Facade Revealed

[jeffool]

After much work Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern have finally released their interactive drama, Facade (http://www.interactivestory.net).During an evening get-together at their apartment that quickly turns ugly, you become entangled in the high-conflict dissolution of Grace and Trip’s marriage. No one is safe as the accusations fly, sides are taken and irreversible decisions are forced to be made. By the end of this intense one-act play you will have changed the course of Grace and Trip’s lives – motivating you to re-play the drama to find out how your interaction could make things turn out differently the next time.It's a game that Chris Crawford says is "without a doubt, the best actual working interactive storyworld yet created." Currently they're only offering it for download via BitTorrent, but they're open to people hosting it, just let them know at the blog (http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/2005/07/05/facade-is-released/) they participate in, Grand Text Auto (http://www.grandtextauto.org). The entire press release can be found here (http://proceduralarts.com/pressreleases/pressrelease1.html).

[Heretic Machine]

Downloading now... it's gonna be a WHILE.

[Klade]

umm is this for real?

[murpes]

Choose your own adventure. In flash.

[PIPBoy3000]

I think I'll try to download this one and see how it goes. I read about it a long while ago and it piqued my interest.

[Draft]

800 megs, eh. Aaaaalright.

Also, I do not begrudge ANYONE making money off their creative endeavors. In fact, just the opposite. However, do not try to tell me $14 is the "at cost" price of burning 2 CDs.

[Last of the Red Hot Mamas]

It's a game that Chris Crawford says is "without a doubt, the best actual working interactive storyworld yet created."

Based on Trust and Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot, I'm not sure Chris Crawford's idea of an "actual working interactive storyworld" should carry much weight with anyone else.

[Ravenlock]

Based on Trust and Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot, I'm not sure Chris Crawford's idea of an "actual working interactive storyworld" should carry much weight with anyone else.

That may well be true, but I'll give it a download anyhow. They've obviously been working on this thing a crazy long time and it's free. *Shrug*

[jim_rock]

If your running a pc slower than 1.6 ghz don't bother.
After a torturous install process you will be greeted with a "fuck yourself, get a better pc message".

Game looks great though.

[fushi]

If your running a pc slower than 1.6 ghz don't bother.
After a torturous install process you will be greeted with a "fuck yourself, get a better pc message".

Game looks great though.
Oh ok.

* Cancels download *

[dojoteef]

Wow. The game crashed within a couple of minutes because something was "limiting my CPU". Considering the game was the only thing running, their helpful hint that Facade should be the only running application was useless to say the least. And before anyone tries to say I can't read specifications properly, my processor is a 3Ghz P4, nearly double the speed they say they require.

I was greatly looking forward to this game, because I am extremely interested in AI and AI driven storytelling. I followed the project for a while and when I heard the news that they finally released it, I was ready to try it out. Guess I have to wait for the patches.

[PIPBoy3000]

Well, I played through one and a quarter times. It's interesting that things change from game to game. In the first game, the phone rang, in the next it was silent.

The first really striking thing is that the actors are saying my name. My real name that popped up on the first screen. Someone spent a lot of time recording hundreds of common first names.

Emotionally, the game is very compelling. It's like watching a train wreck of these two people's marriage. They bicker, they fight, and with a little guidance some painful secrets come out. The game I played had no real closure, just a "we need some time to talk things over" and they shepard you out the door.

The graphics are simplistic and the controls for movement are a little clunky. That's not what the game is about, though. It's about interacting in a fairly free-form fashion within the confines of a story. Kudos to the developers for pushing the boundaries of what's considered gameplay.

[mister_slim]

Wish I had a PC to try this.

Yeah, I'm paying the price for being an arrogant Mac zealot.

[Spigot]

I remember hearing about this ages ago. I thought it had been released, but obviously I was wrong.

Hopefully my pitiful P4 1.6 will run it. I can run Half Life 2 on it rather smoothly, for some strange reason, so it had better be able to handle this.

[savagelab]

If you hold down Shift-F12 right after starting the application, the processor check will be disabled, and you will continue to the start screen.