Interviews

Most adventure game aficionados get, at one point or another, an urge to create their own game. Somewhere along the line, gamers started to say, "Hey, I can do that!," and thus began the world of adventure game creators (Adventure Maker, SLUDGE, AGS, etc.) and, for those old school fans, text adventure creators (Quest, SUDS, etc.). And eventually came the inevitable: games like RHEM, Final Destination, The Arrangement, Hope Springs Eternal, and countless others. Companies like Mug Software, Malinche Entertainment and Got Game Entertainment were born. With a little talent and perservance, many proved that you didn't have to be a team of 20+ to make a great adventure game.

Well, the next generation of create-your-own gaming is here, at least for all you text fans out there! In early December 2005, Tony Alicea's new website, All Things Happy, went live. As he puts it, "allthingshappy.com was founded with the intention of building a place for creative writing to flourish. It was designed to give its members a clear place on the internet to showcase their writings and share what inspires them. Through our standard writings, group writings, and text based adventure games we provide a variety of ways to express yourself and get creative. Above all, we want everyone to appreciate the mantra, the edict, the focus and goal of creativity...to stay happy!" And indeed it is inevitable that through sophisticated programs for poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and IF, one will be very, very happy with this site.

It was clear through my emails with Tony that he is working very, very hard to improve the site and takes great interest in user feedback. It is nice to see how updates are constantly being made to make the All Things Happy experience more user-friendly and, well, happy!

What was the idea behind All Things Happy?

I've always been a firm believer in the power of creativity to enhance well-being, and the positive personal effects of creative writing. Yet, while there's no better place than the internet to share writings, I didn't like any of the sites I tried out. They were all either clunky, slow, or advertisement filled. The other issue was that a writer didn't really have a "presence" - it was easy on most sites for a story to get lost in the crowd.

I wanted to put together a site that allowed for writers (both hobbyist and aspiring professional writers) to have a place to showcase their works. I also wanted to do more than just post stories. I wanted it to be a forum for creative inspiration through community interaction and some unique writing styles that take advantage of the computer as a medium.

What kinds of things can budding writers do with the site?

A new signup receives their own bookmarkable "site" on allthingshappy.com. They can direct others to this site, which houses a mini-blog, an area to write about themselves, an area for others to post messages and critiques, and an area for the writer to feature their writings. Writers can also bookmark their favorite writings, and create and join "creative think tanks" which are groups which get their own simple bulletin board so as to interact and talk about whatever inspires them. You can setup stories that you publish to be visible to the world, or only visible to your think tanks.

The site lets you write in 3 different styles. The first is standard fair - post a story. The second is what we call "group writing trees". A writer can start a story, and many others can add on their own second chapter. Many more, then, can respond to any of those second chapters with a third chapter, etc. Then you can travel down the "tree" of possible chapters, seeing what kind of stories branch off from chapter to chapter, and even see what happens by generating a random path from chapter one on down.

The third writing style is our interactive fiction adventure games. I like to think of our adventure games as a sort of "Uber-choose-your-own-adventure" stories. Writers can build interactive text-based stories, and logged in readers can save their games so as to come back later and finish (or backup if they mess up).

There are example versions of a group writing tree and of an adventure game on the site. Click on "search writings" and you'll see both in the list.

Tell us about your adventure game creator.

Our adventure game creator and player are entirely web based, and currently are purely text-based. You can build and read on any computer with internet access. Our games, though, aren't like the type of old school interactive fiction many might think of (aka Zork). Our site focuses on creative writing, so our adventure games are much more about telling an interactive story than puzzle solving. So, the player is presented with a list of options to choose from, instead of typing in commands.

That said, one can build inventory items, "areas" which have dynamic descriptions, and "characters" which one can have dialogue with. Each area can have options (or "actions" as we call them) which may do certain things such as add or remove an item from inventory, or take you to a new area. Any action, piece of dialogue, or pieces of description of an area can be adjusted based on certain criteria.

So, for example, you may set a particular action to be only available if the player has a certain item in inventory, or has used a certain piece of dialogue with a certain character. You would only want the option "light the match" to appear if the reader has the match in inventory. Or perhaps you only want an area description to say "it is quite cold in here" until the user finds matches and lights a fire. Then you would want the area description to say "it is nice and toasty in here." Things like that are easy to do in our system. In this way you can build some classic interactive fiction and choose-your-own-adventure scenarios.

That said, there are certain things that our system does not lend itself to. Complicated dependency trees, mechanical puzzles (lots of button pushing, etc) and the like are possible - but would be rather tedious to implement. Again, our system focuses on building story-driven interactive fiction. Its a way of writing a good story and getting the reader literally involved. It isn't very difficult to learn, and it can be a lot of fun.

What has the response to the site been thus far?

We haven't yet actively advertised the site to the public. We have targeted specific groups (such as adventure game lovers) to use the site and give us their feedback. So, if you go to the site you'll find there are only a couple of stories actually published. That doesn't mean the site isn't being used, but we are working to make improvements and gather ideas from those trying out the site behind the scenes.

Those that have used it like the simplicity, variety, and the possibilities. Those possibilities will only be truly realized once the audience begins to grow.

What are you most proud of about the site?

I'm most proud of the adventure game creator and player. It isn't an easy proposition to build a web based text adventure builder, but I think we built a model that isn't too difficult to understand, and yet is quite powerful. Games can be fun to build, and are definitely fun to play.

What has been difficult about maintaining the site?

Balancing user opinions on features is one difficulty. We have to decide what are truly the best ideas to implement. We've also been struggling with striking the balance between avoiding advertisements and not wanting to turn off potential users with high subscription fees. Right now our site has subscription fees listed (there is a 30 day free trial you can sign up for). We're working on being able to lower those yet more. We are investigating the possibility of having advertisement driven free accounts as well.

What are you currently doing to improve the site?

We are constantly looking for feedback, and we listen. We've already implemented updates based on user input. We have implemented some AJAX technology - which makes things respond faster. There are some ideas of simplifying various aspects of the site even further.

Is there anything else you?d like to tell our readers?

I'd like to invite anyone interested to come to the site and sign up for the free 30-day trial. That number of days isn't set in stone - we have already extended it for others who are trying out the system. But if you do sign up, you'll immediately get a fully functional account. Then, read the help, and give it try!

Also as a caution, if you do write something, remember that this is the internet. We don't people going nuts because they lost their connection while they were typing. So we highly recommend writing your actual prose on your computer and then copying and pasting it into the browser.

Once you have that squared away, please then use the "contact us" form (a link is at the bottom right hand corner of the site) to send us your thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing what you create. Stay creative and stay happy!

Thanks for talking with us!

Thank you! It's always a pleasure to talk to true adventure game enthusiasts. I've been a fan since childhood (my first was the old DOS shareware game "Hugo II, Whodunit?" - and then the original Journeyman Project took me over the edge). Adventure on!

So, when you get a chance, I encourage all of you aspiring authors to check out the wonderful tools that All Things Happy has to offer! The gaming community looks forward to what great things you all will create.