Dear Gameboomers,

I'd like to tell you about our new guest column right now. The new article was written by Agustin Cordes and deals with innovation in adventure games. I think that Agustin did a wonderful job with it and I would be glad if many of you read the article.

Aside of that we just started a community interview with Agustin on our message board. No matter if you want to discuss his column with him, if you have questions about Asylum, Scratches or whatever comes to your mind... this is the right place to ask your questions.
All you have to do is to register on our message boards and ask Agustin your questions.
I would be happy if many of you participate!

Thanks for sharing, Jack!


Wonderful, well written and deeply thought out, Agustin!

Thanks JackVanian -- Agustin always has something intriguing to say!

The implication behind some of what he says (I think) is that adventure games should have more dialog. I've been thinking the opposite.

Wonderful interview JackVanian and Agustin!

Becky, I agree with you. I am not fan of a lot of dialogue.

Ana

Dialog all has to be translated! Most adventure games are released internationally these days. I've been seeing a trend toward getting the message across in fewer words, if only for practical reasons.

This has got to be an April Fools joke...right?

???

Ana

Hey all, glad you liked the article!

Becky, I don't necessarily mean more dialogue, but perhaps more *focused* dialogue. Less repetition and more random, as if you were talking to a real person.

Agustin, that sounds good to me!

There will be "completists" who will simply talk to the character until the character finally starts repeating their comments (even if it takes longer than usual), though. We've been trained to do this as adventure gamers for fear we'll miss something if we miss any of the character's comments.

I admire you for thinking of innovative ideas and for trying new things! I don't mean to be discouraging, I'm just thinking of what my response might be.

I know what you mean Becky, the "I-must-exhaust-every-possibility" syndrome. This is a bad practice in truth and the culprits have been badly designed adventures which *forced* us to dissect dialogue trees.

It would be a difficult task but I think players could be "trained" again into letting themselves go and just experience dialogues as a normal person would. The Tex Murphy series (the later ones, that is) are great examples of how to implement dialogues that feel natural. You can't even tell in advance what Tex is going to say, and once you choose an option, there's no going back.

Hi Agustin -- Well, if the characters you're imagining are as entertaining as Tex is, I'll try to think "normal" and treat dialog like a conversation instead of a puzzle.

It won't be a puzzle...will it?

Well, I'm not really fond of dialogue puzzles. We're trying to make the characters in Asylum feel as natural as possible, and interactions with them will be primarily informative. We're also trying something new with the dialogue system, but some tests are still pending. Hopefully it will feel fresh and different

We're all looking forward to Asylum. Fresh and different just adds to the anticipation.



JackVanian -- I just registered on the Adventure Treff forums, and the "rules" in English were much shorter than the "rules" in German.

Is less expected of me as an English speaker?