TIGSource: Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience.

Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience.

Shapermc — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:07:00 +0000

The Interactive Fiction Little Falls claims to be an experience rather than just a story. Released earlier this year by Mondi Confinanti in English (originally published in Italian), Little Falls has the widest range of multimedia I’ve ever seen used in an IF. Images and sound add to the story in a way that makes them inseparable from the experience (even though you can play the IF without them).

The main character (aside from being You) is a police officer from the small Minnesota town of Little Falls. The IF starts in the police officer’s past, the root for a myriad of his problems which the game attempts to deal with. In this town a maniac stalks young women, and You are investigating him. A compelling hook in the beginning keeps the story going for a while, even through some frustrating puzzles (as a bit of a non-spoiler tip: the title of this game contains a very helpful verb).

As successful an experience Little Falls is, it still fails on fundamental level of storytelling. I’ll give the game a little credit for being translated from a foreign language—I’m sure some subtleties are lost in translation—but the writing is so heavy handed that there’s no real sense of mystery or fear. The added visuals and audio nearly compensate for this though, allowing the story to unfold in a pleasing manner.

For someone who’s looking to develop a more story based game Little Falls will offer some excellent inspirational fodder, and may give you a new avenue to look into for game development.

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by gnome

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:49:42 +0000

Actually it’s very interesting just how subtly the graphics have been used. They only complement the text but don’t overshadow it. Great find!

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by !CE-9

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:09:52 +0000

“Images and sound add to the story in a way that makes them inseparable from the experience (even though you can play the IF without them).”

I’m intrigued.

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by Shih Tzu

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:30:37 +0000

Well, as I understand the genre delineations, a visual novel is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure book that might keep track of a few basic variables (such as how much Yasuko likes you, etc.), while IF traditionally prompts you for actions every few seconds and gives you broad freedom to explore. The two couldn’t be more different in how you interact with them; the presence or lack of images and music are just window dressing.

I suppose you could make a case that visual novels are a kind of IF, but a lot of IF fans would probably bristle at that.

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by Daiz

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:24:39 +0000

So with all the music, images and audio, isn’t this basically a visual novel? Although I still think that Visual Novel == Interactive Fiction, but some people seemed to disagree with this the last time there was discussion about it.

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by ryan in exile

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:39:34 +0000

needs more rybread.

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by Karzon

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:14:21 +0000

Happy to see more about IF here. I’ll throw in recommendations for all the works of Adam Cadre and Ian Finley for newcomers to the genre. Most are heavily story rather than puzzle based, and excellent besides.

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by Shih Tzu

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:09:10 +0000

Huh. I’ve been to Little Falls. Neat.

"Little Falls: an Interactive Fiction experience." by FireSword

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:03:03 +0000

Mondi Confinanti = Border Worlds…

That word reminds me a lot of Wing commander 4.. lol

Ciao. (=bye)