Early Interactive Fiction Part 1: Striving for Literary Narrative

Early Interactive Fiction Part 1: Striving for Literary Narrative

For me, the small, silly terrors that early, home-console games like Atari’s Kaboom relied upon couldn’t hope to compete with the deftly-crafted plot of a good book.  Not surprisingly, the interactive graphical adventure game Mystery House was inspired by a mystery novel—Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.  (The book was more directly adapted into an interactive graphical adventure game recently in 2005).

When a game has a narrative like a novel, the player’s situation is slowly revealed, the story unfolds and changes occur as if in real time.  The player decrypts clues embedded into descriptive details and leisurely—savoring the pleasure of teasing out a well-woven plot—she arrives at the clarity of the end.

This kind of game is a delight to play.  It unfolds its labyrinthine story for you; it responds to your actions; and, crucially, it challenges you to think more clearly, to be more curious, to use your imagination and beat the author to the punch.  Good interactive graphical adventure games should strive to rival good fiction.