Past raif topics: Game Mechanics: part 1
From IFWiki
This is part one (of two) of a collection of Past raif topics to do with the mechanics of IF games, such as puzzles, game world physics and navigation.
The rest may be found at Past raif topics: Game Mechanics: 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.
Puzzles
See also => IF Theory: Puzzles & winnability
See also => Puzzles in Interactive Fiction (D.G. Jerz) .. IF Roundtable: The Art of the Puzzle (IFMud transcript)
See also => Nalian Language Puzzle in The Edifice (XYZZY News article) .. Plenty Annoyed (frustrating puzzles) (Brass Lantern)
See also => Puzzle .. Maze .. Best_Puzzles ..Best_Individual_Puzzle (IFWiki articles)
- What is & is not a puzzle (Nov 1999)
- When is a puzzle a puzzle (May 1999)
- Puzzle classification (May 1993)
- Puzzle categories (four types) (Aug 1995)
- Puzzle categories (Jan 2006)
- Types of puzzles (Mar 1997)
- Types of puzzles (list of 30) (Feb 1998)
- Cryptographic puzzles (Nov 2005)
- Linguistic puzzles (Oct 2005)
- IF puzzle compendium / classic puzzles (Jul 2003, RGIF)
- "Mechanical" puzzles / being able to visualize complex objects (Feb 2005, RGIF)
- Puzzle design (Jul 2002)
- Puzzle design (Apr 1998, RGIF)
- Designing puzzles (Mar 1995)
- How to create puzzles (Oct 1994, RGIF)
- What makes a puzzle good (Aug 1998)
- What makes a good puzzle ? (May 1996)
- The problem with puzzles + identifying with PC (Nov 1998)
- Problem with puzzles + internal PC conflict (Apr 1994)
- What kinds of puzzles are appropriate in IF / riddles (Aug 2004, RGIF)
- Must puzzles always be original / unique ? (Sep 1996)
- Puzzles: What to do / not to do (Apr 1998)
- Bad puzzles (baseball puzzle) (Sep 2006, RGIF)
- Mazes considered harmful (Oct 1994)
- Mazes, for or against ? (Sep 2000)
- Anyone like mazes ? (Aug 1996, RGIF)
- Illogical puzzles + mazes (Jul 1999)
- Logical puzzles / solving by brute force ("+=3" demo game) (Nov 1994)
- Logical puzzles ("+=3" demo game) #2 (Nov 1994)
- Logical puzzles ("+=3" demo game) #3 (Nov 1994)
- Realistic / "every day" puzzles (Jan 2006)
- Common sense puzzles (Jun 1998)
- Depending on common knowledge + instructions for making a bomb OK in a game ? (Jul 1996)
- Hard puzzles (Nov 1997)
- Quantifying puzzle difficulty (Jul 1994)
- Puzzle difficulty and arbitrariness ("Balances" demo game) (Nov 1994)
- User-selected difficulty levels (Jan 1993)
- Obscure puzzles & multiple solutions (Apr 1997)
- Alternative solutions to puzzles + sense of wonder (Nov 1992)
- Time limits in puzzles (May 1999)
- Puzzle fairness & PC character (Sep 2002)
- Puzzles / the player will get it wrong (Apr 2000)
- Randomised & optional puzzles (Dec 2002)
- Puzzles which cannot be spoiled by Undo + disabling Undo (Aug 1996)
- Indicating something is not a puzzle (May 2003)
- Locational puzzle theory (Oct 2001)
- (Goal / obstacle) vs (puzzle / solution) pairs (Jan 2002)
Hints and walkthroughs
See also => Hint .. Walkthrough .. Invisiclues .. Fake spoiler (IFWiki articles)
See also => Invisiclues for Infocom games
See also => Getting Help (hints & solutions) .. Writing Walkthroughs (Brass Lantern articles)
See also => Cheat, Beg, Wheedle, Cajole (XYZZY News article)
See also => David Welbourn's game walkthroughs .. if-archive/solutions
- Puzzles and hints (Jun 2003)
- Hints in adventure games (Dec 1993)
- Hint approaches (Jan 2006)
- Gradual hints vs a sledgehammer (Oct 2001)
- How explicit should hints get? (Mar 2006)
- Helping a stuck player (Jan 2006)
- Hint systems / making hints hard to get vs penalizing player (Jan 2002)
- Best hint system? (Jan 2006)
- Hint systems (Feb 1998)
- Universal Hint System (UHS) (Apr 1994)
- Invisiclues hint system (Jun 1998)
- Hints / including hints with games (Aug 1996)
- Disadvantages of in game help / hints (Dec 1999)
- Hint menus (Feb 1999)
- Format of printed hint booklets (Sep 1998)
- Adaptive hints / puzzle DAG (Apr 1994)
- Interactive hints (proposal) (Dec 1992)
- Walkthroughs + encrypting hints (Dec 1992)
- Walkthroughs (Nov 2004, RGIF)
- Walkthrough contents (May 2005)
- Walkthroughs format / not a substitute for hints (Nov 2004, RGIF)
- Walkthroughs & randomness (Nov 1996)
- How to avoid looking at cheats / walkthroughs (Feb 1997)
- Do walkthroughs spoil IF games ? (Aug 2000, RGIF)
- Automatic walkthrough mode (Feb 2006)
Red herrings & decoration objects
See also => Red herring .. Blue Herring Pattern (IFWiki articles)
- Red herrings / unnecessary objects (May 1993)
- Red herrings (Apr 2003)
- Unimportant items / realism & red herrings (Jun 1999)
- Giving everything a description (Jan 2001, RGIF)
- Interaction with irrelevant objects (Apr 1995, RGIF)
- Atmospheric messages acting as red herrings (Sep 1994)
- Atmosphere vs red herrings (Jan 2006)
- Gratuitous objects (Sep 1994)
- Most memorable red herrings (Sep 2000)
Scoring
See also => Score .. Rank .. Last lousy point (IFWiki articles)
- Opinions on scoring (Feb 2002)
- Non-numerical scoring (Dec 1996)
- Non-scoring games (Dec 1996)
- Alternatives to scoring / victory conditions (Aug 1992)
- Diary of accomplishments instead of score (Aug 1992)
Game physics / world model
See also => Liquid Modelling .. Desiderata for a Physical Simulation Library (Emily Short)
See also => Darkness .. Light source (IFWiki articles)
- Adventure interface, physics (Feb 1993)
- Real life physics + AI (May 1998)
- Game physics (MUD) (Apr 1993)
- Simplified / naive physics for adventure games (Dec 1992)
- World model / liquids, mass objects, etc (Feb 2000)
- Handling divisible substances (Apr 2005)
- Liquids (Aug 2003)
- Dealing with liquids (Sep 2000)
- Liquids and Inform (Mar 1995)
- Liquids & divisible materials (Apr 1993)
- Water as object / mixing with things (May 2002)
- Volume & displacement (Sep 2003)
- Taking the bottom object from a pile (Jan 2001)
- Breaking / burning objects (simulationism in IF games) (May 2002)
- Weather (Jul 2004)
- Handling darkness (May 1994)
- Darkness in IF / varying levels of light (May 1994)
- A game in the dark + context sensitive pronouns (Jan 1997)
- Light sources / determining if an object is in the light (May 1994)
- Modelling light & sound / "A under B" (Nov 1992)
- Spatial relationships in text based games (in/on/under) (Dec 1993)
Simulation / world limits
See also => Past raif topics: IF Theory: part 1#Mimesis / game consistency & completeness
See also => Problems in IF Simulationism (Emily Short)
- Simulationism (May 1994)
- IF realities / simulationism (Nov 1993)
- Simulation and IF (summary) (Oct 2005)
- Simulationism (footprints in the snow) + IF libraries (Sep 2005)
- Simulation and world consistency / interaction checking program (Sep 2005)
- Simulationist IF / Deus Ex article (Oct 2001)
- Simulationist IF + IF in the news (Feb 2001)
- Simulation (Boogum system) / detailed environment desirable ? (Feb 1995)
- Simulating the real world (Feb 2001)
- World models + parsing (May 1991)
- Why do you always miss when you "throw" something ? / world model (Jan 2003, RGIF)
- World representation / continuous vs discrete locations (Jan 1992)
- Continuous space vs rooms + how to garble a sentence (Oct 1991)
- Continuous space instead of "rooms" in IF / "forward 5 metres" (May 1996)
- Simulationism + NPC personalities (May 1998)
- Fun vs full simulation (need to eat, sleep, etc) (Oct 1994)
- Realism vs fun ("Amnesia" game) (Jan 1993)
- Realistic world models + "go to" command (Jan 2000)
- NPC intelligence in a simulationist environment (Oct 2001)
- How much detail / infinite universes (Sep 2004)
- Boundlessness (Feb 2005)
- Borders of the game world (Dec 2005)
- Commands not usually implemented in a game (Nov 2003, RGIF)
- Things players try (Feb 1999)
- Things not allowed to do in a game (Mar 2005)
- Commands available to player (Mar 2005)
Modelling actions & objects - general
- Simulation / decomposing actions into subactions (Sep 1999)
- Categories of verbs (Jul 2003)
- "Thing" hierarchy / TADS properties (Dec 2002)
- Breaking up an object / having car & doors as separate objects (Inform) (Aug 1996)
- Conflict resolution of character actions (NPC/PC or NPC/NPC) (Oct 1994)
- PC & NPCs taking turns / simultaneous actions (Jun 2005)
Implicit and multiple actions
- Automatic performance of implied actions (Jan 1999)
- Implicit actions + time actions take (Mar 1998)
- Turns taken for commands with multiple objects / free "look" (Sep 2000, RGIF)
- Multiple commands on one line (Feb 2006, RGIF)
- Auto-take for objects required to be "held" (Inform) (Feb 1997)
- How much autopilot (Sep 2002)
- Level of automation / "First picking up ..." (Jan 2001)
- Automatic "examine" when object taken (Dec 1998)
Visibility / scope of objects
See also => Scope .. Sense-passing (IFWiki articles)
- Scope (May 1997)
- Scope rules (Aug 1996)
- Scope rule ideas (Inform) (Jul 1996)
- Body parts in scope or not (Feb 1998)
- Scope of items carried by NPCs / internal & external things on an object (Oct 1994)
- Sense passing (Sense 2.0) (Nov 1999)
- Sense passing (Jan 2000)
- Seeing inside adjacent rooms (Nov 1992)
- Visibility / line of sight / surfaces with "inside" & "outside" (Prolog) (Sep 1996)
Containers & inventory limits
See also => Inventory .. Inventory management puzzle .. Sack object (IFWiki articles)
- Player holding capacity (infinite vs realistically limited) (Sep 2000, RGIF)
- Containers (Mar 2002)
- Realistic containers & vehicles (Apr 1990)
- Implementing a sack object (TADS) (Dec 1996)
- Implementing a tiny container (Inform) (Aug 1995)
- Inventories (Jan 2001)
- Inventory limits (Jan 1999)
- Opinions on scoring + inventory limits (Feb 2002)
Time
- Indicating passage of time (Feb 2002)
- Giving the illusion of a long journey (Dec 2000)
- Time / game events at particular times & places (Jul 1995)
- Free actions & meta commands (Mar 1997)
- TimeSys timekeeping system (HTML TADS) (May 1999)
- Time actions take + implicit actions (Mar 1998)
- Actions that take more than one turn + when should "all" be allowed (Mar 1994)
Mapping
- Approaches to mapping / still enjoying the game (Jul 2004, RGIF)
- Mapping programs & manual mapping (Nov 2002, RGIF)
- Mapping tools / advantages of pen & paper (Mar 2002, RGIF)
- TADSMap for HTML TADS (Sep 2002)
- Mapping tools vs in game maps (Aug 2002)
- Map creation (Dec 2001)
- Mapping (Jan 2004)
- ASCII maps (Mar 1994)
- Auto generated Maps (Mar 2005)
- Automapping in HTML TADS (Apr 2000)
- Automap (Inform) (Feb 1999)
- Mapping / open source (Jan 2004)
- Mapping tools / common map format (Mar 2002)
- Mapping tools (Mar 2002)
- Map editor ideas (authoring tool) / generating skeleton code (Jun 1996)
- Non-graphical mapping systems (spreadsheat, etc) (Sep 2004, RGIF)
See also => Compass .. Navigation (IFWiki articles)
- "Rat in control" experiment (Apr 2003)
- Compass directions (Nov 1996)
- Compass directions + types of player (Feb 1999)
- Directions and navigation + PCs who can drive cars properly (Nov 2006, RGIF)
- Navigation / using compass directions (Feb 2000, RGIF)
- Navigating with compass directions / IF pet peeves (Oct 2000, RGIF)
- Compass directions / cultural coordinate systems (Oct 2000)
- Extended compass directions (NNE, NorthUp, degrees, etc) (Sep 2005)
- Not using compass directions (Feb 2002)
- Compass & relative directions (Aug 2001)
- Left and right vs NSEW (May 1999)
- Alternatives to NSEW (Jul 1999)
- Navigation + review criteria (Earth and Sky 3) (Jan 2005, RGIF)
- Directionless IF / named exits (Jun 2002)
- Shipboard directions #1 (Aug 1999)
- Shipboard directions #2 (Aug 1999)
- Directions on board a ship (Nov 2002)
- Directions in a 3D environment (Dec 2001)
- Directions in space / zero gravity (Nov 1996)
Locations, movement & exits
See also => Past raif topics: Game Mechanics: part 1#Compass directions / navigation
- Showing exit directions (compass rose / prompt) (Nov 2006, RGIF)
- Modelling outdoor areas (Jun 2001)
- Physical traversal of landscape (Sep 1997)
- Handling large areas (desert, etc) (May 1995)
- Large geographies / zoned areas (May 2001)
- New movement system / sectors vs rooms + can IF be 3D ? (Nov 1996)
- Sector based scoping (Nov 1996)
- Travelling in a large setting (May 1999)
- Handling big rooms (Sep 2004)
- Scale / rooms with many exits (Dec 2001)
- Multiple exits in the same direction (Aug 2001)
- Multiple doors on the same wall (Jan 2001)
- "Absurd returning" exits / North + South = not the same room (Apr 1992)
- Sublocations within a room / "go to window" (Sep 1996)
- PC direction facing (Jan 2003)
- "Forward 5 metres" / continuous space instead of rooms (May 1996)