Interesting. I haven't played yet, but I saw a video of a talk where he was talking about how this is his response to interactive drama. Essentially, instead of aiming at deep, believable AI characters with coherent yet non-linear plotlines, he just has one of the players be that "deep AI", sort of like D&D on a computer.
I comented about it here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1250519 , that they "rediscovered" the role of the Dungeon Master from paper RPGs (and I think Neverwinter Nights and other computer RPGs might have something similar, though I don't know if it does).
Why doesn't he like the comparison? It's perfectly appropriate here.
Edit: I found this article http://www.destructoid.com/preview-sleep-is-death-player-mod... where he highlights the differences:
"The first and most obvious difference, the time constraint, essentially turns Sleep is Death into performance art. ". Ok, that's a point in its favor.
The second point is not valid "The computer screens that separated us gave the experience both a sense of tangible believability" as there are computer RPGs, though this might be a better / more freeform implementation (and that might be a killer feature)
> "The first and most obvious difference, the time constraint, essentially turns Sleep is Death into performance art. ". Ok, that's a point in its favor.
No it isn't. Players aren't going to sit around waiting more than a few seconds for a DM to react to what they do.
I've been playing SID for the past few days. The interface is fairly confusing but the 'gameplay' is absolutely fantastic. Highly recommended.
At first the 30 second limit seemed outrageous, but once you find the rhythm it makes for a really engaging experience. You start becoming less ambitious and the scenes tend to become more driven by dialogue and character. A great decision on Rohrer's part.
When you buy the game, you get two licenses so you can send a copy to a friend and start playing immediately. There are also player matching sites springing up like sidtube.
Jason Rohrer has done some interesting things. He is the author of MUTE. A p2p network with a high level of anonymity. Also he lives a very spartan life, entirely off donations from the users of his software (at least he used to).
