Talking with Alex

Continuing my conversations with Alex, who is doing similar (but not identical) procedural story based research.

Today I heard back saying he had read my proposal and that it looked solid. He mentioned that if I'm looking to stress story over game (which I am), I might want to "downplay the idea of win/loss states." I think this is valid... A good story has no loss state. If the main character dies, it's still in service to the story. As Alex said, "this is about creating drama, not beating the system."

I'd asked Alex about how to proceed with scripting my A.I. systems, and he recommended Python for speed's sake, at least in prototyping stage. I have some Python experience, but it is limited. I'll have to get back into practice if it's going to save me any time at all. I'm more comfortable in C++, but was warned that might be overkill in this situation. Finally, Alex said if I am ever to try graphics I might want to do it in Unity, and therefore in C#. This concerns me as I have no C# experience, but I assume it's a problem for a later day. While graphics don't strike me as the most essential part of this project, I do feel like it's crucial that I at least try to get them. A visual example of the story generator in action would be far more impressive than a text based one. Alex also mentioned that I should at least try for graphics, even if it doesn't work out. I haven't asked him many questions about ADAPT just yet, or about the compatibility of our projects in general. I need to follow up on that.

It looks like step one of my project (at least according to Alex) is to start work on constructing a virtual environment populated by characters as early as possible so that I can start designing my story A.I. (really the centerpiece of the project). I'm going to find time this week to reacquaint myself with Python, at which point I'll decide if it's worth coding my environment in Python or C++ first (based on ease and comfort). Next week I'll start programming what Alex called "the sandbox," the world and characters that will interact with each other in order to create the random events the story A.I. will have to select from.