The Quern

As promised, here’s the first update on my project for IFComp 2009.

At this point I can’t even give you a title.  My working title is “My Game”.  I haven’t yet typed one word into the Inform 7 UI.

And that makes me feel pretty good, actually!  The three previous projects I tried all fizzled partway through, and I think the problem in all three cases was that I too quickly started banging out code.

What I’ve found is that an interesting mechanic is not enough to hang a game on.  My first attempt was a fantasy-based game where the central conceit was that you spent part of the time undead.  Descriptions would change, and some of your fundamental characteristics as a player would be different, enabling different solutions to the same problems you encountered as a living character.

It was a cool idea, and I may yet do something with it, but I just took it and ran, whacking in generic descriptions and telling myself I’d figure out the puzzles, and even the plot, as I went.  In fact, one of the reasons I picked this idea to try first was that I thought it was a cool concept, but it wasn’t my favorite idea.  I knew I didn’t have the skills to attempt my favorite first.

Of course, I hit a brick wall.

My second attempt again had an interesting concept, but with ultimately no way to get an entertaining game out of it.  After implementing the first phase, I realized the central mechanic of the idea made it too hard to portray the story arc I wanted.

My third attempt probably would have worked, but what I found was that although I had a good “hook”, an idea for some interesting puzzles, and a coherent narrative planned, I just didn’t care about the characters or the story I was trying to tell.

Every time I told myself:  Well, at least I learned something new.  And I still have time for my real comp game.

I don’t have that margin for error this time, so I’m not going to make those mistakes again.  The first thing I did for idea #4 was figure out the story I wanted to tell.  It’s still not the one I want to tell the most, but it’s one I at least care about.  The idea for the setting came from that, and it’s something I’m comfortable with and think I can implement well.  I then sketched the major characters enough to know who they are and get an idea of how the dialogue should go.  I’m now working on plotting the segments of the story and researching interesting puzzles that should integrate well.

Only once I get done with that will I try to work on the map and finally start laying some code down in Inform.  I’m hopeful that by approaching things this way, I’ll have a clearer idea where I want to head before I start painting myself into a corner.

More to come later!