Graham Nelson Quotes

Writing a really general parser is a major but different undertaking, by far the hardest points being sensitivity to context and resolution of ambiguity.

What I would pay much more attention to are the few points where the player can inadvertently make a career decision. Most players end up back-tracking, though some actually enjoy this.

This means keeping many trails open at once, inevitably requiring a fairly ‘parallel’ plot. This plot should be discovered rather than announced, so show, don’t tell.

Then in my early teens, when the home computer bubble was blowing, I had one of the first, an Acorn Atom, and used to write primitive adventures on that.

The most frequent complaint is that it’s hard. True. it’s a hard game to win Also, many people ask me how to use the secret debugging commands, apparently under the impression that I’ll tell them.

Players very widely disagree with me about what’s hard and what’s easy. and in a way, ‘I won, but it was a fight’ is the best compliment a game can receive.