Reflecting on My Deep Dive into IF
Follow-up reflection on my interactive fiction project
This post covers my thoughts on my interactive fiction project. To learn more about the project’s background and process, click here.
As mentioned in my previous post, “My Deep Dive into Interactive Fiction,” I ran into two critical snags with my project, starting with a scope way too broad and choosing Inform7 as my IF platform.
Issue #1: Biting Off More Than I Can Chew
I started the project with a very ambitious premise, including the choice of 3 character roles and 16+ rooms. Aside from writing the premise and creating the map, I did very little planning beforehand. In retrospect, I completely underestimated the amount of work it takes to write interactive fiction. Aside from writing multiple narratives, a good IF requires strategic thinking about choices and pacing. If I stuck to the original premise, at best I would end up with a very broad and shallow IF. I realized that such a game would be dissatisfying for the player.
At work, we had a practice of doing a breakdown, costing, and prioritization exercise for each project before working on it. Each project would get broken down into arcs of work, i.e., implementation of button A. Then, we would go in and do a cost estimate for how long it would take to complete each arc of work. Each cost estimate had baked-in padding. For instance, you might feel confident you can implement button A in 2 hours. However, we would multiply 2 hours by 1.5, to provide padding of 50%, and put down a costing estimate of 3 hours. Based on the costing and product goals, we would prioritize the arcs of work to delineate what’s a must-have to achieve the vision and what’s a nice to have. After reviewing the goals, we might decide that button A is not critical to implementation, so it gets marked as a lower priority (even if it doesn’t take that long to implement). I believe it would be prudent to employ an exercise like this for each of my projects moving forward to get a clearer idea of how to fulfill the game’s goals while tackling what’s feasible within the provided timeline.
Issue #2: Choosing Inform7
Issue #2 is an extension of Issue #1. I mentioned before that I have worked in Twine and was hoping to learn a new platform, Inform7, for this project. I enjoy programming and thought this would be a fun opportunity to learn a new language.
In general, I don’t think tackling a new language is a bad idea. In fact, I think it’s an important mentality to have to continue growing as a developer. However, I believe the way I approached the decision to use Inform7 could be improved. My decision was based more on the excitement to interact with a new technology as opposed to whether or not the technology supports the game I wanted to make. This became evident as I was making the game. I started to realize that I was building choices for the sake of successfully making choices in Inform7, rather than building choices which brought the story forward.
Additionally, since I was learning Inform7, it took me much more time to come up with a testable prototype. I missed several opportunities to get early feedback, which I believe meant lost opportunities to elevate my game.
Next time, I’d think carefully about matching the technology or medium to the game I want to build. In the end, the player doesn’t care that you’re jazzed about new technology, they care about having compelling, fun gameplay.
Final Thoughts
There are always going to be snags along the way, whether it’s a project for school or work. It’s important to admit “failures” fast and pivot early. Sometimes, this requires you to be honest with yourself about why you’re going down a particular track. Are you falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy? Is ego driving you to stick with your original plan? In my case, it was a̶ ̶l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ a lot of both. I learned it’s okay for the process not to be pretty and it’s helpful to share with others about what your struggles.
Lastly, even though I hit a couple of snags, I came out of this project with a much stronger appreciation for IF. I resonate a lot with Anna Anthropy’s frustration in “Rise of the Video Game Zinesters” about the homogeneity of video games today. After these last three weeks, I believe Twine and IF together could significantly lower the barrier for people to create games and share their perspectives with the world.
