Am I too picky?? 99.9% of CYOA's stink - and that is across the board (intfiction posts, ifdb posts), not just Quest. Writing is poor. Games are short and thoughtless. I'm already leaning toward 'Sandpit' when I sample a game especially if it is CYOA. Also, the majority of TA's, too, lack depth and proper design. I realize there isn't much I can do about this. I'm just venting. There are now 80-ish games remaining yet to be catergorized and I'm willing to bet that 70-ish are destined to the sandpit. Why would people create games that are that poor? Is the Smobie (smart phone zombie) generation so far removed from proper grammar and creativity that text lingo, 80-word run-on sentences, and lack of capitalization are the norm?
If you like, you can try out the parser I recently created with Inform 7. (It's unlisted at the moment, currently awaiting feedback.)
Either:
You'll enjoy it.
You can use the CONTACT link (which is available throughout game-play) to vent your frustrations and/or let me know why the game [expletive deleted] stinks. (Feel free to use profanity in the emails. I enjoy a good bout of foul language.)
http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/ogj8kixyx0emjknru3nckg/they-call-ya-mister
If you've always wanted to curse the parser (and you're 18 or older), and you can get down with a short game with a lot of detail and backstory (the backstory is there, you only need find and read an item called the MANUSCRIPT BOOK):
http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/1rurghluluqrwdmjh53ltq/reors-bush-cave-explicit
I'd love some feedback, even if it's completely negative.
I've had only one response to each game, and each time the response was: 'I'm liking it so far! Just started, though. Will provide more input when I get a chance to finish!'
Who am I?
I'm just this old guy who likes Infocom games. (The ones by Steve Meretzky are my favorites.)
What's my purpose?
I don't intend on making any money or entering any competitions . I simply enjoy writing text adventures, but, due to limited feedback, I wonder if I'm wasting space online by posting my games.
NOTE: Reor's Bush-Cave is more of a 'profanity adventure' than it is a text adventure, but They Call Ya Mister hopefully fits the bill.
Oh, cuteboy, the angst of a moderator. Before Alex implemented the new publishing protocol, moderators had to place every single game that was published. Most days there were a queue of 70+ games waiting to finish their race to the sandpit. I likely dumped 95% of games I placed there. Thankfully, they were identifiable as sandpit by the opening page or two. A lot of those games were school projects. Many others were slapped-together memes of randomness along with "Will you go left or right?" - oh, you're dead, type games. And then there is the ridiculous slew of "throbbing member" games from the God-awful warrior cats to the shrunk at [fill in the cliche], both of which garnish rave reviews from their 5* cults.
But... there is hope. I was hoping a thread of mine a long time ago gained ground or, at least, promoted a new category on the front page. I'm all for a section on the front page dedicated to "critic reviews" that highlight the best games as chosen by a select, fair, sane, and literate community of critics. A kind of "the best of the best" selection. The current ratings format doesn't really do the best job at highlighting some of the hidden gems or the long forgotten classics.
I'll second what the little "dickhead kid" (no offense! :) mentioned above. If you have time, check out my 'longer' authored games, namely the Xanadu series and let me know what you think. I'd also be glad to start a list of my favorite games and/authors on this site, but the last time I did that it seemed to disappear quite quickly.
I feel your pain.
I was hoping a thread of mine a long time ago gained ground or, at least, promoted a new category on the front page. I'm all for a section on the front page dedicated to "critic reviews" that highlight the best games as chosen by a select, fair, sane, and literate community of critics. A kind of "the best of the best" selection. The current ratings format doesn't really do the best job at highlighting some of the hidden gems or the long forgotten classics.
Heck yeah! That's a great idea!
"dickhead kid" (no offense! :)
None taken! The name is a joke! (It's what my dad always called me. I wrote the Bush-Cave game as a tribute to him and decided to credit myself appropriately.)
If you have time, check out my 'longer' authored games, namely the Xanadu series and let me know what you think.
I'll bite! (Feedback coming at you soon!)
I'd also be glad to start a list of my favorite games and/authors on this site
Do it! Do it! (Whenever you have the free time, of course.)
@cuteboy: Yes, the '70's and '80's era Infocom games were great...
But the difference is that they were professional writers, maybe several...
One wrote the parser (like Quest)...
One wrote the program that ran the story with in the parser (The Quest script)
and one wrote the story (the Quest script writer)
And several play testers that made sure the game played well, and the story flowed well...
And they were paid to do this, and the better the story, the more sales it generated, and I'm sure, the team got bonuses for good games.
But, what you have with the Quest "programmers" here, is people that are just learning to program, some in the neighborhood of only 5 years on Quest. And they are doing this to learn programming and story writing at the same time.
And the only "payment" the people get is the feedback, and sometimes a few stars...
(Just a thought... Group the games by star ratings based on 5 reviews or more...)
@ Richard: If you are here to write and get the creativity "out of your system", then don't worry about the lack of responses...
(Unless your games really suck and you need more practice... :) LOL )
Negative reviews should make you try harder next time.
I got one on my game "No room descriptions" So, V3.0 will have randomized room descriptions...
(Wumpus V2.5 if you are interested.)
I'm sure there are a few gems in all the games, the trick is finding them...
And what comes to mind when someone says "It's a bad game."... "OK, If you can do better, prove it!" and more often than not, they can't.
Programmers and story writers are a level above game player and book readers...
(Another thought, I wonder how may people found Quest and come here just to play games... But have not written any.)
@DarkLizerd
I agree 100% with everything you said.
That's what I'm saying: I prosper in many ways just by creating my own games.
I learn programming, story-telling techniques (I think/hope), and then I get to play the game. When something in my own game surprises me or makes me laugh, I consider the game worth keeping.
NOTE: I probably (definitely) go out of my way to rid my games of all the things that have perturbed me while playing other text adventures. I.e., if I mention something in a description, I create the object. (We have enough space to do it now, guys and gals. We've progressed way beyond the limitations of the Z-machine.) This forces me to add depth to the story, which I believe to be a good thing.
...and I can tell you right now: my games suck, and I need practice. (This will always be the case, but [expletive deleted] it!) Of course, I think everything I create sucks, and what I really want is for someone to be honest and agree with me. Hence:
I would love to get some negative feedback!
Sure, positive feedback is nice, and I greatly appreciate all of it that I get, but the negative feedback is what leads to improvement.
Yes, the '70's and '80's era Infocom games were great...
But the difference is that they were professional writers, maybe several...
One wrote the parser (like Quest)...
One wrote the program that ran the story with in the parser (The Quest script)
and one wrote the story (the Quest script writer)
And several play testers that made sure the game played well, and the story flowed well...
And they were paid to do this, and the better the story, the more sales it generated, and I'm sure, the team got bonuses for good games.
I propose a massive collaboration.
We could set up:
A) A shared account on this site, where anyone in the group can log in and edit the game.
or
B) A Github repository for the game, where we can all contribute and submit pull requests. (This would probably be more efficient.)
Each author could be in charge of one room in the game, or one NPC, or...
Well, we could do it however we wished.
Who are the authors I have in mind? Hmm... right off the bat, I'm thinking:
(I know: I left many people out, but you're invited , too! (Sorry. I'm new here!))
It would be fun to do, even if the game never saw the light of day! (I think we'd finish making it, though. And, if we did, it would be GOOD!)
So, what do you think?
Let's make a GAME, people!
^that would be fun if for no other reason to appease my sheer curiosity. I'm game!
There are so many options for creating a game this way and I think it might be a fun attempt and worth exploring.
To quote Hedley Lemarr - "My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention."
Rock and roll! (And a nice quote, by the way!)
Here's my current plan (or lack thereof):
Step 1: I'm going to play the Xanadu games. (Downloaded them earlier. I only need to STOP PLAYING AROUND ON THE FORUM, then it's game o'clock!)
Step 2: Once we've determined who all will be involved, we should probably discuss the main story-line. (I usually just get an idea of what one person is doing/has done, then create their world, then drop the protagonists in and [expletive deleted] with them. This probably wouldn't work out very well with numerous writers, but, who knows? We'll vote on it!)
Step 3: TO BE ANNOUNCED
I would be interested. How involved I got would depend on the genre.
I would suggest getting a framework worked out, with game wide commands, functions and types. At least know what they are, if not properly implemented. Github might be best for that.
Then each author can build their own part of the world in their copy of that, with its own quests. If everyone puts their initials at the start of a name, it will avoid name conflicts. Once ready (and a deadline would be good), merge all the games together (either as libraries or just one big file).
Make allowances for anyone to drop out, because some will.
Sorry about taking over this thread!!!
To be continued here: http://textadventures.co.uk/forum/quest/topic/70o4tkfdqukl6wupnplwda/group-project
I think some of the copy-righted games are pretty good.
That said, I don't like most of the games on here, and I agree most are of poor quality.
Just, I know there aren't many good Choose Your Own Adventure games that are good, but there are a few on the main page I like... mainly two (separate games) zombies games.
You can always make your own game.
Not too many good CYOAs is dead-on. I can count them on one hand easy. Pixie has a good one (the god device) and there is one called Ye Olde Barbershop' - http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/ch5nfefigkgeyutjklgdeq/ye-olde-barbershop - that I thought was really enjoyable. Does Spondre count as CYOA? And of course peter123's games.
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