Building My First Interactive Fiction
Exploring the duality of story and gameplay
Premise
In my interactive fiction, players indicate what they like, eating, cleanliness, or wellness. They are also asked about their preferences regarding leadership, social activities, and personality. Based on these factors, players are assigned jobs in either the kitchen, laundry, or the infirmary.
Players will find themselves living in an enclosed commune. Many years ago, biological warfare made the outside world uninhabitable. The founder of the commune gathered a small community to restart a new, self-sustaining population. Their focus is maximizing efficiency based on strategically leveraging the talents of their community members. Every member provides valued contributions back to their community. There are around 1000 men and women living on the commune.
The player’s everyday job in the game will align with their expressed interests. Though the days are fairly routine, the player will enjoy the tasks at hand. Every morning they wake up, spend an hour in the “outside” area and go to their work area. These are the only three areas they are allowed to go. They bunk with the other workers in their unit and find themselves bonding over time.
One day, during an hour in the “outside” area, the player will look outside and see what they believe is a deer in the distance. This is shocking as they’ve been told for many years that the earth can no longer sustain life.
The player will begin to question what they’ve been told in the commune. They start to notice discrepancies in the stories they’ve been told versus their own observations. They decide to leave their approved areas and gather more information about the commune. Along the way, they discover who and how decisions are being made in the name of creating and maintaining an efficient society.
Choosing My Program
Having used Twine before, I am familiar with the benefits of its easy-to-use graphical interface. It is fairly straightforward to quickly spin up an interactive fiction with a minimal learning curve. Additionally, it’s easy to visually see how your narrative is branching.
However, I ultimately decided to use Inform 7 for this project. While Inform 7’s learning curve is much steeper, I am interested in exploring the flexibility of the platform to develop complexity in my interactive fiction. I am particularly interested in integrating visual effects and multimedia support, if time allows. It also seems like the documentation for Inform 7 is extensive and their community is highly involved.
