Props for being unique I guess, but this suffers from one major flaw: it doesn't feel very interactive. It doesn't feel like what the player says really affects what the other characters say, and which direction the story takes ends up feeling mostly random. The only time I felt like I was actually influencing events was when I did stupid stuff like stand at the door forever without coming in or relentlessly trolling Trip. i.e. the only time I felt like I was interacting with the game was when I was messing around with it, which I'm pretty sure wasn't what the creator had in mind.
An idea that sounds wonderful and groundbreaking on paper, but once you play it, you realize that the tech behind it is very limiting. Though characters will respond to what you type, there is no room for the narrative to evolve aside from the most basic, binary responses and when it does progress its rarely as a result of the player's input.
Very short, and rougher than I'd like, but there's really nothing else like this out there. Worth a few plays, as there are several endings, but you might want to look up hints or a guide if you keep getting kicked out. Also worth trying to just do weird stuff, as there are some reactions you likely wouldn't expect.
Unfortunately the lack of clones is probably because people looked at how rough Facade is, and how hard it is to really grasp the extremely sophisticated AI work going on in the background and decided it wasn't worth improving on.
It probably doesn't help that as an academic project there are some papers about it, but no source, no easily accessible models and the like. Similarly the game is trying for a lot of broad innovations, so you're free-roaming around a 3D space, and it tracks what your are look at, and processes natural language dialog from the player, so a lot of the usual tricks don't work.
Hopefully some day it'll get dug up and polished into mainstream usability, but it's still a fascinating project.
Unfortunately the lack of clones is probably because people looked at how rough Facade is, and how hard it is to really grasp the extremely sophisticated AI work going on in the background and decided it wasn't worth improving on.
It probably doesn't help that as an academic project there are some papers about it, but no source, no easily accessible models and the like. Similarly the game is trying for a lot of broad innovations, so you're free-roaming around a 3D space, and it tracks what your are look at, and processes natural language dialog from the player, so a lot of the usual tricks don't work.
Hopefully some day it'll get dug up and polished into mainstream usability, but it's still a fascinating project.
It's called Facade because it's the front part of the exterior of a building, but also because there's clearly something else going on behind it. Very Lynchian in nature but much more known for the impact that this game has had on Internet meme culture. I give it five bags of popcorn and probably a can of Seven Up for good measure.