Façade (video game)
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''Façade'' is an
artificial-intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
-based
interactive story Interactive storytelling (also known as interactive drama) is a form of digital entertainment in which the storyline is not predetermined. The author creates the setting, characters, and situation which the narrative must address, but the user (a ...
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, it was included as one of the titles in the book ''
1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die ''1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die'' is a video game reference book first published in October 2010. It consists of a list of video games released between 1970 and 2013, arranged chronologically by release date. Each entry in the list ...
''.


Overview

''Façade'' puts the player in the role of a close friend of Trip and Grace, a couple who recently invited the player to their
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
apartment 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 interactivity and drama, ''Façade'' takes advantage of voice acting and a 3-D environment, as well as
natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to pro ...
and other advanced artificial intelligence routines, to provide a robust
interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is 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, either in the ...
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 files which can be read after the player has finished. ''Façade'' was released for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
in July 2005, as a free download from the InteractiveStory.net web site. , the creators of ''Façade'' were developing another title called ''The Party'', however, in December 2013, Michael Mateas confirmed that they were not currently working on it.


Plot events

Most playthroughs end with either Trip and Grace managing an initial reconciliation and telling the player they need to be alone, or being so offended by the player that Trip forcibly removes them 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 brought up, what drinks Trip wants to serve, 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 recognize 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 engine does have some quirks, for example, saying the word "
melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". The ...
" at any time will result in the player being kicked out immediately.


Music Score

Compose
Leo Caruso
developed various segments of the incidental music for this game (4 composers were involved in the full production).


Awards and recognition

''Façade'' won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Slamdance Independent Games Festival; an early, incomplete version was a finalist at the 2004 Independent Games Festival. It has been 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 ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' in November 2006"Sex, Lies and Videogames"
by Jonathan Rauch in ''The Atlantic Monthly'', November 2006
and '' Games for Windows: The Official Magazine'' in May 2007."Type What You Feel"
, by
Evan Shamoon Evan is both an English and Welsh male given name derived from "Iefan", a Welsh form for the name John. In other languages it could be compared to "Ivan", " Ian", and "Juan"; the name John itself is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Yəhôḥ ...
in ''Games for Windows: The Official Magazine'', May 2007


Reception

''Façade'' has received a mixed reception: as technology and possibility it is widely considered a major advance in interactive drama, while opinions on how enjoyable it is to play 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 often compared to ''
Galatea Galatea is an ancient Greek name meaning "she who is milk-white". Galatea, Galathea or Gallathea may refer to: In mythology * Galatea (Greek myth), three different mythological figures In the arts * ''Aci, Galatea e Polifemo'', cantata by H ...
'' by
Emily Short Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer. She is perhaps best known for her debut game ''Galatea'' and her use of psychologically complex non-player characters (NPCs). Short has been called "a visionary in the world of text-based game ...
.


See also

*
Cybertext Cybertext 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. Aarseth defined it as a type of ergodic literature where user traverses the text ...
*
Expressive Intelligence Studio The Expressive Intelligence Studio is a research group at the University of California, Santa Cruz, established to conduct research in the field of game design technology. The studio is currently being run by Michael Mateas and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, ...


Notes


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Facade (video game) Freeware 2005 video games 2000s interactive fiction Art games Windows games MacOS games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games featuring non-playable protagonists Video games with alternate endings Single-player video games Works about divorce Video games set in New York City