Barfly

The experimental game that is being used to explore generative gameplay elements on narrative is what can be considered to be a "conversational role playing game" (or RPG for short). The game world consists of a bar that has a set of patrons. The player is asked to create a character by selecting a set of personality traits that govern what the character is able to say in a conversation. When the player is finished creating his or her character, the game randomly generates the bar patrons, giving them unique traits of their own. The object of the game is for the player to find the love of his or her life before the bar closes. The player has the opportunity to find his or her match by engaging each of the patrons in "small talk".

When the player has found the patron that seems most suitable to his or her character, the player can engage that patron in a full conversation. The conversation consists of 3 possible statements that the player can choose from. Each is chosen by the game based upon the traits of the character with which the player is playing. Once a statement has been chosen by the player, the patron will respond to the player with a statement based upon an evaluation of the player's statement against his or her own traits. A full round of conversation contains 4 of these statement and response pairs. As each round occurs, the player will get feedback from the patron about how successful the player is at achieving his or her affections. The game ends after six rounds of full conversation. At this point, the game will evaluate the character that has been most affected by the player and will display an epilogue involving the player's character and the patron based on how well or poorly the evening went.

Zerothis - # 2008-04-20 23:04:04 - official description - source

The game contains extensive references to the movie The Princess Bride

(Zerothis) - # 2008-04-20 23:08:59

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