and draw you deeper into the story, not to frustrate you or increase the amount of
time it takes to finish.
Later on in the manual is a section titled “Our Game Design Philosophy,” which
contains a statement reprinted in a number of LucasArts adventure game manuals of
the time. In it one finds still more references to how uniqueLoomand the LucasArts
games were:
We believe that you buy our games to be entertained, not to be whacked over
the head every time you make a mistake. So we don’t bring the game to a screech-
ing halt when you poke your nose into a place you haven’t visited before. Unlike
conventional computer adventures, you won’t find yourself accidentally stepping
off the path, or dying because you’ve picked up a sharp object.
We think you’d prefer to solve the game’s mysteries by exploring and discover-
ing, not dying a thousand deaths. We also think you want to spend your time
involved in the story, not typing in synonyms until you stumble upon the com-
puter’s word for a certain object.
Reading the above, one gets the idea that perhapsLoomwas a reaction by the
game’s author, Brian Moriarty, to what he saw in other adventure games as detrimental
to the players’ enjoyment. Though only the first statement was written specifically
aboutLoom, it seems likely that they both represented Moriarty’s feelings on the sub-
ject accurately. Loomwas going to retain the positive storytelling elements of
adventure games and remove everything that conflicted with players’ enjoyment of the
story. It succeeded admirably, resulting in a game that seemed to earnestly want play-
ers to complete its interesting story.
Prior to coming to LucasArts to work onLoom, Brian Moriarty had worked at
Infocom for a number of years, a company renowned for the unsurpassed quality and
depth of their text adventures. There he had created two text adventures,Wishbringer
andTrinity, and one text-only adventure/role-playing hybrid,Beyond Zork. While
Wishbringerwas designed from the start to be an easy-to-play game for beginners, both
TrinityandBeyond Zorkwere massive and terrifically difficult games to complete.
Loom, then, seems to be a change in direction from those titles, a return to a game that
does not challenge players merely for the sake of challenging them, but instead
includes only those challenges that are critical to the story. Furthermore,Loomwas
Moriarty’s first game to not involve a text parser, an input method that he was all too
happy to do away with, if one believes that the sentiments expressed in the manual are
his own. Again, the simplicity ofLoomseems to be a reaction to the needless complex-
ity of older adventure games, both in general and Moriarty’s own. InLoom, the story
was king, and whatever stood in its way was removed.
Focused Game Mechanics..........................
Loomseems to be a perfect example of a game that is completely focused in what it
wants to accomplish. Instead of trying to include all of the game mechanics he possibly
could, it appears that Moriarty thought long and hard about what were the minimum
game mechanics necessary for the telling of his story. He then eliminated everything
that did not truly add something to that story. This had the result of greatly simplifying
228 Chapter 12: Game Analysis:Loom