Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!ub!acsu.buffalo.edu!goetz
From: goetz@cs.buffalo.edu (Phil Goetz)
Subject: Re: Fiction in IF
Message-ID: <CHxusu.9u8@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Sender: nntp@acsu.buffalo.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: thuban.cs.buffalo.edu
Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo/Comp Sci
References: <2eep9q$bf3@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1993 20:12:30 GMT
Lines: 18

In article <2eep9q$bf3@agate.berkeley.edu> whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson) writes:
>The Hook - Whap!  Something happens.  His best friend comes running in to
>  ask him to hide him from the police, his spaceship blows up, a murder
>  occurs, etc.  Hollywood Hijinx did a really crappy job of this.  The hook
>  is important to the game, vitally so.  Make it dramatic, sudden, and
>  give it the promise of exciting adventure.  Tantalize them, draw them into
>  the game.  Trinity does a great job of this.

Take this seriously!  I believe that what killed my adventure _Inmate_
was that the first puzzle was to figure out what was going on.  It was
obvious that something strange was going on, but the beginning was very
slow.  This "figure out what's happening" just doesn't work well in
adventures.  (Another example is Thomas Disch's _Amnesia_.)

Of course, I don't know if that was the problem, since only 2 of my
damn playtesters ever wrote back...

Phil
