Lil Red About to Head Out into the Big Wide World

An hour here and an hour there, I have been adding to my first IF title ‘Lil Red.’ Its proving a steep and very enjoyable learning curve, made even more challenging by the fact that it’s the holidays and I don’t feel I can pester Quest developer @alexwarren. I feel a little embarrassed each time I send an email outlining each subsequent road block. There is one very clear classroom benefit of the non-linear nature of IF and that is, there is always plenty of writing and coding that one can be getting on with, around that road block. This non-linear learning should transfer effectively to the classroom.

Sir, I can get A to open B? Can you help?

Yes, I am just helping Fiona, move onto your next room description and I be over to ask you a few questions.

So what have I learnt so far? As I share with @vaughany writing all useful, game purposeful answers as well as responding to all possible player answers, all takes time and more importantly lateral thinking. Its not just how ‘you,’ would interact with the game but how the player may interact with the game. A second skill I am developing is my awareness of ‘game continuity’ and by that I mean ensuring that narrative, room and object descriptions and game scenarios complement one another. For example, if Red is going to wear a ‘red hoodie’ then the player needs to be given a reason to wear a hoodie and not a t-shirt. Hence ‘don’t you know its winter outside.’ This in turn will impact on what might be purchased from Greggs the Bakers and also gives Red a reason to take the bus to Grandma’s house.

The second encouraging writing observation is that IF really promotes effective planning, however that game planning is very easily adapted or extended. For example, originally I had introduced Red as waking in her room, with an introductory puzzle to show / teach players how to use verbs and interact with the game, with Red exiting the apartment onto High Street 1^st East. Red’s apartment was easily extended to a more realistic two, then three, then four room apartment with one room and two room puzzles, creating a mini game, within the game. What Tim Hamilton described as a ‘section of game play’ that ends with Red exiting onto the High Street 1st East, part one of six ‘High Street’ rooms, the second section of the game. I started writing the game with approximately 80% of the game planned, the game is now approximately 115% of its intended size and I anticipate it will grow further still. Clearly planning IF is a skill that itself needs to be developed.

Progress so far has been relatively successful, constructing the basic game map, adding room and object descriptions has been straightforward. Using workflowy has made recording and reviewing the narrative more efficient and I would certainly recommend it (plus having a spell checker and the ability share the file is useful). You can view ‘Lil Red’s’  progress here. I am now starting to code the game interactions with moderate success. I still need to develop my understanding and use of ‘expressions,’ definitely on the agenda for my next conversation with Alex.

Teaching IF

Quest is easy to get started with, you can write / code very simple games, very quickly, however I would not advocate diving in at the writing and coding deep end. The second point of caution is that writing and coding IF is not a simple extension creative writing. For starters there are multiply middles and ends and not every reader/player will follow the same path and non-linear style requires a unique style of thinking and planning skills, and that’s all part of attraction if IF. Not forgetting you have to accommodate players possible wrong answers. Given these reflections here are my initial considerations for teaching IF

Reading and experiencing game play is important for appreciating game structures and interactions however, significantly and understandably, most IF games were not written with teaching in mind. The games I have experienced are typically ten and twenty hours long. I would therefore recommend either playing a game section or we, the teaching community, need create some mini games. There is definite value in “completing a game” and only playing a section restricts that experience. One alternative strategy is to play the game as a team. All students playing and sharing achievements, this promotes a very social experience and certainly brings the group together.

Planning a game is important and complex. The plan itself needs deep consideration, however the quality of the plan (certainly in my first experience) is only realised as you construct the game. Hence Quests flexibility can be both a blessing and a curse. It allows you to easily adapt and extend when and wherever you like, but also allows the game to easily spiral out of control.

Approximately one minute of game play equates to one hour of planning, writing and coding. Even a fifteen, twenty minute game is a considerable undertaking or unit of work.

Delivery Model x2

Given that the most powerful learning and reward experience is planning and creating a game, I plan introduce IF through seven steps, twice over. The first cycle to experience IF and more importantly to construct and share a game and the second cycle, to really dig deep into IF culture and develop a coding interest.

• Step 1 Play IF
• Step 2 Plan and draft (visual) game floor plan (keep naming conventions simple)
• Step 3 Write a very basic game script outline including verbs, rooms, objects, basic interactions and puzzles (again keep naming conventions simple)
• Step 4 Construct the game floor plan in Quest – providing a scaffold upon which you can write the room and object descriptions
• Step 5 Start to add the room descriptions / game narrative (game continuity is more achievable given you have a broad overview on the completed game) It is important that student learn to tell their story and also consider how the player ‘may’ interact with their game.
• Step 6 Code the game interactions and puzzles. There are plenty of mini lessons here, basically teaching as much or as little of Quest as is required to fulfil the plan.
• Step 7 Share and peer review and debug games.

Back to Lil Red, back to Quest, one coding challenge at a time. Bring on ‘expressions’ and creating an rewards variable or some kind.

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