We are looking for content on our site (MyAdventureGame.com) and
figured, who better than the talented writers and researches at GA to
help us with this task!

Answering this question should be fun and challenging.  Before you
begin, please make sure that you are up for the task ... this question
certainly is not for everyone.  If making a game on our website sounds
is something you’d WOULDN'T do in your spare time, then this question
may NOT be for you.

The Question:
Go to our website (http://MyAdventureGame.com), create an account (or
use your existing account), and make a game which that is both
interesting and educational.  The main idea behind this game is that
you have fun playing it and walk away learning something.

The game needs to deal with history, mythology, or the
paranormal/supernatural.  This game also must have at least 30 pages
with at least 10 different pictures spread throughout the game.  These
pictures should have some relevance to the page they are on and can be
photographs, illustrations, or animated GIFs -- whatever you deem
appropriate.  Remember, the system allows only one picture per page.

Most good games have most pages with 100-150 words, but that’s just a
rule of thumb.  Pages too short don't get the player in the story,
pages too long remove interactivity.

The history, mythology, or paranormal/supernatural references need to
be accurate.  Your game shouldn't read like a textbook (remember, it
should be fun) but at the same time shouldn't contain inaccuracies
(such as Thor being one of the Greek Gods, for example).  The
paranormal/supernatural "evidence" should not be something you made
up, but something that could be found on the Art Bell website or in a
book.

Here are a few examples of games that would certainly meet the
requirements.  Please feel free to use or base your game off of these
ideas or use your own.

"Stepping Into Hermes Shoes"
This game tells the story of a common man, Demetrius of Athens, coming
across the legendary Shoes of Hermes.  It would begin by describing
Demetrius and his day-to-day life (which would be historically
accurate) and go on to explain (using accurate Greek god names and
personalities) how Hermes lost his shoes.  The plot of the game could
be the to return to shoes, or perhaps how to outsmart the gods, or to
use them to get an advantage in a (historically accurate) war.

"Conspiracy Theory"
This game would be about a conspiracy that is NOT mainstream (eg. JFK
or Moon Landing) and NOT a joke (eg. Santa as a communist icon or
toilet paper with microchips), but more middle of the road (Gulf War
Illness, AIDS as a weapon, Freemasonry, etc).  Perhaps the plot could
be that the player uncovers a conspiracy by mistake and has to avoid
getting killed by the conspirators, or perhaps the player has to
orchestrate the conspiracy.  Again, the conspiracy should contain
accurate facts (well, at least what the conspiracy theorists propose),
and should leave the player with "oh, now I know about that
conspiracy, perhaps it happened."

"Surviving the American Civil War"
The player in this game would experience life as a person in a troupe
of soldiers in the American civil war. Perhaps the troupe gets caught
and is sent to a (historically accurate) POW camp; perhaps the troupe
fights in a (historically accurate) battle.  Again, the player should
come out of the game entertained and informed.

Also note, it is important to have a good idea of the Start and End of
your game before creating it on the website.  Planning before hand
will not only save time but will create a much better end product.

I apologize for the novella of a question here, but I wanted to make
things clear.  Please do not hesitate to ask for clarification or to
email me.  I can be reached by emailing info(at)MyAdventureGame.com. 
I really look forward to experiencing your game.

Don't forget, the game will be eligible for the $100 contest (see the
website) and I tip (fairly well) for a job well done.

Again thanks in advance.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 11 Nov 2002 09:30 PST

Dear myadventuregame,

There is a slight problem. The "How To Make An Adventure Game" section
does not exist yet. But without a proper manual explaining the editor,
you can't expect outstanding results. I am a history fan and would
like to take this question - but I fear that, without a manual, the
game I'd create would not have the standard you'd like to see.

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by myadventuregame-ga on 11 Nov 2002 10:55 PST

Hello Scriptor:

Please forgive the lack of the "How To Make An Adventure Game" help
section.  As you may have guessed, we are trying to build up this
website and do not have some sections complete.

We have, however, tried to make the game editor as easy to use as
possible.  Assuming you have an up-to-date internet browser (IE4+,
NS4+), there will be Pop-Up help on many of the buttons on the
website.  If you have any specific questions about it, I would be more
than happy to answer them for you.

It's hard to say what a good game is, but I believe that most of the
researches here would make a good game.  I have seen your writing
skills -- if you put them in a game format, add a historical twist, I
think that would make a great game.

What we don't want to see is a game where some one simply rushed
through and didn't put in any thought.  There are many users who have
created great games on our website for free, so I guess the idea here
is try to give a monetary incentive to other people to make great
games.

Thanks, 
MyAdventureGame.com

---

Request for Question Clarification by sgtcory-ga on 11 Nov 2002 11:24 PST

This is a fun idea!

The instructions are fairly simple for web veterans to grasp, but you
may want to get them up as soon as possible.

I started a game here :

http://myadventuregame.com/preview.asp?g=321

Is this something along the lines you we're looking for? It's
historical value is the fact that this service has been around since
1775. I suppose I should add more history?

Either way - I had fun doing what little I did so far :-)

Great idea!
SgtCory

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Clarification of Question by myadventuregame-ga on 11 Nov 2002 12:20 PST

Hello SgtCory!

Thank you for responding to this question.  I think the game is a
great idea, but we were looking for something which brings the player
into history.  Now, if the game was "Marine Corps Bootcamp 1842-
Surviving the test" and it related to Civil War, or something, it
would be an ideal.

We do like your game idea and would really like to see it happen. 
Don't worry, we will be posting 4-8 more Make-A-Game questions.  This
idea would be perfect for one of those questions.  If you'd like,
start it now, and I will email you (using the address you provided at
MyAdventureGame.com), to give you a heads up on when I post the
question.

Regards,
The MyAdventureGame.com crew

---

Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 11 Nov 2002 15:53 PST

Hi! If I remember it correctly, I was the first one to answer a
question from you. My only question about this is the uploading of
pictures. Should this be original art work or it can be from free
clipart sources? Just let me know. :)

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Clarification of Question by myadventuregame-ga on 11 Nov 2002 17:58 PST

Hello easterangel:

Ah yes, I remember!  Glad to see you again. 

If you have original artwork that would be most impressive, but 
clip art would be more than acceptable.  I'm sure you could even
use copyright images, especially if its of historic events, etc.
It could be considered fair use as the site is hobby and we don't 
expect to ever make a dime on it.  But the decision is up to you,
the worse case scenario with using a copyright image is it may
mysteriously vanish if the copyright holder complains to us ...

I hope that answers your question and I truly hope you get a 
chance to make a game!

-- MyAdventureGame.com crew

Hi! Thanks for the interesting work.

I finally made one. Here is My Adventure Game entitled "The Black
Hand'. It consists of 30 pages (not including the ending pages) and 10
pictures. I put in School related since it was educational. If you
feel that this is incorrect please ask for a clarification so I could
make adjustments.

The Black Hand Game
http://myadventuregame.com/preview.asp?g=327

The following are my sources:

"The Black Hand"
http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/blk-hand.html 

"Sarajevo, June 28, 1914"
http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/sarajevo.html

I hope you and your audience will have fun reading it as much I had
creating the story.

In case I miss anything on my story like graphics, number of pages,
dead ends or anything in your requirements, please ask for a
clarification and I will fix it.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by myadventuregame-ga on 12 Nov 2002 08:36 PST

We have played your game and are most impressed!  Serious business, it
was well written, captivating, and very informative.  I personally
have learned a very interesting bit of history feel very educated. 
Had they taught history like that in school, I would have probably
majored in history :-)

In any case, you have already earned a 5-star rating a $5.00 tip.  But
reason for this clarification ... for an additional $5.00 tip, could
you rate the Game Editor?   More specifically ...

GAME EDITOR (EZ-EDIT)
Was it completely self-explanatory?  What areas or aspects of it were
completely easy to understand?  What areas or aspects were confusing? 
If you didn't find anything confusing, could you think of something
that could potentially be confusing?

ACCOUNT CREATION
did you have Any concerns about this process? Did you like the
artwork?

PUBLISHING
Did the concept of publishing seem to make sense?  Was it explained
clearly?  We use humorous descriptors (in our opinion) to describe
difficulty level (eg. Walk in the Park, Mosie Through a Minefield,
etc) and maturity level (eg. must be at least this tall to play, etc).
 Did you find these descriptions tacky, annoying, or appropriate and
flowing with the rest of the site?

YOUR GAME
What made you pick the topic?  Did you plan the plot/story from
beginning to end?  What tips could you offer to people who want to
make a game but only have a vauge idea of a topic?

MISC
Can you think of any other improvements to the site?  Our goal is to
make it as easy as possible for people to make games and encourage
them to make entertaining and quality stories.  Much like yours.  We
have quite a few things on the ToDo list, most importantly finishing
the help section, and also things like Writing a New Game Tutorial. 
Can you think of any other things that could help us achieve the goal?

---

Again thanks for your help.  If we made money on this site, or had any
idea how we could make money on it, we'd totally fork over some more
money. But this is a hobby ... and we all have these awful things
called bills to pay, etc.  We hope that our sincere appreciation for
your work helps to assuage our inability to financially compensate you
for what we truly think your work is valued at!

Best Regards,

Alex and the rest of the MyAdventureGame.com Crew

---

Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 12 Nov 2002 15:40 PST

First of all thank you for the very kind words! Here is what I think
on what should be improved on your site and to creating a game in
general.

Game Editor:
For a long-time Internet user, I consider the game editor rather
self-explanatory. But in my first attempts, I have to admit I was
confused at first. For example, in the "change link" function, it is
quite baffling that when you link to a made page, the title you
assigned to does not automatically change. For example, I made a title
to the link "Friends" (a previously made page) but in the process
changed my mind and linked to "Frasier" (another previously made
page), the title does not automatically change from "Friends to
"Frasier".

Uploading game pictures was also quite difficult. I hope that in the
future, the filename of the picture will be immediately adopted when
you upload it just like attachments in email. No need to put a title.

Another part I think you could work on is the listing of pages. I hope
we could arrange them in a way it suits us. Furthermore, it lists
pages made with the same name. I was doing this since I arrange some
of the links. Not accepting same page titles would really help tone
down the confusion.

One last thing about the editor, I hope that in making links, we could
be able to rearrange them on the fly or on the same page. I had
trouble doing this when I first arranged almost all the losing links
at the top, making my story predictable. So I had to manually arrange
each link I want changed.

Account Creation:
My only concern is that you are asking for "Real Name", please change
this to "Name" or "Nickname" since it makes some people apprehensive
for security reasons.

Publishing:
Yes the concept of publishing makes sense and I feel that it is a
great feature. The descriptions were really funny and entertaining.

My Game:
I have watched the black hand story on the Discovery Channel and have
always been intrigued that their assassination attempt on the Archduke
was credited for starting World War I. I picked the topic since it was
not that popular, unlike the JFK or Hitler stories.

Yes I planned the story from beginning to end. First I followed your
suggestion (Thanks it made the process a lot easier) to think of a
beginning and an end. Then I just filled the holes. My only tip for
making a story like this is do some research. The very reason I pick
this question is that it would still involve research on my part. If
you don't know a particular topic so well, read books, articles or on
the Internet so as to familiarize yourself. I used the sites I
mentioned to fully immerse myself and get the details of the story I
want to create.

MISC:
The site as I feel is very straight forward. Maybe a few more
categories in the stories would help like "historical", "religious",
etc. Another feature that would be helpful is to provide links to
sources like writing tips, facts, news and anything that could help
the author in writing a story. It will be some sort of a library for
the site.

This is my take on your website. It is really good and looks very
promising. I really wish that it would move from being a hobby to a
business. Good luck and I hope you found my thoughts helpful.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

Thanks Easterangel, as always, your answer is fantastic.  I hope you
get the opportunity to ask another question of mine again.  Thanks!

I love the idea of your site, and am happy that you are making use of
this service to improve its design. I would certainly tackle your
question, however, I am not well versed in the particular subjects you
would like the story to deal with. I wish you the best of luck on your
website.