Day one: The Nine TImes

jtrain on 2011/04/03 22:35 of A band of brothers (literally)

The theme inspired many game ideas:

A logic type game similar to connect-four: connect-nine
 
a platformer where the main character is a cat and has nine lives

a game based around the gimmick that you can alter gravity by up to 9 times

A mystery interactive fiction type game based around a newspaper called "The Nine Times" and its headline articles

We have decided to go with an idea based on the fictional "Nine Times" a newspaper set in the 1930s that is uncovering the plot of a great (or not so great) mystery. I had a lot of love for the connect-nine idea. As far as I know it hasn't been extended beyond four, so this would be a world exclusive. Though to make the game fun, the computer opponent must have a clever artificial intelligence (AI). None of our group have any real experience with making AI. And I have heard that it is a difficult task. There were probably other things we could have implemented to spice up the computer's abilities. Like random quotes downloaded from twitter and having the computer AI say them as sledging. That could be another world exclusive for pyweek, I'm not sure. 

I guess the irony of the whole story is that interactive fiction is also notoriously difficult to make, and make fun. Lets see how far we get in a week!

Love, jtrain

 

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Comments

georgek on 2011/04/03 22:47:

The most developed IF Python frameworks are PAWS and Pyf, you might be able to bootstrap your game with their code:

http://home.fuse.net/wolfonenet/PAWS.htm

http://code.google.com/p/pyf/

gcewing on 2011/04/04 09:00:

Aaargh, I'm not the only one to think of newspapers!

My idea is rather different, though, so I may still go ahead with it. Or I might switch to something else altogether. Or I might play some more SpaceChem until the way forward becomes clear.

superjoe on 2011/04/04 09:10:

The newspaper idea is brilliant! Nice thinking guys.

akira44 on 2011/04/04 15:41:

Ja, and I thought I was being original with the newspaper concept :P

Cosmologicon on 2011/04/05 13:25:

Hey I just realized that there already is a magazine called the Fortean Times. Maybe you could start working at the Nine Times and you have to be promoted to the Ten Times and then Eleven Times and so on up. All to solve the mystery of why they misspelled Fourteen....

It might be a little too cerebral.

jtrain on 2011/04/10 04:52:

We never ended up progressing the Nine Times Newspaper idea beyond Wednesday, we had built an engine but figuring out an interesting story-line was really beyond us.

jtrain on 2011/04/10 04:53:

I look forward to playing your newspaper themed games Akira44 and Gcewing.