Past raif topics: IF Theory: part 1

This is part one (of two) of a collection of Past raif topics to do with IF theory.

The rest may be found at Past raif topics: IF Theory: part 2.

If you add or change any of the sections on this page, remember to update the entry on the Past raif topics page as well.

General overview / issues in IF

See also => Elements_of_Interactive_Fiction (IFWiki article)

• Introduction to IF (dissertation paper) (Dec 1993)
• Zork and the future of Computerized Fantasy Simulations (intro to IF from Byte magazine) (Feb 1992)
• Issues in IF (Aug 1993)
• Assumptions in most IF (May 1997)
• Standard IF conventions / constraints (Sep 2000)
• IF conventions (Oct 1999)
• Why newcomers struggle with IF (Sep 2005)
• "One on one" IF / how IF should ideally work (Feb 2006, RGIF)

Definition of IF

See also => Interactive fiction (IFWiki article)

• What is IF ? (Sep 1999)
• What IS Interactive Fiction ? (part humor) (Oct 1995) ..
• Defining IF (Feb 2006)
• Defining IF + "plotz" (Jul 1999)
• Another definition of IF (Jul 1999)
• Yet another definition of IF (Jul 1999)
• Deeper definition of IF (Oct 1990)
• What is IF really ? (Jun 2002)
• What IF is (Sep 1996)
• Does "Interactive Fiction" have to be a game ? (Jun 1996)
• IF - fiction, game, or what ? (Jun 1996)
• IF - game or novel ? (Jun 1996)
• "IF" = "adventure game" ? (Sep 2000)
• "Interactive Fiction" vs "Text Adventures" (May 1999)
• "Text adventure" vs "Interactive Fiction" + multimedia support (Oct 2006)
• Definition of Adventure Game (Nov 1997)
• New paradigm - "Game Fiction" (Jun 1996)
• IF is a medium, not a genre (Jun 2007)

IF as art

See also => IF Art Gallery (Annual IF Art Show)
See also => if-archive/art/if-artshow

• IF as art (Nov 1993)
• IF as an art form + critical reviews (Apr 1996)
• Art and interactivity (Once and Future) (Nov 1998, RGIF)
• Artistic merit + gratuitous objects (Oct 1994)
• Is IF art ? + "Serious" IF (Oct 1995)
• Definition of art (Oct 1994)
• Purpose of IF art show (May 1999)
• Medium as part of the message (Oct 1998)

Mimesis / game consistency & completeness

See also => Game Mechanics: Simulation / world limits
See also => Immersion in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also in the IF Archive)
See also => Mimesis .. Diegesis (IFWiki articles)

• Definition of mimesis (Dec 2000)
• What does mimesis mean ? (Aug 1998)
• Breaking mimesis (Feb 2003)
• Mimesis and diegesis (Sep 2004)
• Mimesis / consistency (Sep 2004)
• Crimes against mimesis, part 1 (May 1996) ..
• Crimes against mimesis, part 2 (May 1996)
• Crimes against mimesis, part 3 (May 1996)
• Crimes against mimesis, part 4 (May 1996)
• When is enough enough (handling all possible commands) (Mar 1997)
• How many commands to anticipate (Jul 2007)
• Non-essential rooms and commands (The Great Bathroom (Toilet) Debate) (Nov 2004)
• Bathrooms / how much to implement (Aug 2006)
• Unnecessary rooms / completeness (Jan 1998)
• IF "minimalism" / useless rooms (Feb 1997)
• IF "mimimalism" / useless rooms #2 (Feb 1997)
• How to avoid lots of empty rooms (Sep 1996)
• Having too many rooms (Dec 1999)
• Room description detail + mimesis or story consistency (Jan 2002)
• How much detail (scenery, rooms, NPC movement, etc) (Mar 2002)
• How "real" should a game be ? (Sep 1999)
• Perfectionism / level of detail in IF games (Mar 1998)
• How many objects / realistic or over-detailed (minimalist vs tantalising vs complete) (Mar 1994)
• Gratuitous objects + artistic merit (Oct 1994)
• Dealing with irrelevant items / "that's not important" message (Dec 1995)
• Large number of objects in a game / preventing interaction with everything (Oct 1994)
• Scenery object descriptions / how much detail ? (Jan 2001)
• The role of scenery (Jun 1996)
• Implementing everything in descriptions (Feb 1998)
• Things mentioned in description but not implemented (May 2000)
• Unimplemented things in descriptions (Apr 2000)
• Commonplace objects (electrical outlets everywhere) (Mar 1998)
• Clothes & level of detail (Apr 2001)
• "Mimesis essay" contents (Sep 2004)
• Creating a sense of immersion + player collaboration (Mar 2006)
• Mimesis, immersion & old school IF (Aug 2002)
• Modern vs old school IF (Jul 2004)
• Announcing "Zork: Mimesis" (humor) (Apr 1996)
• Mimesis vs courtesy to the player / repeating the same text (Oct 2006)

Game design

See also => Interactive Fiction Design page .. Game Design and Game Analysis (Gareth Rees)
See also => Make IF Fast! (J. Robinson Wheeler) .. Game Design at the Drawing Board (XYZZY News article) (archive)
See also => Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship and The Craft of Adventure in the if-archive
See also => The PC's Role in Game Design (Brass Lantern)
See also => Laying Out Geography In IF (Emily Short)
See also => Story, Gameplay, Geography and Puzzle Positioning in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also in the IF Archive) See also => Craft (IFWiki article)

• The meta puzzle of IF - Why we like what we like (Mar 2000, RGIF)
• What makes a good game ? (May 1993) ..
• What makes a good IF game (Sep 1996)
• What makes good IF / IF & cinema (Dec 2001)
• Game design advice (Nov 2005)
• Game design dos and don'ts (Dec 2005)
• Designing / writing games (Aug 1998)
• Game design / IF assignment at Michigan University (Jan 2003, RGIF)
• Preferred design philosophy ? (Jan 2006, RGIF)
• How people design games (poll) (Aug 1995)
• Designing / planning games (Apr 2000)
• Debugging design (May 2007)
• Planning your story / game (Jun 1994)
• Planning your story / game #2 (Jun 1994)
• How to start writing a game (Sep 1996)
• Design / order for writing a game (Nov 2001)
• Game design: story / plot (Feb 1994)
• Elements of a game (Oct 2001)
• "Painting" IF (designing games) (Feb 1998)
• IF "sketches" / transcripts in game design (Nov 1996)
• Simulated output (transcripts) as a design method (Jan 1994)
• Design methods / "freewriting" (Oct 1994)
• The design process (Jun 2003)
• Turning vague ideas into IF (Jun 2004)
• How people work (Jan 2001)
• Creation process (Concept -> Story -> Game) (Sep 1997)
• Design Patterns for implementing IF (May 1997)
• Map design / avoiding a grid layout + asymetrical room connections (Sep 2005)
• Map drawing during design (Nov 1999)
• Planning IF games (May 1998)
• Process used for developing plotlines (Aug 1999)
• Design / write everything down first ? (Feb 1998)
• Design documents for IF games (Sep 1998)
• Bad games + do IF writers write / IF players read ? (Aug 1996)
• Design / "bad games" / does Colossal Cave suck ? (Mar 1998)
• Game stoppers (Chris Taylor interview) / puzzles (Aug 1998)
• When everything "clicks" during a game (Photopia review) (Nov 1998)
• What should an adventure be like ? (Sep 1998)
• Design of IF with a serious story / plot (Last Resort) (Dec 2006, RGIF)
• IF design - effort vs benefit (Jan 2007)
• Handling of scripted scenes / how much to force-feed the player (Mar 2007)
• Definition of "pacing" (Aug 2007)

Puzzles & winnability

See also => Game Mechanics: Puzzles
See also => Unwinnable States in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also in the IF Archive)
See also => Puzzleless .. Stuck .. Unwinnable .. Cruelty scale (IFWiki articles)

• Puzzles, problem solving & IF (Apr 1996)
• Why so little puzzleless IF (Mar 1999)
• Why so little puzzleless IF #2 (Mar 1999)
• Alternatives to having puzzles in IF ? (Mar 1998)
• Puzzleless IF + starting out advice (Dec 2000)
• Puzzleless IF + graphics in IF (Jan 1994)
• Lack of interest in puzzle games ? (Jan 2000)
• Handling unwinnable situations (preventing, informing player, etc) (Jun 1997)
• Unwinnable situations / undo & redo (Jun 1997)
• Unwinnable situations (examples) (Nov 2005)
• Unwinnable situations #1 (Feb 2000)
• Unwinnable situations #2 (Mar 2000)
• What to do about unwinnable situations (player's perspective) (Mar 2000, RGIF)
• Getting games into unsolvable states (Nov 1994)
• Leaving needed objects behind (Sep 1995)
• Needing particular objects / picking up everything in sight (Feb 1994)
• Forced replay because of missing small detail / getting stuck (May 1996)
• Being stuck / puzzles vs story (Christminster) (Jan 1998)
• Puzzles as pacing devices (Aug 2005)
• Games vs puzzles (Aug 1998)
• "Stuckness" as a good thing / player states (May 2000)
• Skipping puzzles / "solve" command / the Jones "Anti Puzzle Device" (Oct 1994)

General IF theory

See also => An Annotated Bibliography Of Interactive Fiction Scholarship
See also => Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction (Nick Montfort)
See also => Interactive Fiction and Reader-Response Criticism (Paul O'Brian)
See also => The Meta-Puzzle of Interactive Fiction: Why We Like What We Like (Marnie Parker aka Doe)
See also => Interactive Fiction Theory (Brass Lantern)
See also => Theory (IFWiki article)

• Why write IF ? (Aug 2000)
• Motives for writing IF (Sep 1997)
• Telling a story to share experiences / Aristotle's story model (May 1993)
• A typology of IF (7 independent variables / 288 distinct categories of IF) (Dec 2001)
• IF and narrative theory (Jan 2007)
• Response to "Toward a theory of Interactive Fiction" essay (Nick Montfort) (Apr 2007)
• Response to "Clever Author" essay (Jim Aikin) (Jan 2007)
• Authorship and meaning creation in IF (Jul 2007)
• "Suprematism" game / player participation in storytelling (Feb 2007, RGIF)
• Multi part IF games (Sep 1999)
• What am I missing ? (modern IF) / advances in IF (Spider & Web, Worlds Apart) (Sep 2006)
• Pushing the boundaries of IF (Spider & Web) (Sep 2006) ..
• What could IF be ? / main character being ill defined (Sep 1996)
• Is adventure dead / games solved by intellectual means (GDC conference) (Mar 1999)
• Searching for a sense of wonder + alternative solutions to puzzles (Nov 1992)
• Popularity of IF + role playing & IF (Feb 1999)
• Randomness in games + serious games ("beyond empathy") (Sep 1994)
• Invoking a sense of danger without using randomness (Feb 2006)
• Dragons / all-too-normal games
• Stale IF genres (Oct 1996, RGIF)
• "Fantasy" IF dead ? (Jan 1998, RGIF)
• Thoughts on Fantasy IF (Nov 1996, RGIF)
• Treasure hunts still OK ? (Jun 2001, RGIF)
• IF game cliches / taking items through a narrow crack (Dec 1996)
• Goal oriented vs process oriented games (Jul 1996)
• Puzzle fairness, narration and simulation / static fiction vs IF (Jan 2006)
• Simulation vs convention vs completeness (Jan 2006)
• Spatial relationships in text based games (in/on/under) (Dec 1993)
• Pamper the player + mazes considered harmful (Oct 1994)
• Death, failure, mindsets, dramatic tension (Jan 2003)
• Restart, death and "lives" (Nov 1998)
• (See also => Game Mechanics: Part 1: Death)
• Objective vs Subjective IF (Oct 1990)
• Text games in general (Oct 1998)
• Villains in IF games (Jun 1998)
• Bill of player's rights (May 1993) ..
• Bill of player's rights #2 (May 1993)
• Bill of Author's Rights + Undo (Jun 1998)
• "Universes" and "worlds" (May 1998)
• Personal vision of IF + story generation (May 1991)
• Future of IF / are we wasting our time ? (Apr 1998)
• IF 'spective (retro- and per-) (Sep 1998)
• Identifying types of player (Feb 1999)
• People's ability to visualize (Mar 1999)
• Being able to visualize complex objects / "mechanical" puzzles (Feb 2005, RGIF)
• IF complexity / trying every possible action / things players may never see (Oct 1993)
• Originality in IF + trademarks (Mar 1998)
• Groundhog Day as IF + breaking the fourth wall (NPCs commenting on save/hint) (Apr 1997)
• "Memento" movie - implications for IF ? (Apr 2001, RGIF)
• The interface is the game (Feb 1998)
• Other forms of IF (alternatives to Infocom type IF) (Feb 1997)
• What makes a game adventurous (Feb 2003)
• Motivations for exploring (Apr 2003)
• Player vs author freedom / changing history (Jigsaw) (Jan 2000)
• IF criticism - examine & time limits (Apr 2003)
• "Character games" (Dec 2003)
• The Meta-Puzzle of IF: Why we like what we like (Mar 2000)
• Conversational tone, adverbs & other "3D" things (May 2001)
• Text adventure audience + history of Inform (Jan 2000)
• In-jokes in IF (Being Andrew Plotkin) (Nov 2000, RGIF)
• Long vs short games + good endings (May 2000)
• Interesting techniques / game within a game (Apr 2000)
• Games that read like a move script (May 2000)
• Player gender and IF (Apr 2006)
• Preachiness in IF (Dec 1996)
• Emotional / moving IF (Aug 1997, RGIF)
• IF database ideas (Apr 1999, RGIF)

Moral issues arising in IF

• Moral dilemas in IF (Dec 1996)
• Moral dilemas in IF + PC knowledge (Apr 1996)
• Moral choices (Apr 1996, RGIF)
• Moral choices in IF games (May 1996)
• Immoral behaviour in IF (Jun 1995)
• Immoral behaviour in IF #2 (Jun 1995)
• Violence in games (Nov 1995)
• "Warning messages" at start of game / sex & crime in IF (Feb 1997)
• Realistic instructions for making a bomb OK ? (Jul 1996)
• Taboos in IF (Nov 2005, RGIF)
• Obscenities / swearing in IF (Oct 1994)
• Nudity offensive in IF ? (Apr 2001)
• Are text games male oriented ? (Nov 1993)
• Gender roles in IF (Aug 1996)

Past raif topics: IF Theory: part 2