Hi all,
I always wanted dialogue to be a big part of the SCI.0 game I'm working on. Initially I thought it would be cool to use the text parser for any dialogue sequence (Instead of INPUT the parser either reads "Action:" or "Say:" depending on whether you've initiated a conversation.) I got the idea from Space Ship Warlock (anyone remember that game?) where you would input fairly naturalistic dialogue into the parser ("Who is the captain?") ("What do you think about space pirates?")etc.
This was all before I found out about Heap memory restrictions so it's not like I can create a dialogue option for every imaginable topic relevant to the game. I'm considering implementing more of a dialogue tree like the one in Space Quest V, Gabriel Knight or Lucas Arts games. This would simplify things, maybe even streamline the gameplay a bit, where you're not constantly guessing what I thought was a good question to ask a character. Trouble is, it seems a tad inauthentic, and weird to keep switching to mouse in a mostly keyboard orientated game.
Also, dialogue choices can ruin the joke, if you already know the phrasing of the question before you ask it.
What are people's thoughts on this?
I'm so involved in the development of this project, when making a design decision I must ask myself, "is this fun?"