FPS) to move through the world as in FPS, with the addition of a text interface to allow you an adventure element.

I'm just curious to hear what others think, and if they would be interested in it, or if they think i'm missing something?

[WitchOfDoubt]

One of the difficulties of combining text and graphics is that the powerful illusion of being able to do anything in a text adventure depends at least partly on the fact that it's easy to write responses to random commands that would be difficult to animate.

For example, if someone types "> SING. DANCE." in a text adventure, it's trivial to have the game reply "You sing a few bars of Girl in the Tower" and "You do a merry little jig." But putting that response into a graphic adventure would take much more effort and animation. A first-person perspective might help somewhat, since you wouldn't have to show all of the player-character's actions, but it's still an issue.

Another problem is that it might be harder to cue the appropriate commands in a graphical game; 'guess-the-verb' would be a bigger potential problem. In a text medium, it's easier to hint at new commands in the narration.

That said, I think Starship Titanic experimented a little with this in its dialogue system. Here's what one reviewer had to say about that:

Here's the thing. Starship Titanic is full of puzzles that are entirely impossible to solve, unless you're Douglas Adams. The range of action is out of control. You have no idea what kind of actions are possible, and therefore experimentation is hopeless. Good ideas don't stand out, and nearly-good ideas don't get responses that indicate that you're close.

[auspaco]

Good points WitchOfDoubt, i'm very interested in observations like that.

I also figured first-person was the way to go, although 3rd person is do-able.

You're right in that it is much more effort to show the result of some commands, however the sing command could easily trigger an audio cue Perhaps there are other little easter-eggs like that to help offset the loss? Either way thats something I'll have to think a lot more about.

I haven't played Starship Titanic but it seems like one of those classic game problems where the character doesn't get a good sense of what it is they are supposed to DO and end up wandering aimlessly?

[Monolith]

I find that the word First Person Perspective is more fitting than First Person Shooter...

[bakana]

One first person graphical adventure that tried to include some of the freedom of text adventuring was (perhaps unsurprisingly) the first graphical Zork game, Return to Zork.

The game had a context-specific interface, and each thing you clicked on unfolded a wide range of context-specific verbs, allowing a lot more total verbs than a SCUMM-style interface, without it being overwhelming.

This seemed like a good mid-way point between the total freedom of the text interface and the limited producible outcomes of a graphical game. It's definitely a flawed game, but it has some interesting design decisions.

[auspaco]

bakana, thats an interesting way to do it. I guess I like the challenge of trying to think of the right verb, rather than choosing from a list... it's a bit like doing a crossword vs just putting words that fit into a grid.

Perhaps that's just me?

[WitchOfDoubt]

I'm assuming this game would use free movement, rather than a Myst-like slide show interface. In this case, having to stop and type commands is potentially jarring and immersion breaking. It's disconcerting enough having to do that in the old third-person Sierra adventure games. Mixing free movement and typing distances the player and the player-character, as if you were shouting commands at them.

In fact, I'd recommend replaying the parser-based Sierra games a little to see some of the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. I think there's a reason why icons caught on for graphic adventures, and pure text parsers remain the norm for text adventures (with VERY few menu-based exceptions).

[auspaco]

WitchOfDoubt: Good idea to play some of those old games. Can you think of any Sierra games in particular?

I really enjoyed the Leisure Suit Larry series up to III, then kind of lost interest (incidentally this is the same point they went icon based).

[TimovieMan]

I don't think the concept would catch on. Like WitchOfDoubt stated: having to stop to type commands in a first person environment will be jarring and immersion-breaking.

And I can personally no longer bring myself to play games with a text parser. I'm so used to point-and-click that I just can't be arsed to do the verb-guessing anymore. I can take old graphics, but I don't think I'll ever play a text parser adventure ever again. And frankly, I don't think I'm alone in this...

[jhetfield21]

not to mention the work a text parser ag with modern graphics needs.since this is a first person environment like every one said you have to consider too many verbs/actions towards items.it's a waste if you have the environment and that sense of freedom and not give an abundance of choices as to what can be done with it.if you are limiting the actions to a minimum standard then you might as well use icons or right click menus like the ones Nikkopol used(really nice game as far as GUI is concerned for me).

[auspaco]

Thanks for the replies!

I can see what you mean about the incongruity between the environmental freedom and the interface. Never really thought about it like that.

I guess I'll have to think a bit more about why it is I liked the text parser and see if I can recreate it some other way.

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by auspaco

I was wondering about combining modern graphics (like a FPS) to move through the world as in FPS, with the addition of a text interface to allow you an adventure element.

Ingenious,you should go for it.That's all we've been missing,imagine the possibilities and depth when you meeting with an npc and text interface opens...

[jhetfield21]

maybe if there was a kind of Cleverbot app behind the graphics instead of a simple text parser....
you know how you talk to cleverbot and every once in a while there is an epic moment....maybe that freedom could be solved by sth like that.
i'm curious as to what could come out of a project like that.

[JBS]

I remember an old rpg like that,player answers questions on text
interface but important thing is how connect clues with puzzles on interface, keeps idea's potential still a secret.