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Not IF, January 11, 2015Right, it appears that no one will come out and say it, so I will.
"IF Classics" is the label under which many "IF versions" of various literary classics have been released lately, mostly with Ren'Py or Quest. It's a nice idea - "Manalive" and "Tempest" immediately come to mind as other attempts, with mixed degrees of success. This because adapting a linear work into IF is very hard and has been the subject of various discussions.
How do "IF Classics" tackle this difficulty? They don't. Their works are nothing more, nothing less, than the complete verbatim text of the Public Domain work they've selected. Progressing in some Quest games means selecting the correct next sequence of the story. You know which one is correct because the game tells you so. This should not be mistaken with CYOA.
Progressing in this one is even more laughable. You click the mouse to get the next line of the play. This is not IF, nor anything remotely resembling it - this is a powerpoint presentation done in Ren'Py where you click the mouse to read the next line.
If you feel charitable, you can look at the effort "IF Classics" has made in making this visually more appealing. The multimedia has become integral to these "adaptations" (maybe "port" would be a better word?). They are trying to get more people to read good stuff.
This is all well and good. However: "Classics" they may be, but "IF" they certainly aren't.
This should be tbe bit in the review where the reviewer explains what it really means to adapt static fiction into IF, but too much has been said about it, too much has been discussed. I suggest the people behind "IF Classics" re-evaluate what they're doing. If they want to continue the way they are, that is perfectly fine, but it's not IF any more than the original books/stories are IF.
PS - I have just remembered the perfect example of a game that does this sort of adaptation right: Inklestudio's "Frankenstein" is an example of a successful adaptation, for my money. "IF Classics" would do well to study it.
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