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 => Past raif topics: IF Theory: part 1#Puzzles & winnability
See also => Puzzle IFWiki entry
- 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)
- Types of puzzles (Mar 1997)
- Types of puzzles (list of 30) (Feb 1998)
- Puzzle design (Jul 2002)
- Designing puzzles (Mar 1995)
- 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)
- Must puzzles always be original / unique ? (Sep 1996)
- Puzzles: What to do / not to do (Apr 1998)
- Mazes considered harmful (Oct 1994)
- Mazes, for or against ? (Sep 2000)
- 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)
- 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 + sensor 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 => David Welbourn's game walkthroughs
- Puzzles and hints (Jun 2003)
- Hints in adventure games (Dec 1993)
- Gradual hints vs a sledgehammer (Oct 2001)
- Hint systems / making hints hard to get vs penalizing player (Jan 2002)
- 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)
- Walkthrough contents (May 2005)
- Walkthroughs & randomness (Nov 1996)
- How to avoid looking at cheats / walkthroughs (Feb 1997)
Red herrings & decoration objects
- Red herrings / unnecessary objects (May 1993)
- Red herrings (Apr 2003)
- Unimportant items / realism & red herrings (Jun 1999)
- Atmospheric messages acting as red herrings (Sep 1994)
- Gratuitous objects (Sep 1994)
- Most memorable red herrings (Sep 2000)
Scoring
- 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)
Helping new players
Game physics / world model
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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 actions
- Automatic performance of implied actions (Jan 1999)
- Implicit actions + time actions take (Mar 1998)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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)
- "Rat in control" experiment (Apr 2003)
- Compass directions (Nov 1996)
- Compass directions + types of player (Feb 1999)
- 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)
- 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
- 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)