The OpenAI project has a new API, called GPT-3 that is in the news now because of its ability to mimic human-style communication. The funniest implementation is their choose-your-own adventure engine. Unlike other text-based adventures like Zork or those Infocom games, this one allows you to write in full sentences and is not limited to… Continue reading AI Dungeon
Tag: cyoa
Zebulon
(latest revision: 2010/12/20)
This was entered into the 9th Casual Gameplay Design Competition where it lost the 3rd-place slot by something like 1/100 of a point.
The engine is the ChoiceScript engine, which is essentially a set of JavaScript libraries and is intended for the creation of interactive naratives, somewaht similar to the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories from the 1980s.
There are no graphics, but there is no typing either, as there was in Zork and those other classic Infocom games. Instead, every few paragraphs the reader is presented with a multiple choice about how the plot should unfold. It’s a fascinating and unique genre.
The prior examples of ChoiceScript games I had seen were quite dramatic, so I wanted to do something more whimsical. With the 1980s on the brain I decided that “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” would be an appropriate starting point and I tried to channel the spirit of Douglas Adams as I wrote the game.
I’m in discussion with the guys who wrote ChoiceScript about porting the game to a mobile app, but that is still in the works.