Is this too unfair (ingame riddle using random)

Game Development Writing and Content
16

I’ve been playing around with hiding things in my game, too! :smirk::sunglasses:

I mostly agree with what’s been said here – using text_input is really hard to make fair because someone who’s figured out the clue still needs to figure out how to write it correctly, and drawing a little more attention to that detail with the kid sounds brilliant. Also, the article @Minnow’ linked on The Three Clue Rule was fascinating. (It looks like no one else has clicked on it yet?) Give players at least three ways to do anything vital to the plot – which reduces the frustration of not finding that one way to move forward and adds the fun of finding a different way to do things next time. (And also, as the author demonstrated and I’ve found writing in my own obscure options, really flesh out the background of the story) Maybe this is something we should take into account writing relationships or romances? I’ve seen so many help threads for games asking how do you get the ending where you marry so and so? where the answer turns out to be do this exact thing and make sure you get this scene What if there were different routes that led to different kinds of relationships? Ramble, ramble… These areas where interactive fiction differs so much from linear fiction really fascinate me.

Anyway, my little suggestion I was going to add was to maybe make the clue or difference the same every time, but the insignificant/red herring details around it randomized. That way, the more you played the section, the more obvious that clue would become. But combined with the kid interacting with the object it seems maybe a bit much? And the kid idea seems to add to the story in a more significant way than extra room details (or maybe not – are these rooms plot-significant elsewhere?)

To add to @Kelvin’s coding suggestion, I’ve had a couple problems with mid-paragraph *if clauses confusing my formatting (mostly mid-sentence breaks adding extra spaces) or just forgetting to include all the possibilities. (Oh, and the example above won’t work unless you have implicit control flow enabled.) I’ve been using mulitreplace a lot where most authors use *if clauses. It’s a fairly new command, but happened to be one of the first posts I read on the forums, so it’s always been an option to me :blush:

@{(unflappable <=45) You fidget a little.|You furrow your brow.} Has someone been in the house? [i]Is[/i] there maybe someone in the house? Right now? While you and $!{kid_firstname} are asleep?
*line_break
Or at least $!{kid_firstname} being asleep?
*line_break
What now?
More examples

You don’t have to include text for every variable:

You've got this. @{(status = "wheeled") Even in a wheelchair.|}

You can change the information given or tone of a sentence by what the player knows or wants:

Straight ahead, @{seentablet in the direction of the hangar|presumably deeper into the facility}, the hall ends in a set of thick double doors.

You can use it in choices to have multiple versions of text for a single destination:

*choice
	#I wanted to @{seenhangar get a closer look at the [i]Delora[/i]|see the hangar}
		*goto hangar
	#@{seencommons I'm heading back to||I sill haven't seen} the common area beyond my quarters.
		*goto thecommons
	#@{(time > 9) It's getting late;|} I'm heading @{seenquarters back|} to my quarters now.
		*goto quarters

Excuse my rambling, I’ve been having a lot of fun with this command!

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