Re: [kidsgames] Re: Light Princess

[Terry Hancock <hancock@earthlink.net>]

jm wrote:
> Terry, I think that to have two different "projects" running at the same time,
> aka the Carmen clone and your adaptation of Light Princess is a good thing (TM)
> since it will help to see the "generic" pattern of the adventures games.

Yes.  Of course the "Carmen clone" sounds like a bit different engine
if it's like the original.  That's not necessarily bad, of course.

> Would you happen to have a link to the Light Princess story ??

No, we just have a paperback. :)  I suppose it might be on the web
somewhere (on the theory that any public domain story will eventually
make it there), but I'm not aware of it. To summarize *very*
briefly:

A princess is cursed to be "light" -- which is a pun, since this
means she floats in the air, as well as not being able to take
anything seriously.  A variety of visiting princes are invited
in through the usual channels to help resolve the problem. (this
is good because each of their experiences provide knowledge for
different branches of the game tree -- the game would have only
one "prince," who is the controlled by the player).  Eventually,
of course, the problem is solved to everyone's satisfaction and
they live happily ever after.

Along the way are a number of humorous characters and incidents
which provide lots of fodder for incidental game characters and
interactions to give clues to the player.

I'm not sure what this game is supposed to "teach" -- it's just
a fairy tale.  It's not particularly politically-correct (the
princess is a fairly non-progressive character, for example), 
but the story structure lends itself very naturally to a game
design, so it represents light work for Rosalyn to adapt it.

The theory is that it would be good for the game story to be
a fairly lightweight task, since the real point of the exercise
is to find and develop an appropriate engine.  If successful,
_then_ she might put in the effort for an original story.

Again, the real question is, will there be takers to do the
technical side of it (i.e. select/write/adapt the engine)?

-- 
Terry Hancock
hancock@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~hancock/index.html
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