Game with Typed In Conversation

[Mutive]

Hi all!

Anyway, I've been playing around a bit with natural language processing and thought it could potentially be fun to create a visual novel in which you type to the character who then responds from a script of pre-determined responses based on what you type into a field.

(e.g. the character might say, "It's a lovely day we've been having!" and if you type in, "Yes it is." she'll respond with something like "I really love going on picnics on days like this when the sun is shining! Would you want to go on with me?" Alternately if you say, "No, it isn't." she'll respond with, "I'm sorry to hear that. I guess I'll plan on having the picnic on another day..." or if you respond with nonsense like, "Garbanzo beans are delicious!" she'll say something like, "That didn't sound like anything to me...sometimes I feel like I'm never going to understand you." and either continue with the story or ask you for an additional response.)

My hope was that, given long enough, I could turn this into a game. (e.g. you slowly unveil a story as you talk more and more to this character.)

Anyway, my question was whether this is the kind of game anyone might want to play. It seems like it could be a lot of effort for the player (certainly it's easier to choose a pre-scripted response than it is to type one out), but then it could also be really immersive. (You can literally tell the character anything.)

So thoughts as to whether this would be "fun" game for a player or incredibly annoying? Is this something you might be interested in playing around with?

[Wudgeous]

People already enjoy games like that, so I wouldn't worry about the premise being annoying. I'm blanking on examples -- the only similar game I can think of is Façade (which came out in 2006). Not built with ren'py, but still heavily based on player input.

I think it's a lot more effort to create it than it is to play it.

[isobellesophia]

How coincidence! I did created a type conversation in my game, maybe i could help you with it!

[Elsa Kisiel]

That kind of game are fun but the illusion is quickly broken if a lot of sentences are not understood by the character.
I like them for a short story, for a little "new experience". However, for a more complicated/long story, I prefer pre-defined choices.

[Mutive]

People already enjoy games like that, so I wouldn't worry about the premise being annoying. I'm blanking on examples -- the only similar game I can think of is Façade (which came out in 2006). Not built with ren'py, but still heavily based on player input.

I think it's a lot more effort to create it than it is to play it.

Hmmm, I'll have to look up Façade. If I do end up doing something like this (which is a definite maybe right now - I agree that it'll take a lot of time to build, but I could also see it being a good way to practice using some Python packages, so...maybe it's worth the effort!), it'll be super helpful to have some comparison games.

I appreciate the input!

[Mutive]

How coincidence! I did created a type conversation in my game, maybe i could help you with it!

Oooh, I may have to ask for pointers! (And check out your game!)

[Mutive]

That kind of game are fun but the illusion is quickly broken if a lot of sentences are not understood by the character.

Oh, I agree completely. It's one thing if once in a while the poor chat bot seems broken (or if the player truly is typing in nonsense), but if the syntax is constantly hard for the character to get, it's like, "Oh, come on now! I've tried to tell you that I like your dress 45xs and can't figure out why it's so freaking hard for you to get on with it!"

I like them for a short story, for a little "new experience". However, for a more complicated/long story, I prefer pre-defined choices.

I'm thinking this might work best, actually. I suspect a several hour long game might get tedious, but a 15 minute conversation might be novel and entertaining.

[foleso]

That kind of game are fun but the illusion is quickly broken if a lot of sentences are not understood by the character.

Oh, I agree completely. It's one thing if once in a while the poor chat bot seems broken (or if the player truly is typing in nonsense), but if the syntax is constantly hard for the character to get, it's like, "Oh, come on now! I've tried to tell you that I like your dress 45xs and can't figure out why it's so freaking hard for you to get on with it!"

I like them for a short story, for a little "new experience". However, for a more complicated/long story, I prefer pre-defined choices.

I'm thinking this might work best, actually. I suspect a several hour long game might get tedious, but a 15 minute conversation might be novel and entertaining.

Have you played the game 9:05 yet? It's an awesome parser IF game that you should check out. Takes about 10 minutes to play through, with some really interesting twists and turns! You have to play more than once to get the full experience. Here's the link: http://adamcadre.ac/if/905.html

Hopefully this will help you get some inspiration ♥

[isobellesophia]

How coincidence! I did created a type conversation in my game, maybe i could help you with it!

Oooh, I may have to ask for pointers! (And check out your game!)

Here is my example.. i hope it helps you.

Code: Select all

label user:
    $ user_input = renpy.input(prompt = "Talk to anna, she'll answer you back!", allow="1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ /.,'?!")

    $ user_input=user_input.lower().strip()

    if user_input == "": #This will happen if there's no input.

        a "You didn't type anything! You have to ask a question first."

        jump user

#####################GREETINGS##################

    if user_input in ['Later','later']:
        show a concerned with dissolve
        a "Hehehe!"

    if user_input in ['hello','hello!','Hello','Hello!']:
        show a happyclosed with dissolve
        a "Oh hello [name]! How are you today?"
        jump user

    if user_input in ['hello anna','hello anna!','Hello Anna','Hello Anna!','hello Anna','hello Anna!','Hello anna','Hello anna!']:
        show a normal2 with dissolve
        a "Hello [name]! What do you want today?"
        jump user

[Autumnotopia]

It's only partially relevant I suppose, but have you seen the recent AI Dungeon 2 stuff? A very interesting parser based experiment haha

I feel like people have already hit most of the notes for what would be required out of a type and play conversational game. I agree that keeping it short would be smart, both for the player and also just development wise.

[Mutive]

Have you played the game 9:05 yet? It's an awesome parser IF game that you should check out. Takes about 10 minutes to play through, with some really interesting twists and turns! You have to play more than once to get the full experience. Here's the link: http://adamcadre.ac/if/905.html

Hopefully this will help you get some inspiration ♥

I haven't, but clearly will have to! It sounds like a lot of fun (and I love short games!)

Thank you so much for the recommendation.

[Mutive]

Here is my example.. i hope it helps you.

Oooh, thanks! That is helpful! Although I was considering playing around with some Python packages for chatbots (https://pypi.org/project/chatbotAI/ or https://pypi.org/project/ChatterBot/)

I haven't really done anything with either of them so far, so it's hard to tell whether it would work or just be a mess. But the hope was that they'd help with parsing some slightly fancier stuff.

I think there are some cool packages for sentiment analysis, too, which should be good for things like discerning, "I hate your hair - it's ugly!" from "Your dress looks amazing!" (Although sarcasm will be...unintentionally hilarious I suspect.)

So we'll see...(assuming I ever get around to actually creating the game...there are always so many projects, aren't there?)

[isobellesophia]

Here is my example.. i hope it helps you.

Oooh, thanks! That is helpful! Although I was considering playing around with some Python packages for chatbots (https://pypi.org/project/chatbotAI/ or https://pypi.org/project/ChatterBot/)

I haven't really done anything with either of them so far, so it's hard to tell whether it would work or just be a mess. But the hope was that they'd help with parsing some slightly fancier stuff.

I think there are some cool packages for sentiment analysis, too, which should be good for things like discerning, "I hate your hair - it's ugly!" from "Your dress looks amazing!" (Although sarcasm will be...unintentionally hilarious I suspect.)

So we'll see...(assuming I ever get around to actually creating the game...there are always so many projects, aren't there?)

Actually there is.. example of Monika's after story from DDLC (if you dont know what game is that you can search it.), which is also the same feature for me, (Talking to her some random things can get to her some replies) i didn't really copied it, i decided to create one for myself.

Actually, i can make some typed conversation when you didn't implemented a conversation yet..
Also known as the charcater is not yet related to the topic you've been talking.
So that the character leaves a message that YOU haven't completed all of the conversations.
(This is most likely i've been doing now.)

Like this for example, still made by me.
Just change the dialogues below, that is just my current dialogue i made from my project.

Code: Select all

label untype:
    $ randdiag = renpy.random.randint(1, 10)
    show a think with dissolve
    if randdiag == 1:
        a "Umm.. is there any topics we can talk about?"
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 2:
        a "How about something else?"
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 3:
        a "My memory hasn't been fully loaded yet so.."
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 4:
        a "Should we talk something else other than that?"
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 5:
        a "I think i haven't understand that one yet."
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 6:
        a "Please stay tuned for another topic!"
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 7:
        a "Anything else?"
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 8:
        a "My memory is not yet too bright and smart."
        jump user
    elif randdiag == 9:
        a "Umm.. please anything other than that?"
        jump user
    else:
        a "I love cute girls, out of topic."
        jump user

Also to make sure this is placed in the bottom of the implemented words so that it wont get messed up when talking to the character.
Hope it helps you!

Sry for my english, not the best.

[Mutive]

Oooh, very cool! I'll have to look for Monica's story.

And thanks again for the code example!

[verysunshine]

I kind of made a conversation-based game. I didn't have any experience with natural language processing or text processing, so my project did not turn out well. It mainly used if statements to control where to go.

Event[0] revolves almost entirely around text processing for its gameplay.