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[Zaphos]

@zaphos : uh ... I tried to upload a screenshot, and it didn't work. Something about the size limit, but it's under 128 Kb. Anyone has a clue ?

I guess the forum's upload thing must just be broken

You could use imageshack or something like that ...

[Titch]

Well the first game I've played based on that list was ForumWarz. Gameplay wise it's no diamond, but the satirical self depreciating internet based humor in it is great.

I've already played a lot of the flash games there, because I keep an eye on Kong/Newgrounds and the like. Really loved the photography mechanic in I wish I where the Moon.

@rinkuhero

I wish games found a more interesting way of dialog based gameplay. I'm sick of walls of text and multi-choice questions. It's made me tired to the point where I skip a lot of it these days.

[Paul Eres]

Sure, that style of gameplay isn't for everyone, some people enjoy reading, others don't -- but I think it's underexplored for those who do enjoy a lot of text and interesting conversation choices.

[Edmund]

i think there might be a better way to do it then just blocks of text, something more along the lines of "how you play" effecting how people react.. not in the sense that most games do it now.. but more along the lines of how you would physically approach "people" in the game would effect how they react and what they do in response.

im pretty sure there were a few dialog driven DS games that came out a while back, i dunno if any where good.. my wife played hotel dusk and said it was pretty neat.
 

[Paul Eres]

That could be done, but it wouldn't quite be the same thing, because a lot of communication between people is through words. There's body language too and such, but I don't think "communication games" would work too well without text being a prominent part of it.

One example which relies on communication as the central part of the gameplay is dating sims -- they aren't usually very good, and I think they rely too much on building up stupid stats, but they are basically games about a specific type of communication. Thousand Arms and Persona 3 integrated that genre into their gameplay, they were RPG/dating-sims, which made them more interesting than the typical jRPG.

[Titch]

That could be done, but it wouldn't quite be the same thing, because a lot of communication between people is through words. There's body language too and such, but I don't think "communication games" would work too well without text being a prominent part of it.

We only communicate 10% of everything through words, everything else is body language, tone of voice, personal ticks. That kind of thing. It would be interesting to say, hook someone up to an EKG while playing and game and allow the NPC's to recognize when the player is stressed.

One of the dialog systems I really liked was Farenhight/Indigo Prophecy where you have limited time to pick a response or the character goes to a pre-selected option. To me that feels more like a real conversation, you don't have time to sit there and think about the optimal response. It makes things more interesting than a bunch of static and usually globally unimportant choices.

If you haven't seen it yet, you should probably check out Storytron.

[increpare]

It would be interesting to say, hook someone up to an EKG while playing and game and allow the NPC's to recognize when the player is stressed.

Wasn't there a tetris game that had people hooked up to a heart monitor, that speeded up when they got stressed?

[Titch]

It would be interesting to say, hook someone up to an EKG while playing and game and allow the NPC's to recognize when the player is stressed.

Wasn't there a tetris game that had people hooked up to a heart monitor, that speeded up when they got stressed?

Never heard of it, but it sounds awesome.

[Valter]

It would be interesting to say, hook someone up to an EKG while playing and game and allow the NPC's to recognize when the player is stressed.

Wasn't there a tetris game that had people hooked up to a heart monitor, that speeded up when they got stressed?

That was in Silent Movie. :D

[Paul Eres]

Of course I've heard of Storytron, I'm a big Crawford fan and used to post on the Storytron forums regularly (which is where I met Patrick Dugan, one of my best online friends). But that also relies on a lot of text, even though it does have some body language in the form of facial expressions. It also has no option for you to select your own expressions, the expressions just match what text you choose.

As an aside, I just saw the trailer for Zeno Clash, which you can watch here (click on media): http://www.zenoclash.com/ -- I tend to hate FPSs, but that game looks great and polished enough that I'll take back some of what I said about there being no "great" indie games this year. That game looks like one of the most unique FPSs I've ever seen, with a fully realized visual style, although I haven't yet played it so you never know. But preliminarily I'm very impressed by that trailer. It kind of reminds me of cactus's style actually (with the weird English and the bizarre world).

[Musenik]

I wish games found a more interesting way of dialog based gameplay. I'm sick of walls of text and multi-choice questions. It's made me tired to the point where I skip a lot of it these days.

rinkuhero already mentioned that some people like to read. Those Infocom games are classics because they were mostly well written as well as having some legendary puzzles.

Adding a specific story to a game can really kill sales, from the standpoint of what people like. Some people like FPS. Some don't. Some people like Harlequin romance novels. Some don't. Pity the poor FPS romance game. It just chopped it's half an audience into a quarter audience or worse. Of course, I would buy a FPS romance game... :-)

I wish I could have afforded voice acting and animated gestures for Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! A good voice actor really transforms a story game. Unfortunately, even mediocre voice acting can ruin a well written story.

For indies, text is the only affordable option if you're telling a story more complex than Space Invaders or Gravitation. Note that Gravitation tells a very effective story without any text. But personally, I wanted to know more about the situation and the characters.

[Inane]

FPS romance :D Beat the shit out of all the males trying to court the women you love to win? Maybe try to balance it out so you're only "kind of" a superviolent asshole in the girl's eyes?

[Jabberwocky]

As an aside, I just saw the trailer for Zeno Clash, which you can watch here (click on media): http://www.zenoclash.com/ -- I tend to hate FPSs, but that game looks great and polished enough that I'll take back some of what I said about there being no "great" indie games this year.

Just checked this out.  Agreed - looks really polished and well done.  I also noticed they use the Source Engine.  Is there any precedent for this - in previous years have any IGF entries used top tier commercial game engines before?

[Paul Eres]

No precedent that I know of. That engine is out of the range of most indies, it probably costs hundreds of thousands to license, so I agree that it'd seem pretty bad if that game won. Although the work that went into it isn't insignificant. Still, they probably couldn't have done that at all without that engine.

[marshmonkey]

I am not 100% certain but I don't think you would have to pay upfront for Source engine usage if you planned to release the game on Steam, since games on Steam using the source engine garner a lower royalty rate to pay for the use of the engine.