| Galatea | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Emily Short |
| Publisher(s) | Self published |
| Designer(s) | Emily Short |
| Engine | Z-machine |
| Platform(s) | Z-machine |
| Release date(s) | 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Interactive Fiction |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media/distribution | download |
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[1] and won a XYZZY Award for Best Non-Player Character.[2] 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.
Contents |
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.
Galatea is loosely based around the myth of Pygmalion 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 intelligences. 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.
Short describes this as "multilinear interactive fiction"[3]: 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.[3] Thus the original author and the player share in the creation of a work of fiction.[3]
Adam Cadre, a respected IF author, has called Galatea "the best NPC ever".[4] 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."