What are you reading?

[Jon]

I'd be more impressed if there were actually a text adventure.

That comes across as more than a bit dismissive.

Sorry.

But anyway, playtesting your game? I'm in.

(Actually, if anyone's interested in trying something like this, I'd be happy to handle the programming side of things. Collaborations are fun! (But not magic. That's taken.))

[Arakawa]

There's a very steep learning curve writing text adventures, and it doesn't have to do with the authoring software so much as figuring out the genre conventions that make implementing one a tractable problem. Things like how the parser expects you to phrase things, what kind of lateral thinking is and isn't expected, and how you signal to the player that a given interaction hasn't been implemented, without pissing them off in the process. (Note that in the game review I link to below, it's pointed out that the protagonist refuses to do perfectly reasonable things because they are 'unseemly', which says a lot about his character. This is one example of how to turn a limitation of the genre to one's advantage.)

There's even a steep learning curve to playing text adventures, since if you don't know said genre conventions, you will be unable to play the more interesting and complex games without a walkthrough!

A text adventure is generally not structured the same way as a visual novel. I may be wrong, but visual novels seem to be structured as very large conversation trees, whereas text adventures are generally built as a series of simulations. Very different. So unless it was just a well-written text-only rendering of a visual novel, an interesting Ranma text adventure would contain some kind of nontrivial simulation that generates possible interactions between multiple characters i.e. a major implementation headache.

Because simulating something perfectly is impossible, there are genre conventions about what you can get away with not simulating. So in the case of people it's generally accepted that some of the NPCs you encounter might have the complexity of windup toys. (Think the unnamed old lady in Ranma whose sole function is to throw water into the street at inopportune moments.) How complexity is added onto this base is also subject to conventions that have been developed and which should be taken advantage of, unless one feels ready to write a truly genre-changing work.

The closest thing existing in structure to a Ranma text adventure would be something like 'Varicella': http://members.cox.net/dns361/varicell.html

Finally, note that absent specific cues from the author to act otherwise, the default personality assumed by a text adventure protagonist is going to be a time-travelling manipulative kleptomaniac. i.e. Akemi Homura. Or perhaps Nabiki with an additional 'save and restore' feature.

[Brian]

I've done a bit of plotting for a visual novel, but at the time we were going to do most of it by hand.  I probably actually have some of the old scene maps, but I don't have VISIO to open it anymore.

Anyway.  We're getting a bit off topic, so here's what I read today:

http://www.ryo-oh-ki.net/ffirc/projects/round.htm -- WOW.  This is a great example of how a round robin can go horribly, horribly wrong.  Amazing, like a train-wreck.  Ana's suffering through it now, but I read it a decade ago.  Gooood times.

And to cleanse the mental pallet, something fun and amusing: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/580436/1/Sax_and_Time

[Dracos]

Re: The Third Magic
I read that recently.   It has some interesting ideas and is kinda neat.  Kind of over-mean to Montmorency, but it's so rare to see an FoZ without the beatdown early on that delivers the thematic (Heroic Contempt, Despairing Violence, Exotic whatever...  it's the showcase moment for the familiar)

Has he interacted with more than Echoes of the Void and The Third Magic?

[Dracos]

If folks want to spin around on Text Adventures, just make a thread for it. :)  I agree, it's a bit outside the Reading thread target. :)

[Jason_Miao]

Or perhaps Nabiki with an additional 'save and restore' feature.

That sounds like an interesting short-fic premise. :p

And to cleanse the mental pallet, something fun and amusing: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/580436/1/Sax_and_Time

Loved that fic when it was posted on the FFML.  I have, for years, been trying to think of a good way to reliably write a longer fic with the same principle, but the organizational method of such a project continues to escapes me.

[thepanda]

Has he interacted with more than Echoes of the Void and The Third Magic?

Yeah. There are his own fics (Recollections of Pain > Echos) and a number of people credit him/her with prereading/co-writing credits. You can find some on his/her favorite stories tab on ff.net and just wikiwalk (or whatever it is called) from there.

[DY]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5245635/1/Magical_Girl_Nanoha_12

Not sure if any one else reads this, but it updated. I find it to be an enjoyable read, though I don't know much about Nanoha.

[Jason_Miao]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5245635/1/Magical_Girl_Nanoha_12

Not sure if any one else reads this, but it updated. I find it to be an enjoyable read, though I don't know much about Nanoha.

I've been reading it, and I share the same opinion as you, with the same caveat.  The writer actually worked with Genma's character rather than relegating him to automatic-idiocy-generator, which is always nice to see.  Some weird dialogue constructs, but nothing really irritating.

[Dracos]

Or perhaps Nabiki with an additional 'save and restore' feature.

That sounds like an interesting short-fic premise. :p

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2574681/1/Exact_Change Short fic premise? 

[Jason_Miao]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2574681/1/Exact_Change Short fic premise? 

Similar (in fact, I'd thought of that story when writing my post), but I was thinking more along the lines of an actual save/load oriented short where some incident in the manga keeps going badly for Nabiki but the universe keeps getting reloaded until it goes well for her - one reason why Nabiki never seems to get her comeuppance.  A further elaboration would be that reloading the universe causes bugs, which is why Nerima is so screwed up.

Basically, Exact Change tries to do interesting things within the limits of a simple premise (and IMO, succeeds).  I was thinking of a ridiculous premise.

[Anastasia]

Basically, Exact Change tries to do interesting things within the limits of a simple premise (and IMO, succeeds).  I was thinking of a ridiculous premise.

Exact Change is pretty good and one of his better stories. It's also one of the few he's finished. HMMMM. I WONDER.

I remember reading a Naruto fic based around him doing a NG+ sort of setup with his life ages ago. It's the only Naruto fic I've ever read and that's only because I thought the premise was awesome. This reminds me of that.

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5245635/1/Magical_Girl_Nanoha_12

Not sure if any one else reads this, but it updated. I find it to be an enjoyable read, though I don't know much about Nanoha.

I think I read it for a while.  Glancing back at it, it's a fic that I kind of wish was better.  I like merging the casts, but it's sort of technically weak on delivery.

[Dracos]

Basically, Exact Change tries to do interesting things within the limits of a simple premise (and IMO, succeeds).  I was thinking of a ridiculous premise.

Exact Change is pretty good and one of his better stories. It's also one of the few he's finished. HMMMM. I WONDER.

I remember reading a Naruto fic based around him doing a NG+ sort of setup with his life ages ago. It's the only Naruto fic I've ever read and that's only because I thought the premise was awesome. This reminds me of that.

Oh I remember that.  I tried reading that three times as I also thought the premise was completely awesome...and each time I sorta died early on with it just going too far into wacky video game ville for me to hang on.

Best Naruto time loop story really remains... http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5193644/1/Time_Braid

[Jason_Miao]

Exact Change is pretty good and one of his better stories. It's also one of the few he's finished. HMMMM. I WONDER.

IMO, Ozzallos's pattern is that he has consistently strong starts to his fics, but as he keeps writing, they steadily get more lame until he gives up, or the story ends.

Exact Change is two chapters, and so ended before it could devolve.  Heir to the Empire started out strong, and turned into mediocre by the end.  Best of Times is 11 chapters long, which seems to break the mold, but was pretty much carried by the Ranma-Pluto prank war; without the prank war, it would have been Yet Another Ranma In Seifuku Fic since the rest of the scenes were not far removed from standard.

I feel like HiMA is going the same way - he had a pretty neat concept going with Ranma being (emotionally) seduced by evil, but then changed the fic into the overly long version of Donny Cheng's Life and Times chapter about Morrigan.  But HiMA is still being written, so hopefully it will go somewhere interesting.