Amazing Quest<\/i><\/a> should be completely open to the interpretation of players, to their appreciation of it, and, if they choose, to their rejection of it.<\/p>\n I refrained from discussing anything about the game during the IF Comp. Now that it\u2019s over, I am glad to answer some questions that have arisen\u2014with the earnest hope that my answers don\u2019t preclude people from coming up with their own interpretations and responses.<\/p>\n These aren\u2019t really frequently asked questions, but they are all actually questions that have been asked at least once. When I quote directly, the quotations are from anonymous feedback from IF Comp players. Whether quoted or in paraphrase, all of these are real questions or responses that I\u2019ve gotten.<\/p>\n Q: Are you trolling? Making a joke? Playing a prank?<\/b><\/p>\n A: No.<\/p>\n Q: Why did you enter this thing, which isn\u2019t very much like IF as we understand it, in the IF Comp?<\/b><\/p>\n A: Because I hoped some people would enjoy it and be provoked by it (in a positive way) when they encountered this game in the context of the Comp. That may have only happened twelve times, based on the ratings that were greater than 5, but perhaps I provided some interest and joy to these twelve players that outweighed the other players\u2019 confusion and disappointment.<\/p>\n Q: As a computer program, what exactly is Amazing Quest<\/i>?<\/b><\/p>\n A: A quasi-spoiler here, but: it is a 12-line Commodore 64 BASIC program,<\/a> with each line being of the maximum length that can be typed in: 80 characters, using all keyword abbreviations and other shortcuts. That makes it the maximal Commodore 64 BASIC program that will fit on one screen. On the second half of the last logical line (line 11), which is the last physical line of the screen, I included a sort of informal all-permissive free software license.<\/p>\n Q: Is this an experiment?<\/b><\/p>\n A: I don\u2019t find it interesting to produce any IF, other digital games, other digital literature, or other digital art, unless what I\u2019m doing is an experiment. So, of course.<\/p>\n Q: Is this a parody?<\/b><\/p>\n A: I don\u2019t consider it to be, since you\u2019re asking me. If you have thoughtfully considered the game and that\u2019s what you take away from it, I respect your view.<\/p>\n Q: What am I supposed to do when playing this?<\/b><\/p>\n A: Since you\u2019ve asked me, I\u2019ve tried to explain this quite explicitly in the introduction: \u201cIf you allow your imagination to help you elaborate each stop on your journey, and if you truly get into the mindset of the returning wanderer, Amazing Quest will offer you rewards as you play it again and again.\u201d You can read that, and the game, however you want, but I\u2019d say that Amazing Quest<\/i> prompts you to imagine, from the standpoint of the main character. So, imagine.<\/p>\n Q: \u201cOh hey, it’s A Space Odyssey!\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n A: For me at least, I did consider Amazing Quest<\/i> to be a serious engagement with Homer\u2019s Odyssey, and that was one of the things that motivated my work on the project. I\u2019m glad that some people saw this aspect of the project. I hope that enriched some people\u2019s experience of it.<\/p>\n Q: \u201cI found the intro and strategy guide more compelling than the game itself.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n A: Personally I would have preferred that all elements of Amazing Quest<\/i> (the introduction, the strategy guide, the BASIC game itself) had worked together to good effect for you, but I\u2019m glad that you liked something about the project. My development of the short framing texts was meant to relate to the way that early games had similar supporting materials that were essential to the experience. In any case, I am glad someone liked these texts, because it took me a long time to type them up on my Smith Corona Classic 12 without making any mistakes.<\/p>\n Q: \u201cI don’t suspect that you\u2019re in it for the ratings.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Only one of more than 100 games was going to win the Comp. (Well, this year it happens to be two, because of a tie\u2014but you get my point.) I made this game for the IF Comp so that players would encounter Amazing Quest<\/i> and play it in that context, in case they found it compelling in that context.<\/p>\n Q: \u201cI guess the point was go \u2018behind the scenes\u2019 and read the program in BASIC? That isn’t a particularly interesting goal\u2026\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
![it is a 12-line Commodore 64 BASIC program,<\/a> with each line being of the maximum length that can be typed in: 80 characters, using all keyword abbreviations and other shortcuts. That makes it the maximal Commodore 64 BASIC program that will fit on one screen. On the second half of the last logical line (line 11), which is the last physical line of the screen, I included a sort of informal all-permissive free software license.<\/p>\nQ: Is this an experiment?<\/b><\/p>\nA: I don\u2019t find it interesting to produce any IF, other digital games, other digital literature, or other digital art, unless what I\u2019m doing is an experiment. So, of course.<\/p>\nQ: Is this a parody?<\/b><\/p>\nA: I don\u2019t consider it to be, since you\u2019re asking me. If you have thoughtfully considered the game and that\u2019s what you take away from it, I respect your view.<\/p>\nQ: What am I supposed to do when playing this?<\/b><\/p>\nA: Since you\u2019ve asked me, I\u2019ve tried to explain this quite explicitly in the introduction: \u201cIf you allow your imagination to help you elaborate each stop on your journey, and if you truly get into the mindset of the returning wanderer, Amazing Quest will offer you rewards as you play it again and again.\u201d You can read that, and the game, however you want, but I\u2019d say that Amazing Quest<\/i> prompts you to imagine, from the standpoint of the main character. So, imagine.<\/p>\nQ: \u201cOh hey, it’s A Space Odyssey!\u201d<\/b><\/p>\nA: For me at least, I did consider Amazing Quest<\/i> to be a serious engagement with Homer\u2019s Odyssey, and that was one of the things that motivated my work on the project. I\u2019m glad that some people saw this aspect of the project. I hope that enriched some people\u2019s experience of it.<\/p>\nQ: \u201cI found the intro and strategy guide more compelling than the game itself.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\nA: Personally I would have preferred that all elements of Amazing Quest<\/i> (the introduction, the strategy guide, the BASIC game itself) had worked together to good effect for you, but I\u2019m glad that you liked something about the project. My development of the short framing texts was meant to relate to the way that early games had similar supporting materials that were essential to the experience. In any case, I am glad someone liked these texts, because it took me a long time to type them up on my Smith Corona Classic 12 without making any mistakes.<\/p>\nQ: \u201cI don’t suspect that you\u2019re in it for the ratings.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\nOnly one of more than 100 games was going to win the Comp. (Well, this year it happens to be two, because of a tie\u2014but you get my point.) I made this game for the IF Comp so that players would encounter Amazing Quest<\/i> and play it in that context, in case they found it compelling in that context.<\/p>\nQ: \u201cI guess the point was go \u2018behind the scenes\u2019 and read the program in BASIC? That isn’t a particularly interesting goal\u2026\u201d<\/b><\/p>\nA: It wasn\u2019t interesting to you, but there are many people in the world. One player ported the game to BBC Micro BASIC,<\/a> so it seems like the nature of this game as a BASIC program was somehow<\/i> interesting to that person. Even apparently simple projects like this may have many complex aspects to them which aren\u2019t evident at first. And perhaps only a very few people will be interested in particular aspects. So in this case, perhaps this \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d aspect is important to the person who ported it to the BBC Micro, and maybe it will be interesting to people who know Commodore 64 BASIC very well. I\u2019m frankly surprised that someone engaged with the BASIC program so thoroughly during the Comp. It easily could have taken a few decades for anyone to really become interested in the game\u2019s code, if that was ever going to happen.<\/p>\nQ: SPOILER, select the following text to read: The player\u2019s input has no effect on the outcome, and that\u2019s stupid.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nA: Although this isn\u2019t a question, I\u2019ll mention: If you understand a little more about Commodore 64 BASIC, you\u2019d find that the user\u2019s input does have an effect on the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\nQ: SPOILER, select the following text to read: Okay, but whether you answer yes or no has no effect on the outcome.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\nA: This, while also not a question, is true. So, let\u2019s begin with whether this is fair to players of the game. Does that contradict anything said on the main page (\u201cI must decide as if it all depends on me, trust as if it all depends on the gods\u201d), within the game itself (\u201cThe gods grant victory\u201d), in the introduction, or in the strategy guide? And in terms of how this game relates to the Odyssey, in which a character is fated to return home, alone, from the beginning, and is then brought home by the will of the gods\u2014is there any contradiction there? To continue along these lines, even understanding this aspect of the game, if you decided to go on raids at every opportunity, plundering away, would that be any different than if you always declined to raid? Is your intentional choice irrelevant, even if the outcome is \u201crandom\u201d? With all of this in mind, consider something more concrete and immediate. Let\u2019s consider people who live in the United States who voted in the 2020 election. Why would they do that? Realistically, an individual\u2019s vote had no more effect than any one particular Y\/N response in Amazing Quest.<\/i> Let\u2019s heap one more thing on here, purely related to what one might call gameplay. If you want to imagine what\u2019s going on\u2014a journey home\u2014why would this particular property of the game in any way stifle your imagination?<\/span><\/p>\nQ: Was this project motivated by anything besides the Odyssey?<\/b><\/p>\nA: Yes. I\u2019ll be discussing this and other matters related to Amazing Quest<\/i> at the Seattle area IF meetup, which will take place online on December 13, 2020 at 2pm PST. If you want to join, you\u2019ll need to email the organizers; see the intfiction.org forum for more information. I hope this group doesn\u2019t regret their plan to host the author of the 98th place IF Comp 2020 game! I\u2019m certainly still looking forward to discussing Amazing Quest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amazing Quest should be completely open to the interpretation of players, to their appreciation of it, and, if they choose, to their rejection of it. I refrained from discussing anything about the game during the IF Comp. Now that it\u2019s over, I am glad to answer some questions that have arisen\u2014with the earnest hope that … <\/p>\nContinue reading “Amazing Quest<\/i> Q&A”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,69,3,30],"class_list":["post-5029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basic","tag-commodore-64","tag-if","tag-story-generation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5029"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5053,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029\/revisions\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/nickm.com\/if\/amazing_quest\/aq_code_upper.png\"){kind=link}