Example of what a typical scene might look like
One of my future goals that I am excited to accomplish hopefully in the near future is to create an interactive fiction game for iOS and Android. I will enhance the IF experience by adding in art, sound, music, narration, and interactive game-play in the touch environment. As far as I know, an implementation of this kind has never been done.
Just as in typical interactive fiction, the overall narrative will be told through text. However, the touch environment will provide new features that will: make the story easier to navigate through; introduce interactive game-play with the story; and immerse the player in the game.
You will be able to swipe in the direction you want to go in or use the command line to type the action. Similarly, you will be able to press the inventory button to bring up a graphical interface of the inventory or you can again, use the command line. In the inventory, you can tap an item to bring up a description, where you picked it up, etc. If the item has actions that can be performed, those will appear.
You will also be able to tap keywords on the screen to bring up a description and any possible actions. Again, this feature can also be accessed through the command line.
All touch features will be able to be changed through the settings, so if you wish for the game to be a typical interactive fiction or you want some of the features disabled, you can do so. There will be an option for the text to be narrated by a male or female voice. Music, art, and sound features will also be able to be changed or toggled off.
A thought that I had while designing this was whether it preserved the raw imagination that interactive fiction often provokes. IF is normally text, allowing the player to interpret the words and scenes as he or she sees fit. By adding in art, music, and sound, it automatically presents the scene and atmosphere to the player, removing part of the imagination process. My concluding thought was for the art to be generic or simple enough so that the player can fill in the voids. For example, if the scene is a hallway, the background art will be a plain hallway, but the text might explain how there are dozens of portraits of dogs playing cards. This leaves some of the scene up to the player to imagine.
Just as in typical interactive fiction, the overall narrative will be told through text. However, the touch environment will provide new features that will: make the story easier to navigate through; introduce interactive game-play with the story; and immerse the player in the game.
You will be able to swipe in the direction you want to go in or use the command line to type the action. Similarly, you will be able to press the inventory button to bring up a graphical interface of the inventory or you can again, use the command line. In the inventory, you can tap an item to bring up a description, where you picked it up, etc. If the item has actions that can be performed, those will appear.
You will also be able to tap keywords on the screen to bring up a description and any possible actions. Again, this feature can also be accessed through the command line.
All touch features will be able to be changed through the settings, so if you wish for the game to be a typical interactive fiction or you want some of the features disabled, you can do so. There will be an option for the text to be narrated by a male or female voice. Music, art, and sound features will also be able to be changed or toggled off.
A thought that I had while designing this was whether it preserved the raw imagination that interactive fiction often provokes. IF is normally text, allowing the player to interpret the words and scenes as he or she sees fit. By adding in art, music, and sound, it automatically presents the scene and atmosphere to the player, removing part of the imagination process. My concluding thought was for the art to be generic or simple enough so that the player can fill in the voids. For example, if the scene is a hallway, the background art will be a plain hallway, but the text might explain how there are dozens of portraits of dogs playing cards. This leaves some of the scene up to the player to imagine.
 Swipe to move in a direction, or type in the command line. |  Tap inventory to pull up current held items. Tap an item for description and possible actions. |  Tap key words to bring up a description. Some keywords might have possible actions. |
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