IF Theory Reader: Zork, Adventure, and beyond (IF Theory 1) by J. Robinson Wheeler

Author:J. Robinson Wheeler [Wheeler, J. Robinson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Computing, Internet
Publisher: JRW Digital Media
Published: 2014-04-04T07:00:00+00:00

Map Design

[This section contains minor spoilers for Colossal Cave, Planet of the Infinite Minds, Strangers in the Night, and Suspect. It contains medium-level spoilers for Lost New York and Stone Cell and major spoilers for Shade and 1981.]

Space is continuous. The landscape of interactive fiction, however, consists of discrete units, connected to each other in various ordinary and sometimes extraordinary ways.2 By convention we call these units “rooms,” but in fact they can be anything from a tiny subsection of a room to an entire town, country, planet, or universe. How does a game’s subdivision of continuous space affect our perception of the character in that game? Let’s look at some examples.

An illuminating comparison exists between two pieces of IF with urban settings: Neil deMause’s Lost New York (1996) and Rich Pizor’s Strangers in the Night (1999). In the former, the character travels through Manhattan and other areas of New York City during various points in history. The game frequently compresses neighborhoods, boroughs, and other such swaths of territory into single rooms, albeit lovingly described ones:

Lower East Side

The scene around you is one unmatched in any other time and place in human history: Acres of identical four- and five-story tenements packed cheek-to-jowl with people, people who spill out onto the sidewalks and fire escapes in search of a little space, a little air. The el tracks continue down the street to the north and south; to the east, the tenements seem to stretch on forever, though you’re pretty sure they eventually end at the East River shore.

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