Vigilante

Ryusui, November 14, 2009 - Reply
Right, right, I think it's time I moved on to some more constructive advice.

First of all, "it's my first game" is not an excuse for shoddy implementation. There are plenty of good games here on IFDB written by people who had never written an IF before.

Don't underestimate the value of playtesting. For starters, playing the game yourself does not count as playtesting. It counts as far as making sure your intended solution works, but if you want to make sure your game can actually be enjoyed, find some friends or willing guinea pigs and have them play your game. Ignore their suggestions, comments or complaints only at your own peril. A beta tester who has nothing negative to say is doing something wrong. No one is infallible, not even the IF legends, and their works are legendary because they had people critique and criticize their work. A good beta tester will test to destruction: better if a game breaks messily before it's out in the wild rather than after.

The correct response when someone tells you there's something wrong with your game is to fix it. Even if it takes hours just to figure out how. You don't get bonus points for speedy completion: if your first reaction to a bug is "forget it, no one's going to care if my game's not perfect", then you really don't have what it takes to be an IF author.

Here's a protip for you: forget about Vigilante 2 for now and instead fix the issues I pointed out. Better room descriptions, more solid implementation...the game can still be a mindless killfest for all I care, but you should at least give enough of a damn about your own game that you'd take my criticisms to heart and spruce it up a little.