Gimmicks in Interactive Fiction

Less Is More

• One Room, No Inventory, No Score, One Turn, No NPCs, No Choice.

Geography

• One Room, Lots of Rooms

Plot Gimmicks

• Goals: Amnesia, Escape, Kill the Evil, Rescue, Stranded, Testing Ground,
• Branching: No Branching (On Rails), Parallel Tracks, Multiple Endings.
• Survival
• Multiple Protagonists

Goals

• Amnesia. You have forgotten who you are. You must explore your environment for clues to find out who and where you are, then find a way to restore your memory.
• Escape. You have been imprisoned and want to escape your confinement.
• Kill the Evil. An evil wizard, warlord, demon, or monster is destroying all that is good. Find items of power, then go and defeat the guy. That is, you must either kill, exile, or imprison him.
• Rescue. Someone or something of value has been taken away from you. It is in a guarded location. You must go find out where it is, and get you and it back to safety.
• Stranded. You have been stranded in some isolated location (desert island, unexplored planet, derilict spaceship, lonely interstate). You win when you find transporation home, or when you return home.
• Testing Ground. You have been dropped into a completely unfamiliar area, either to test how you react, or to test if the grounds do what they're supposed to do. You must solve a bunch of puzzles until you can find the exit.

Presentation Gimmicks

• ASCII Graphics, True Graphics, Sound, Color, Bold/Italics, Person/Voice, Animation, Metaverb Usurption, Input Hijacking.

Puzzle Gimmicks

• Collect the Plot Token(s), Riddles, Mazes, Wordplay, Magic, "Swiss Army Knife", Survival?
• Survival. Staying alive, as worthy a goal as it is, is almost never the sole goal of a game.

Hints & Help

Hint Limitations

• False Hints. Some games may include hint categories or hints about objects or situations that aren't in the game.
• Hint Count Limit. Some games may limit the total number of hints that you can see in one complete gaming session.
• Hint Score Penalty. Some games may reduce your score for consulting the hints.
• Hints Off Command. Some games may include a HINTS OFF command to disable the game's hint system, to minimize the temptation to use hints.
• Plot-Specific. Hints are associated with plot points or large geographic areas. The HINT command will only offer hints for the part of the game that you've already seen.
• Room-Specific. Hints are associated with specific rooms. The HINT command will only offer hints for the room that the protagonist is in.
• Object-Specific. Hints are associated with specific objects. For example, you might enter a command like HINT ABOUT FIREPLACE.

Hint Presentation

• Encoded or Obscured Hints. Hints might be encoded with a simple substitution cipher, written in invisible ink, or printed in blue with red print on top. These techiques are to prevent casual or accidental reading of hints, yet still make them available with a little effort.
• Hint Menus. The hints are packaged into categories, and many subcategories. The user selects a hint topic category to access a series of hints on that topic.
• Hint Sage. A sage is someone (or something) within the game that provides hints about selected topics when you ask or consult them. A non-living sage might be an encyclopedia or a computer.
• Hint Series. The hints are presented in a serial order. For example, you cannot see the third hint until you've seen the previous two hints.
• Transcript. Similar to a walkthrough, except that the game's responses are included after each command. Transcripts, when they exist, are almost always in an external file.
• Walkthrough. A list of commands that a provide a "winning" path through the game. Some walkthroughs may provide commentary, or include unnecessary yet interesting commands. Other walkthroughs are more terse. Walkthroughs and transcripts are not usually considered good substitutes for hints, except as a last resort.
• Internal Hints. Internal hints are included in the game's program, usually accessed by a HELP or HINT command, but sometimes through a Hint Sage.
• External Hints. External hints are not included in the game, but in separate files or other media. File options include text files, HTML files, and specialized help system files like UHS. Other hint media options include booklets or other "feelies".

Other Gimmicks

• Lots of Rooms, Xyzzy, Plugh, and Plover, Breaking Mimesis, Made-Up Languages, Gimmick Reversal, Red Herrings, ROYGBIV, Four Elements, Four Seasons, Amusing, Endnotes, Copy Protection, Age Protection.