Some people seem to think that images are quickly becoming a requirement, but an interesting thing happened. Mr. Flibble, author of Magician's Nephew, announced he was going for a second round of beta tests. There was a showering of requests. As far as I know, Magician's Nephew contains no images.
It's obvious why. Magician's Nephew is a really good game, with a cool premise and interesting choices. It also created a bit of a splash in the Shark's Lagoon (honestly, no pun intended) which generally is a more image-focused community anyway.
My personal feeling is that there is plenty of room for text-only games. What I think is true is that games with images don't need to be as good to get noticed. Now, whether we've set the bar for quality too high is a debate worth having, but I think it's evident the death of text is greatly exaggerated.
I'm eager to get my hands on the final version of Magician's Nephew. But I've got some work to do on my own game, first.
I think it boils down to two things.
ReplyDelete1) 3D image generation has become easier, and you no longer need to be a talented artist (or at least average) to create custom images for your game.
2) All things electronic, but mostly internet speeds, continue to advance. Downloading a 100 MB game is a low time requirement these days.
What this means is that while text-only can still be high quality games, the ability to easily add images, and the ability to easily download games bloated in size with images create a situation where having images is *preferable*.
I think, rather than debate whether images are a must-have or not, the focus should be on how many images is "proper". Games written in RAGS are (virtually all) image-heavy. Games written in TADS are typically image-light (if not image-free). What images do players get the most out of? Locations? Objects? NPCs? PC images? etc.
In that vein, I think NPC and location images create the most impact on the story. Additionally, imposing an image requirement on yourself as an author helps provide a subtle control against creating too many extra of either (rooms being the most common crimes in games - I never enjoy a game with 50% of the rooms serving no purpose except to connect 2 other rooms).
For me, the barrier to having images is not the technology but the cost of making high quality images with programs such as Daz Studio. I don't want to imply I hate having images in AIF, I actually really like them and would make tons of them if I could, but there are those of us who don't have the money/time to sink into making quality images.
DeleteOut of interest, who thinks that images are becoming a requirement for AIF? Apart from the author of Last Chance feeling he needed to apologise for the lack of graphics in his game, I can't really think of anyone expressing that opinion.
ReplyDeleteI agree that graphics do help a game get noticed. I also agree that some authors (principally GoblinBoy) have set a standard that's out of reach of new authors, but graphics are only a part of that.
Finally, I'd add that I suspect the gratifying response to Mr Flibble's call for testers had something to do with the fact that he'd already released an unfinished version as a beta, so he was less of an unknown quantity.
I've heard a few people say it, although I don't really want to point them out by name. It's something I've heard before.
DeleteAs to the response to the Beta, I think what you say is definitely true.