Homework Four
Assigned 4/17/03, due noon 4/24/03
You will be assigned two works of interactive fiction written by your
classmates. Your job is to play them and, based on your experience, review
them. Based on the reviews, some of the games and their evaluations will then be posted on the class web
site for public download.
Your target audience are other gamers -- familiar with the genres and the
technology, but looking to you for guidance on which games to try. Your readers
want to learn more about particular titles, and your job is to elucidate which
ones are worth playing, and why.
In each review, we would like you to:
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Introduce the game
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Examine and analyze the experience
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Conclude with an overall rating, from zero to five stars
Here are some of the issues you may find useful to address in your exposition
(you don't have to address all of them, of course):
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What can you say about the setting? If it's a story-based game, what can you
say about the story? How is it delivered? What can you say about the
presentation, and storytelling style? And if it's not a story-based game, how
does it work considering it's implemented using tools for interactive fiction?
-
Underneath the narrative, what kind of a game is it? (e.g. a puzzle, a treasure
hunt, an action game, a linear/non-linear narrative, a game of exploration,
etc.) Are there similarities between this title and other titles (even in other
genres)? What can you say about implementing that kind of a game in this
medium?
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What can you say about the gameplay? Regardless of whether you like this kind
of a game or not, is it well executed? Does it succeed in drawing the player
into the game? What can you say about the game's goals and affordances -- the
things the player needs to accomplish and the opportunities for accomplishing
them? Are they well presented and interesting to engage in?
-
What can you say about the technology? Were any bits of technology -- NPCs,
game items, areas, etc. -- particularly good or bad? Why?
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And finally, what's your overall feel of the game? Would you recommend it to
somebody? Why or why not? Did anything strike you as particularly praiseworthy
or problematic?
Each review should be around 500 words. Please turn them in as Microsoft Word
format documents.
Last edited 4/17/03 by RZ.
Please send suggestions to cs370-staff@cs.nwu.edu.
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