Which Dimension is IF?

[thpham]

Some of my first games were IF. Well, this is pre-Internet, social media, and we have a very limited color palette -- yes, I am dating myself. The last couple of years I did a 360 degree and I am back into game design, as a faculty. I am in the process of getting my arms around the categorization of games based on which dimension they should belong to. Most of the games were easily categorized. One of the exceptions is IF. Which dimension do you believe IF should belong to? I thought possibly 0D or 5D. Your feedback would greatly be appreciated.

Please note that a game dimension is based on a mathematical (coordinate) system's perspective. However, it is not constraint to counting number (1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, etc.) It can be 0D, 2.5D (Isometrics) and possibly applicable to the real number system.

Example of a 1D: 1D-bobble (http://archive.globalgamejam.org/2012/1d-bobble)
Examples of 2d: typical solitaire and platformers
Example of 2.5D/isometric: Qbert (http://www.freeqbert.org/)
Example of a 3D: Minecraft
Example of a 4D: Miegakure (http://miegakure.com/)

Thank you for your feedback ~Thiep Pham.

[Denk]

I would say that it depends on your definition. But since you have accepted Miegakure as a 4d-game, where the graphics are not 4d (which is of course not possible) but the player can move in 4d space anyway, I would say that the number of dimensions depends on which dimensions the player can move along inside the game and not how the graphics works.

It is possible to make an IF-game with an abitrary number of dimensions, e.g. 13d would be possible, so the answer would thus depend on the game. But it is most common to model a 3d-world with the axes North/South, East/West and Up/Down.

Technically the common In/Out can be regarded as an axis too, making it 4d, though the intention must have been to model a 3d-world.

Based on this definition, I have played 1d, 2d, 3d and 4d IF-games but more dimensions are technically possible.

[thpham]

I thought over some more (still stuck though): Theoretically/imaginary, you are correct in saying an IF can have infinite dimensions (based on the number of variables its creator can come up with) even though IF games tend to be "3D" based. I am also thinking dimensions are mathematically discrete and not imaginary. One can explicitly position a coordinate/system on the dimension's axis (for example: (0,0,0) the origin of of a 3D space). If IF is unable to establish a fixed coordinate position, it may be outside the rule of dimension. It's probably not a 0D since that requires an answer of yes/no or T/F or 1/0 as in Binary math or a Jeopardy game of hitting the red button to answer a question. Null Dimension? LOL

[Lumin]

Not entirely sure I'm following this, but I guess it depends on how many dimensions you'd say a world that exists in a story can have. The character is supposed to be navigating an approximation of our world, but the viewpoint freely through time as needed, and things can technically take place in any 'dimension' it's possible to use words to describe.