Re: [bookclub] Prose style in 'Losing Your Grip'

[Greg Ewing <greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz>]

icallaci@my-deja.com wrote:
> 
> The question is: do I write the description as best I can and get
> docked for not implementing every object mentioned in it, or do
> I limit the description to objects I can code and get docked for
> not providing rich descriptive text?

I'd suggest adopting a style in which the first
paragraph of the room text provides a general
atmospheric description, and if there are any
objects worth further examination, they get
mentioned in a second paragraph. Then you
only implement the stuff in the second paragraph
as full objects, and arrange a stock "you don't
need to refer to that" for everything else.

Once the player got used to this convention,
it would save him/her a lot of pointless
object examination.

There will probably be cases where you want
to break the convention -- there may be some
object that you don't want to draw attention
to at first, but which becomes important later.
In that case you would be justified in putting
it in the first paragraph. But there should
be a definite clue somewhere in the game that
it's important.

-- 
Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept,
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