Façade (interactive story)
Encyclopedia
Façade is an artificial-intelligence
-based interactive story
created by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern. It was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Slamdance
Independent Games Festival and has been exhibited at several international art shows. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die
.
Incorporating elements of both video gaming and drama, Façade takes advantage of voice acting and a 3-D
environment, as well as natural language processing
and other advanced artificial intelligence routines, to provide a robust interactive fiction
experience. The player can take an active role in the conversation, pushing the topic one way or another, as in an interactive stage-play. These stage-plays are stored as script text file
s which can be read after the player has finished.
Façade was released for PC in July 2005, as a free download from the InteractiveStory.net web site.
The creators of Façade are developing a game called The Party.
Independent Games Festival; an early, incomplete version was a finalist at the 2004 Independent Games Festival
. It has exhibited at several international art shows including ISEA
2004 and Game/Play 2006, and was the subject of a feature article in both The Atlantic Monthly
in November 2006 and Games for Windows: The Official Magazine
in May 2007
Façade has been the basis for a great number of academic publications and presentations co-authored by Mateas and Stern, as well as contributing to Mateas's PhD
dissertation from Carnegie Mellon.
It is celebrated for its ability to provide a close simulation of human interaction, albeit with flat-shaded 3D graphics and pre-recorded sound clips. Façade is also noted because the progression of conversation between the two characters Grace and Trip is rarely entirely the same, although it does cover the same major themes of dispassion, art and marriage.
Although the original installation file was extremely large even for broadband users (around 800 megabytes), it was included on several game magazine coverdisks, helping to bring it to the eyes of a greater number of gamers and other interested parties. In February 2006, a 167-megabyte version 1.1 was released, featuring better audio compression, as well as a version for the Macintosh
.
Because much of it is designed to simulate 'on-the-fly' reactions to the player's or other characters' actions, and because the scenario features a random series of events (such as what conversational topics are bought up, what drinks Trip wants to serve, whether either Grace or Trip have been adulterous, etc.) it possesses a certain amount of replay value
.
The parser through which the player communicates to the actors is also notable for its ability to recognise and accept a large number of complex commands and respond to them adequately. Many questions can be fully parsed
by the engine and the actors can respond in a variety of ways dependent on their mood, random fluctuations, and the player's past actions. For example, in one scenario, Grace may respond favorably to the statement 'I love your decorations.', while in another context she may believe you are being condescending to her. Although not every statement made by the player will be successfully parsed, often the engine will pull related information and integrate it using the built-in voice acting clips. As such, proper spelling and grammar is almost always required for optimal player experience. The player can also manage to instantly get themselves thrown out of the apartment by either typing in "LIES!" or "have you heard the good word" at the very beginning as Trip greets them, or for some reason, repeatedly mentioning "Maria" or "Melons."
.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
-based interactive story
Interactive storytelling
Interactive Storytelling [IS] is a form of digital entertainment in which users create or influence a dramatic storyline through actions, either by issuing commands to the story's protagonist, or acting as a general director of events in the narrative...
created by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern. It was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Slamdance
Slamdance
Slamdance may refer to:* Mosh, a form of dance associated with punk rock and other musical genres* Slamdance Film Festival, an annual event featuring the work of independent filmmakers...
Independent Games Festival and has been exhibited at several international art shows. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die
Quintessence Editions Ltd.
Quintessence Editions Ltd. is a publishing company based in London which is the originator of the "1001 Before You Die" series. Typically, the titles in this series are intended as reference books. They are illustrated books authored by multiple contributors...
.
Overview
Façade puts the player in the role of a close friend of Grace and Trip, a couple who recently invited the player to their home for cocktails. This pleasant gathering, however, is somewhat damaged by the clear domestic confrontation between Grace and Trip upon the player's entry. Making full use of the incorporated language processing software, Façade allows the player to type sentences to "speak" with the couple, either supporting them through their troubles, driving them farther apart, or being thrown out of the apartment.Incorporating elements of both video gaming and drama, Façade takes advantage of voice acting and a 3-D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
environment, as well as natural language processing
Natural language processing
Natural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages; it began as a branch of artificial intelligence....
and other advanced artificial intelligence routines, to provide a robust interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
experience. The player can take an active role in the conversation, pushing the topic one way or another, as in an interactive stage-play. These stage-plays are stored as script text file
Text file
A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists within a computer file system...
s which can be read after the player has finished.
Façade was released for PC in July 2005, as a free download from the InteractiveStory.net web site.
The creators of Façade are developing a game called The Party.
Awards and recognition
Façade won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 SlamdanceSlamdance
Slamdance may refer to:* Mosh, a form of dance associated with punk rock and other musical genres* Slamdance Film Festival, an annual event featuring the work of independent filmmakers...
Independent Games Festival; an early, incomplete version was a finalist at the 2004 Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
. It has exhibited at several international art shows including ISEA
ISEA
ISEA, or Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts is "an international non-profit organization fostering interdisciplinary academic discourse and exchange among culturally diverse organizations and individuals working with art, science and emerging technologies." ISEA was founded in the Netherlands...
2004 and Game/Play 2006, and was the subject of a feature article in both The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
in November 2006 and Games for Windows: The Official Magazine
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine was a monthly computer game magazine published by Ziff Davis Media, licensing the Games for Windows brand from Microsoft Corporation. It was the successor to Computer Gaming World. The first issue was released in November 2006...
in May 2007
Façade has been the basis for a great number of academic publications and presentations co-authored by Mateas and Stern, as well as contributing to Mateas's PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
dissertation from Carnegie Mellon.
It is celebrated for its ability to provide a close simulation of human interaction, albeit with flat-shaded 3D graphics and pre-recorded sound clips. Façade is also noted because the progression of conversation between the two characters Grace and Trip is rarely entirely the same, although it does cover the same major themes of dispassion, art and marriage.
Although the original installation file was extremely large even for broadband users (around 800 megabytes), it was included on several game magazine coverdisks, helping to bring it to the eyes of a greater number of gamers and other interested parties. In February 2006, a 167-megabyte version 1.1 was released, featuring better audio compression, as well as a version for the Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
.
Plot events
Most playthroughs end with either Grace and Trip managing an initial reconciliation and telling the player they need to be alone, or being so offended by the player that Trip forcibly removes him or her from the apartment. However, with active intervention, it is possible to inspire the two to rediscover their love for one another, or to push one to leave the other - sometimes admitting a past affair, one of many events decided at random when play begins.Because much of it is designed to simulate 'on-the-fly' reactions to the player's or other characters' actions, and because the scenario features a random series of events (such as what conversational topics are bought up, what drinks Trip wants to serve, whether either Grace or Trip have been adulterous, etc.) it possesses a certain amount of replay value
Replay value
Replay value or replayability is a term found in combination with video games, but it may be also used to describe other kinds of games, movies, music, or theater plays. In video games, the term replay value is used to describe the entertainment value of playing a game more than once...
.
The parser through which the player communicates to the actors is also notable for its ability to recognise and accept a large number of complex commands and respond to them adequately. Many questions can be fully parsed
Parsing
In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a text, made of a sequence of tokens , to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar...
by the engine and the actors can respond in a variety of ways dependent on their mood, random fluctuations, and the player's past actions. For example, in one scenario, Grace may respond favorably to the statement 'I love your decorations.', while in another context she may believe you are being condescending to her. Although not every statement made by the player will be successfully parsed, often the engine will pull related information and integrate it using the built-in voice acting clips. As such, proper spelling and grammar is almost always required for optimal player experience. The player can also manage to instantly get themselves thrown out of the apartment by either typing in "LIES!" or "have you heard the good word" at the very beginning as Trip greets them, or for some reason, repeatedly mentioning "Maria" or "Melons."
Reception
Façade has received a mixed reception: as technology and possibility it is widely considered a major advance in interactive drama, while on how enjoyable it is to play, opinions are more divided. Some find that when successful, it is very effective drama, while others find the drama to be a weak point. The open-ended narrative, with many possible outcomes, is most compared to Galatea by Emily ShortEmily Short
Emily Short is the pseudonym of an interactive fiction writer, perhaps best known for her debut game Galatea and her use of psychologically complex NPCs, or non-player game characters...
.
External links
- InteractiveStory.net - Home of Façade
- Façade's release covered on Grand Text Auto
- Façade - review by Nick MontfortNick MontfortNick Montfort is an associate professor of digital media at MIT in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. He is also a poet, computer scientist, and author of interactive fiction. Montfort has collaborated on the blog Grand Text Auto, the sticker novel Implementation, and the contemporary...
from SPAG #41 - Façade - review by Matthew Murray in Brass Lantern