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Galatea (computer game)
Encyclopedia
Galatea is a work of interactive fiction
by Emily Short
featuring a modern rendition of the Greek myth
of Galatea
, the sculpture of a woman which gained life. It took "Best of Show" in the 2000 IF Art Show and won a XYZZY Award
for Best Non-Player Character
. The game displays an unusual rich approach to Non-Player Character
dialog and diverts from the typical puzzle-solving in interactive fiction: the whole gameplay
is based on the interaction with a single character in a single room.
The game Galatea is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 license.
Galatea alters the typical interactive fiction game mechanics by concentrating instead on the player's interactions with a single Non-player character (NPC), the eponymous Galatea. Much of the interest of the piece derives from the ambiguous nature of the player-NPC dialogue: the form of the conversation, and indeed the nature of Galatea herself, shifts depending on the focus the player places on certain aspects of the character's personality. Numerous endings are possible.
The main gameplay centers around the developing dialogue between Galatea and the player when asking about topics in the previous conversation. Two commands "think about" and "recap" are provided to get track of what has been already said; the former is also used to advance the storyline, as the Player Character draws conclusions about the story unfold until that point.
As a way to enhance immersion, the game also encourages using sensory commands (touch, sounds, looks) adding a physical feeling to the experience.
who carved the sculpture of a woman. In the myth he falls in love with the statue, named Galatea or Elise in different versions, and the goddess Venus brings her to life.
The story begins at the opening of an exhibition of artificial intelligence
s. The player, alone, discovers Galatea displayed on a pedestal with a small information placard. She is illuminated by a spotlight and wears an emerald dress. Seeing the player about to turn away, Galatea says, "They told me you were coming."
From this point the story may proceed in a number of ways depending on the player's words and actions.
The plot is thus designed to appear open-ended with the development of the story entirely dependent on what the player decides to talk or ask about or what actions he or she chooses to perform. Thus the original author and the player share in the creation of a work of fiction.
, a respected IF author, has called Galatea "the best NPC ever". He also describes the game as an example of an alternative kind of puzzle where "interactivity comes in deciding where to go, what to see, what to say. Rather than having to open gates along a path, you discover that they're all open at first, but stepping through one causes others to close."
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...
by Emily Short
Emily 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...
featuring a modern rendition of the Greek myth
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
of Galatea
Galatea (mythology)
-Name "Galatea":Though the name "Galatea" has become so firmly associated with Pygmalion's statue as to seem antique, its use in connection with Pygmalion originated with a post-classical writer. No extant ancient text mentions the statue's name...
, the sculpture of a woman which gained life. It took "Best of Show" in the 2000 IF Art Show and won a XYZZY Award
XYZZY Award
The XYZZY Awards are an event to recognize extraordinary interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards or Grammy Awards but for a far smaller community. The XYZZY Awards have been presented yearly in the early spring since 1996 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of XYZZYnews...
for Best Non-Player Character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
. The game displays an unusual rich approach to Non-Player Character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
dialog and diverts from the typical puzzle-solving in interactive fiction: the whole gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
is based on the interaction with a single character in a single room.
The game Galatea is licensed under the Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 license.
Gameplay
The main gameplay centers around the developing dialogue between Galatea and the player when asking about topics in the previous conversation. Two commands "think about" and "recap" are provided to get track of what has been already said; the former is also used to advance the storyline, as the Player Character draws conclusions about the story unfold until that point.
As a way to enhance immersion, the game also encourages using sensory commands (touch, sounds, looks) adding a physical feeling to the experience.
Plot
Galatea is loosely based around the myth of PygmalionPygmalion (mythology)
Pygmalion is a legendary figure of Cyprus. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, he is most familiar from Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.-In Ovid:In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a...
who carved the sculpture of a woman. In the myth he falls in love with the statue, named Galatea or Elise in different versions, and the goddess Venus brings her to life.
The story begins at the opening of an exhibition of artificial intelligence
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...
s. The player, alone, discovers Galatea displayed on a pedestal with a small information placard. She is illuminated by a spotlight and wears an emerald dress. Seeing the player about to turn away, Galatea says, "They told me you were coming."
From this point the story may proceed in a number of ways depending on the player's words and actions.
Multilinear interactive fiction
Short describes this as "multilinear interactive fiction": while interactive fiction in general allows the player to find their own way through the story, this leads in most cases to a single ending (or at least a single desired 'correct' ending). With Galatea, Short presents a story with around 70 different endings and hundreds of possible ways of reaching them.The plot is thus designed to appear open-ended with the development of the story entirely dependent on what the player decides to talk or ask about or what actions he or she chooses to perform. Thus the original author and the player share in the creation of a work of fiction.
Reactions
Adam CadreAdam Cadre
Adam Cadre is a U.S. writer. He gained prominence in the world of interactive fiction with works like I-0 , Photopia and Varicella , for which he has won several XYZZY Awards and been the subject of academic study . Photopia additionally won the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition...
, a respected IF author, has called Galatea "the best NPC ever". He also describes the game as an example of an alternative kind of puzzle where "interactivity comes in deciding where to go, what to see, what to say. Rather than having to open gates along a path, you discover that they're all open at first, but stepping through one causes others to close."
See also
- CybertextCybertextCybertext is the organization of text in order to analyze the influence of the medium as an integral part of the literary dynamic, as defined by Espen Aarseth in 1997...
- GLaDOSGLaDOSGLaDOS, short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, is a fictional artificially intelligent computer system in Valve Software's Half-Life video game series and the main antagonist in the video games Portal and Portal 2. She was created by Erik Wolpaw and Kim Swift and is voiced by Ellen...
, another female artificial intelligence video-game character - Non-gameNon-gameNon-games define a class of software that lies on the border between video games, toys and applications. The original term non-game game was coined by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. The main difference between non-games and traditional video games is the apparent lack of goals, objectives and...