Interactive Drama Prototype 'Facade' Released

rafg writes "In most story-based games where you get to talk to characters, interaction is limited to selecting conversation options from a menu. Facade calls itself a one-act interactive drama, and is an attempt to create realistic 3D AI characters acting in a real-time interactive story, where you can talk to them via a natural language text interface. The player is cast as a visiting longtime friend of Grace and Trip, a couple in their early thirties, and ends up in a verbal crossfire resulting from their failing marriage. More info in the press release, an older conveniently mirrored NYT article and an Idle Thumbs review. It's available in the form of a rather chunky 800MB torrent."

Comments

This is a game???

[j0e_average]

Cripes!!! If I want to hear a bunch of drama and nagging, I'll go listen to my own family!!!

Re:This is a game???

[TrippTDF]

At the center of any story is conflict. That's what leads to drama. Video Games at this point primarily focus on the conflict between two characters in a violent sense... you can take Gordon Freeman Vs. the Combine, or even Mario Vs. King Koopa. The root is always the same- if you don't kill them, they will kill you.

This is the first time I've seen that conflict be able to move away from the violent, and that's a big step for video games. This has the chance to change the nature of gaming away from the shoot-em-up mentality into something larger.

You know how ever blockbuster action movie has a game to go along with it? We could potentially have games that are tied to something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or American Beauty.

That's an interesting concept

[ReformedExCon]

It is clever in that it uses a "real" AI which does its best to draw the player into the game world. However, it seems like it would suffer from the same type of problems that any AI suffers from, that is it can't understand everything the user types.

It also suffers from cutscene-mania. The game itself is a series of cutscenes that progresses even without user interaction. Though cutscenes have their place in games, building a game around them is a surefire way to limit replayability.

I would love to try the game, personally.

Sounds like fun!

[Trigun]

The player is cast as a visiting longtime friend of Grace and Trip, a couple in their early thirties, and ends up in a verbal crossfire resulting from their failing marriage.

If the AI is advanced enough, maybe I can seduce Grace, talk her into killing Trip, and then turn her in for the virtual reward!

Hi-tech bummer simulator

[kahei]

Another attempt to make a 'grown up' computer game by removing the things that make games worth playing (simplified, fun universe that's not like what we do every day and offers clear goal to reach and things to explore) and adding in the things that make life worth escaping from (evenings like the one described in this game, and people called 'Trip').

Now, there are some good technical bits in this game -- it's nice not to be taking turns or picking from a menu. Much more conversation-ey. But as an idea for a game, 'handle an awkward evening in a sparsely furnished apartment' pretty much sucks.

Here we go again..

[CCelebornn]

> Slap silly woman
I DO NOT KNOW THE WORD "SLAP"

> Tell silly woman you can keep the dog but that playstation is mine
I CANNOT DO THAT

> Kill woman
YOU ATTACK WOMAN, BUT THE EFFORT IS WASTED. HER DEFENSIVE IS TOO STRONG
WOMAN ATTACKS YOU
WITH ONE WELL PLACED BLOW WOMAN CLEAVES YOUR SKULL
YOU ARE DEAD
YOU HAVE MASTERED 0.0% OF THIS ADVENTURE

NOOOOOO!

[Vo0k]

Nothing new. There are hundreds of such games. Everywhere it looks the same.
Player: Hello.
AI: Hi. What brings you here, traveller?
Player: I'm just sightseeing.
AI: Could you rephrase that?
Player: I'm passing by.
AI: Sorry, I don't understand.
Player: Nothing.
AI: uhhh. Sorry?
Player: Please, forget it.
AI: I can't do it.
Player: Where is the weapons shop? [it's across the street]
AI: I don't know where it is.
Player: Who are you?
AI: I'm Thargos, your friendly wizard, thank you.
Player: I'm looking for a quest.
AI: Sorry, I don't know where is quest.
Player: Give me a job.
AI: I'm giving you nothing, you must earn everything by yourself.
Player Goodbye.
AI: Goodbye. By the way, wouldn't you happen to have some spare time to deliver this package to my friend across the city?

Re:NOOOOOO!

[nomadic]

Ultima V, for the C-64, in 1988 had an "AI" with free-flowing conversation that went slightly better than this even :) You could actually talk with random NPCs fairly naturally. Though you could get away with stuff like "food?" or "inn?" if you really wanted to.

I miss that sort of thing; a few other games had it, too. But as computer games became mainstream they got dumbed down to appeal to the nintendo-playing mouth breathers who started buying PC games. Ultima 5 had it done well. Ultima 6 had the same system, only they highlighted keywords so you didn't have to guess (fortunately you could turn it off). Ultima 7 went the next step and had preformulated responses you made, and every RPG since then has had the same.

First impressions

[PIPBoy3000]

Well, no one here appears to have downloaded and installed Facade. Thanks to Evil Avatar, I picked this one up over night and just installed it.

First off, make sure you have a 1.6 Ghz machine. It's not just a recommendation - the install won't work if you don't meet that requirement. And the install is very long as you might expect.

This is a very audio game. If you're deaf, I'm not sure it's even possible to play. The first really odd thing is that the characters call me verbally by my real name. It's "Adam", which isn't too uncommon, but strange nonetheless. I suspect they have a hundred or so common names they've recorded.

The controls are weird - a combination of keyboard arrows, typing, and the mouse. There's also some limited manipulation of objects (e.g. picking up the phone and throwing it around). You can also hug and comfort the two people with a click of the mouse.

The main interface, however, is the keyboard. You'll do a lot of typing, trying to guess what the magic keys and phrases are.

I haven't finished it. Heck, I feel I've barely scratched the surface. Even though it's in a single room, the illusion of open interaction with two humans is pretty good. Well, enough Slashdotting. Time to play a bit more.

Re:First impressions

[PIPBoy3000]

Okay. I've finished my first play-through. It took about twenty minutes. Some of it is fairly clunky. Some of it is extremely compelling.

I restarted after my first posting and noticed some differences right away. The first time the phone rang. The second time it didn't. I ended up kissing Grace when we met and she seemed more positive afterwards (I have that effect on women).

Emotionally the game is great. You get a ringside view of the emotional train wreck of these two people's marriage. You can guide their conversation, take sides, and watch them reveal painful secrets.

Being a fast typist helps as you regularly need to type out long strings of text. Moving around is awkward with the mouse and arrows, but fortunately you don't need to move around much. Your decisions are remembered and the actors will comment on the previous things you've done. The 800 MB download makes perfect sense now as there must be hours of sound files to cover every contingency.

This seems like the sort of game that would strongly appeal to women. It's very free-form and is exclusively about social interactions. The only catch is that I'd imagine it's extremely labor intensive to create something like this. The writing, voice acting, and tracking all the branch points seems a daunting task.

Still, I can see how people herald this as the future of gaming. It would be amazing if you could hit this level of character interaction in ordinary games.

Meanwhile, at the AI Clinic, bugs are tested.

[dangitman]

Player: I came here for a good argument.

AI: No you didn't, you came here for an argument.

Player: Well, an argument's not the same as contradiction.

AI: It can be.

Player: No it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a definite proposition.

AI: No it isn't.

Player: Yes it is. It isn't just contradiction.

AI: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.

Player: But it isn't just saying "No it isn't".

AI: Yes it is.

Player: No it isn't, an argument is an intellectual process... contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says.

AI: No it isn't.

Re:Wrong name

[MidnightBrewer]

Amazingly enough, Oxford's American Dictionary disagrees with you. "Facade" with a "c" is a perfectly legitimate spelling. It always pays to back up your pedantry with research.