Amiga Format CD 8/amigaformatcd08.iso/screenplay/utilities/aw/manual.doc

Text File | 1996-10-13 | 49KB | 1,186 lines

                           Adventure Writer
                 (Text Adventure creation system)



                                V1.00










                              Ben Coffer

                         Hybrid Productions









                               Contents

1           Introduction

2           The Adventure Writer
2.1             Room Descriptions
2.2             Travel Table
2.3             Items
2.4             Flags
2.5             Computer Players
2.6             Loading/Saving
2.7             Others (miscellaneous)
2.7.1                   Introductory Text
2.7.2                   Completion Text
2.7.3                   Completion Values
2.7.4                   Editing player types
2.7.5                   Single/Multi option
2.7.6                   Editing computer types
2.7.7                   Editing music
2.7.8                   Editing title page

3           The Game Engine
3.1             Creating the bootable disk
3.2             Files needed
3.3             What the Engine provides

4           Tutorial

5           Registering and Update Information

6           Hybrid Manifesto

















1. Introduction

Welcome to the Adventure Writer, a tool that allows easy and quick creation
of text adventure games, requiring no game programming knowledge
whatsoever.

The Adventure Writer is a very flexible construction kit allowing creation
of almost any kind of adventure game, including the ability to make normal
single player adventures or multi-player adventures. The multi-player
function does not require access to a network of any sort, (it's not that
sort of multi-player game), it simply allows many players to play the
adventure, (just not at the same time!), via a system of usernames and
passwords. In this way, you can play with a group of friends as a team to
try and solve an adventure, (rather like play-by-mail games, with each
person taking their turn), leaving messages for each other, opening doors
for each other etc, or you can choose to go it alone.

Obviously if you are not into games that don't have flashy graphics,
stunning sound, no gameplay etc then you probably won't enjoy this, really
I have made this for people who remember the old days of gaming, or those
that just like a really good adventure game in which to use their
imagination, and would like to see more appearing nowadays in the PD scene.
Maybe this creation system will provide a prolific rush of adventure games
into the PD scene, I certainly hope so.

Anyway, please feel free to use this shareware version as much as you want,
but please if you use it a lot, or especially if you decide to place an
adventure you made with this system in the PD scene, then make sure you
register for your copy of the Adventure Writer, details in section 5.

Thanks, and enjoy making games,
- Ben (21/09/96)

















2. The Adventure Writer

This is the main part of the whole creation system, this is the program
that handles all of your adventure locations, your objects, your computer
players, your special commands, etc and saves out the files used by the
game engine.

Upon loading the adventure writer, you will be presented with a menu. You
use this menu simply by pressing the number of the option you want to use.
I will go through each option in turn (and in detail!) so that there is no
misunderstanding about what each option does.


2.1 Room Descriptions

The word 'room' is a little ambiguous, I should really have called this
menu option 'Location Descriptions' because obviously a 'room' doesn't have
to be a room, it can be a corridor, a field, a car, etc. (basically when I
say room, I actually mean the location that the player is standing in).

When you choose this option you will be presented with a list of rooms you
may edit (up to 100 rooms). So, enter the number of the room you want to
edit, (the list only lists up to 30 rooms at once, so enter 0 if you want
to see the next page of rooms, entering -1 will exit the room descriptions
menu option).

Once you have entered which room you wish to edit, you will be presented
with a new screen. The top of the screen shows how the current room
description looks (obviously if it's a new room then it will be blank).
Underneath this, there are the words 'New description:'. This is where you
get to enter the description for this room, if you already have a
description for this room (for example you accidentally hit the wrong key
and are subsequently editing a room you've already done), you can just
press return 10 times and the old description won't be wiped. Otherwise you
may enter the new description for the room and it will go over the old one.

When you have finished entering the description, you will be asked 'Is this
room dark? (Y/N)'. This question is asked because you may want certain
rooms to be dark unless the player is carrying something that provides
light (such as a torch!). If a room is dark, and the player enters without
holding such an item, all they will see are the words 'It is dark.' and
they will not be able to see the exits of the room (although they will be
able to move around), and they also will not be able to see any items that
may be in the room. So simply press 'Y' if you want the room you are
editing to be dark, otherwise 'N' to keep it as a normal room.


2.2 Travel Table

This is an important part of the creation process. It is a good idea to
have a map of your adventure game handy for this, (draw it on graph paper
or something, and number each room, really you should have done this before
the room description bit, tut tut).

Now, the travel table is the part of the system that keeps track of the
exits from each room to its associated rooms. When you select this option,
you will be asked the number of the room to edit, so enter a number from 1
to 100, or 0 for the next page, or -1 to exit this menu option. Once this
is done, you are presented with a new screen, on which the words 'From this
room, the player:' 'cannot go north' 'cannot go east' 'cannot go south' etc
etc. You will be asked if you wish to keep the values shown for this room,
or whether you would like to change them. Press 'N' if you wish to change
the values.

Now you will simply be asked whether you can go in any of the 10 directions
available from this room. If you can, (you can tell by looking at your hand
drawn map), then answer 'Y' to the appropriate question. Now you will be
asked, for instance, 'Which room do they go north to?', so enter the room
number (again you can tell by looking at your hand drawn map) and press
return.

It's as easy as that to do the links between all your rooms.


2.3 Items

Items are very important to an adventure game, without them the game would
just be a series of room descriptions, not particularly enthralling no
matter how imaginative your room descriptions are. An item can be anything,
such as a torch, a bed, a stick, a box of matches, whatever.

First of all enter the number of the item you wish to edit, (a good place
to start is number 1 if you've not started putting any items in yet!). Now
you will be presented with a new screen with lots of various different
information on it. Don't worry about any of this yet, it will all become
clear as you go through and edit the item.
You are now asked if you want to keep the values the same for this item, so
if you want to change the values of this item (i.e. create a new item or
change one you've already done) then press 'N'.
Now you are asked a series of questions about this item, which I will
proceed to explain:

'Enter number of player who holds object (0 for none):' - For most of your
items this will be 0, but if you do want a player to start off with this
item in his inventory then enter his player number (which is number 1 if it
is a single player game and not a multi player game). Anyway, beware this
question as it could be a bit dodgy to use, please try and enter 0 for this
as many times as you can, if you must make an item already in a player's
inventory at the start, then try to only do it for single player
adventures.

'Does the item provide light in darkened rooms?' - Basically, if you answer
yes to this then a player holding this item will be able to see everything
in a darkened room, (darkened rooms are explained in section 2.1),
including the full room description and any items that are in the room.

'Can the item be used as a weapon?' - Press 'Y' if this item can be used by
a player to damage a computer player, or monster.

'Is the item food or edible?' - If you select yes, then this item can be
eaten by the player to gain health back.

'Can the item be picked up?' - This is not a silly question. You may want
some items to be immovable, such as a large cupboard or some such thing. If
you don't want someone to be able to pick this item up, then answer yes to
this question.

'Does the item repel computer players?' - This is not the same as the
question about whether the item is a weapon or not, as this will not allow
damage to any computer player, it simply makes them steer clear of you. For
example, a screaming stone which repels monsters would have this question
answered yes.

'Is the item already mentioned in the room description?' - Sometimes in
room descriptions, a lot of detail can be gone into, and you may want
someone to be able to examine a wall, or a table that was mentioned in
passing in the room description, but you don't want the game engine to
state 'There is a wall here' at the bottom of the room description. If this
is the case then answer 'Y' to this.

'Enter percentage of health gained or lost by a player if item is food or a
weapon:' - Here, if you selected yes to either the question about food or
the question about weapons, you can select approximately how much damage
your weapon will do to someone, or how much health you will receive upon
eating the item if it is food.

'Enter a long name for the item' - When the game engine tells you there is
an item in the room, this is the name it will use. For example, Broad Sword

'Enter a short name for the item' - This is an alternative name for the
item, which can be used in abbreviation by the player, so that instead of
having to type 'get broad sword', the player can just type 'get sword'. So
an example of this would be just Sword.

'Enter the room number of the item (101 for limbo):' - Enter the number of
the room that you wish the item to appear in. Limbo is a nice room, it is
room 101, you can place items in here that aren't needed for the moment,
but will be produced later. (see section 2.4). Also the game engine places
items into limbo that are carried by the player in his/her inventory.
Basically, if you want two items that are really the same, such as an
'unlit torch' and a 'lit torch', then the 'lit torch' could be placed in
limbo, and the 'unlit torch' in a room somewhere, then when the torch was
lit, the room numbers of the two items would be swapped. But this is
covered better and in more detail in section 2.4

'Enter a description of the item' - When the player enters 'examine thingy'
then you must have a description for the item called 'thingy'. Enter it
here!

And that's it for your items. Phew! Now you've got to get to grips with
flags, hahaha!


2.4 Flags

Flags are very very useful indeed in an adventure. A flag can either have
the value 0 or the value 1, in other words, unswitched or switched. Many
meanings can be placed on flags to perform actions in the game, such as
preventing someone going somewhere until a flag is set to 1.

Without flags, an adventure game would simply be a load of room
descriptions with objects you can pick up, examine and drop, but not *use*.

It is important that you understand this concept, so I will use examples
all the time. For a start, here is one example:

The player is carrying item number 1 which happens to be a torch. This
torch is not lit, however, so will not provide light in darkened rooms.
But, you have also set up another item, item 2, which is a lit torch which
*does* provide light in darkened rooms, and is sitting currently in Limbo
(room 101).
So...the player obviously enough types 'light torch' to get the torch lit.
When the game engine encounters this command, it looks up to see if any
flags match this command. Now it sees that it has to swap item 1 for item 2
in the player's inventory. With this done, the player is now carrying item
2, (the lit torch), and item 1 (the normal torch) is no where to be found
(i.e. in limbo).
The player can now go into darkened rooms without any problems as he is
carrying the lit torch.

This sort of thing can easily be done with flags.

First of all, enter the number of the flag you wish to edit. Once you have
done this, you are provided with a new screen full of information, just
ignore it for the moment, it will become apparent what it all means once
you've been through editing a new flag. You will be asked whether you wish
to keep the values shown. Answer 'N' if you want to edit this flag.

Now you are presented with a series of questions to answer about this
flag,which I will proceed to go through in turn, giving examples with each:

'Enter the room number of the flag (0 for anywhere):' - If the flag can
only be switched in a certain room then enter the room number now. If you
enter 0 then the player can switch this flag in any room.

'Enter the command used to switch the flag:' - This is the first part of
the sentence that the player must type to switch the flag. For example if
the player wanted to open a door that was preventing him moving south, then
the command for this flag would be 'open'.

'Enter the object referred to by the command:' - This is the second part of
the sentence that the player must type to switch the flag. In the example
above, the player was trying to open a door by typing 'open door', so the
object for this flag is 'door'.

'Enter the command used to switch the flag back:' - The previous two
questions related to switching the flag to the value 1. This one and the
next one are related to switching the flag back to the value 0. (All flags
start off at value 0). In the door example given above, the answer to this
question would be 'close'
'Enter the object referred to by this second command:' - And in the door
example, this would be 'door' again. Now the player can type 'open door' to
switch the flag to 1 and 'close door' to switch the flag back to 0.

'If the flag prevents you from moving in a certain direction, please enter
the direction number:' - You will be shown a list of the directions
available. In our door example, the door prevented the player from moving
south, until it was switched (until 'open door' was typed, that is). So you
would enter 3 in this example, because 3 is the number for south.

'If the player must be carrying a certain item before they can switch this
flag, enter the number of the item now:' - This can be useful because now
you can say that the player can't switch this flag without carrying a
certain item first. In our door example, say we had an item (item 3) that
was a key. You could say that they couldn't 'open door' until they were
carrying item 3, just by entering 3 as the answer to this question.

'If an item is produced by switching this flag, enter the number of the
item now:' - The item in question will be produced into the room, so that
when the player next types 'look' in this room, he will see the newly
introduced item. This doesn't really relate to our door example, but one
example of this function could be: there could be a cupboard, the player
types 'open cupboard' and item 4 is produced (item 4 could be a tin of
beans)

'If, when the player switches this flag, you want another flag to be
switched also, please enter the number of the flag:' - This is important,
particularly in our door example, because there are two sides to a door,
the side that is visible from the room you are in, and the other side of
the door in the room to the south. Now you need two flags in our door
example, they are almost identical, one is in this room and the other is in
the room to the south. Both have the same commands (i.e 'open door' and
'close door'), but now they must be linked. So you enter the number of the
flag in the room to the south, here. To make this clearer, if you only had
the one flag representing a door, and the player had to open it to move
south, when he finally got into the room to the south there would be no
door in this new room. This would seem a little bizarre. But if you make
two flags, one in the first room, and the other in the second room and then
link them with this function, when the player types 'open door' in one
room, both sides of the door are opened, and if the player types 'close
door' both sides of the door are closed. There are many other uses for this
function, just use it when you think it's necessary.

'If the flag can only be switched by a particular type of player, then
please enter the number of that type:' - You are presented with a list of
types. Please only use this function if you are making a multi-player
adventure. In a single player adventure, there are no player types. For
example, you can make rooms that are accessible to only one type of player,
or you can make each player have his own room, by only allowing the door to
be opened by someone of a particular type. If the player leaves his door
open by mistake, then it's his tough luck if other people enter his room.
In our door example above, you could say that this door is only switchable
by a 'thief' (there are default types which you can change, see section
2.7, but thief is type 2), so you would enter 2 for this question.

'If the player cannot switch this flag until another flag has been
switched, enter the number of the other flag:' - This is very very useful,
this can expand our door example to be much better. If our door was flag
number 1, with flag number 2 being the other side of the door in the room
to the south, then you could have this flag as flag 3, and this flag could
be a lock, which could only be unlocked if you had a key, and the door
could only be opened if it had been unlocked. So for flag 1 you would
answer 3 to this question, to link the door to the lock. And on this flag,
flag number 3, you would make sure that the player needed a key before the
lock could be unlocked. There are many other uses for this.

'What should flag # be set to before the player can switch this flag?'
-This question only comes up if you answered anything other than 0 for the
previous question. Most of the time you should answer 1 to this, unless you
really know what you're doing.

'When item # is produced, should it be placed into the player's
inventory,and item ## placed into limbo?' - This question only comes up if
you answered anything other than 0 for the question about whether an item
is produced when you switch this flag. This can be useful, if you answer Y
to this then rather than just producing an item into the room, the game
will instead swap two items over, as mentioned before in the torch example.
Please see section 4 for a detailed explanation of this.

'Please enter a reason why the flag can't be switched, when the player
isn't carrying item #' - This will only appear if you answered anything
other than 0 for the question about whether the flag can only be switched
if the player is carrying a certain object. For instance, in our door
example where the lock now exists, the reason could be 'You may need a key'
for the lock flag.

'Please enter a reason why the flag can't be switched, when the player
hasn't switched flag #' - This will only appear if you answered anything
other than 0 for the question about whether the flag can only be switched
if the player has already switched another flag. For instance, in our door
example, the reason could be 'It is locked.' when the player tries to type
'open door' before typing 'unlock door'.


2.5 Computer players

An adventure game would be a lot easier to play without these little guys.
They wander around causing mayhem, picking up objects, even attempting to
kill you now and again. In fact the only thing they aren't allowed to do is
switch flags, because they aren't clever enough.

So you can quite conceivably trap one in a room if you don't like him, by
closing a door on him, because flags that prevent movement for your player,
also prevent movement for computer players. Because computer players can
pick objects up, you may need to fight one to get an important object off
him, unless he is friendly, in which case when you talk to him, he may hand
something over or tell you something.

Firstly, enter the number of the monster (computer player) you want to
edit. Now you'll be presented with a new screen with a little information
on it, which is fairly self explanatory. Press 'N' if you don't want to
keep the values given for this computer player.

Now you will be asked a series of questions (again!), these are:

'Enter the starting room number of this monster:' - Have a look at your
hand drawn map and decide where you're gonna put this guy. Now type the
number of the room.

'Enter this monster's health:' - From 0 to 100, the same as yours.

'Enter this monster's type:' - You are presented with a list from which to
choose his type, (you can change the default types, see section 2.7).
Generally, the higher the number of the type, the more dangerous the
computer player is in fights.

'Is this monster friendly?' - A friendly computer player won't attack your
player, and sometimes will impart useful information. Press 'Y' if you want
this computer player to be friendly.

'Enter the text you want this monster to say when the player speaks to it:'
- This will only appear if you answered 'Y' for the last question. If a
player tries to talk to this computer player, this is what the computer
player will say back to the player.

And that's it for that.


2.6 Loading/Saving

It is important that you keep a back-up of the files that are saved here,
if you choose the save option. If you decide to play test your adventure,
and you spend a couple of days playing it, in the meantime you have saved
your position, then the original files will be irretrievable unless you
made a backup.

In other words, never use your originals to play test your adventure,
because all files are re-written permanently on saving of the game.

Don't press Load by accident either if you haven't saved what you are
currently working on, because this could set you back quite far if you've
done a lot since you last saved.

Finally, because the Adventure Writer uses the same file names, no matter
what adventure you are working on, please use a separate disk for each
adventure, otherwise it will all end in tears.


2.7 Others (miscellaneous options)


2.7.1 Introductory Text

When you select this option, you are presented with a screen much like the
room descriptions screen, except much larger. In this screen you can write
an introductory paragraph or two that will appear when the player first
plays your game, such as a little story or some information on yourself and
the name of the adventure, or anything you want really.


2.7.2 Completion Text

When the player has completed your adventure, this is the text he will see.
It is the same kind of screen as that for the introductory text, and works
in the same way. Both screens allow you to just press return on each line
to keep the text that was already there, if you accidentally selected one
of these options.

2.7.3 Completion Values

These are the values that must become true before the player can complete
the adventure. You will be shown various bits of information, and then
asked if you want to keep those values. Select 'N' to change them.

Now you will be asked a series of easy questions, these are:

'Enter the number of the room where the player finishes the game (0 for any
room)' - Simple enough really. The reason any room can also be selected is
because it isn't just based on what room you are in when you complete the
adventure, it also takes into account if a flag is switched or an item is
being held, etc.

'Enter the number of the item that the player must be holding to finish the
game:' - Kind of self explanatory really. Just enter 0 if the player
doesn't need any particular item before he can finish the game.

'Enter the number of the flag that must be switched for the player to
finish the game:' - Enter 0 for no particular flag, otherwise the number of
the flag that the player must switch to finish the game.

'Enter whether flag # should be switched or unswitched:' - This question
only appears if you answered anything other than 0 for the previous
question. You should most of the time, answer 1 to this question, unless
you really know what you're doing.


2.7.4 Editing player types

In this option you may make your own player types. The defaults are listed
at the top of the screen. Please note that number 2 is a thief, and is the
only one who can steal objects in a multi player game, also number 4 is a
mage and is the only one who can teleport (if their health is above 50%) in
a multi player game, so even if you rename these types, they will still
have these functions available to them. Enter the number of the type you
want to rename or 0 to exit.

2.7.5 Single/Multi option

Here you can select whether your adventure is a single player game or
whether multiple players can join in. Enter 0 for a single player adventure
or 1 for a multi-player adventure.


2.7.6 Editing computer types

Here you can create your own computer player types, much the same as the
editing player types function explained above. Here, the higher the number
of the type, the more dangerous the computer player is, in other words, he
is harder to kill, and can damage you more. Enter the number of the type
you want to change, or 0 to exit.


2.7.7 Editing music

When you have finished your adventure and you are ready to make a bootable
disk of it (i.e make it standalone), you should choose this menu option and
the next one as well. Here you can select a music module (Noisetracker
compatible only at the moment), that will be played while your adventure
loads, (and while your picture is displayed if you have chosen one, as
explained in the next section). Just enter the name of the module (the full
name, including the mod. bit, for instance, mod.mytune)


2.7.8 Editing title page

In this option you can select a picture (320x256x32 Lowres IFF), that will
be displayed while your adventure loads, (and while your music plays, if
you have chosen any).
















3. The Game Engine

This is the second part of the Adventure Writer system. This program takes
the files that you have produced with the Adventure Writer and makes good
use of them :)

With this program, you can create stand-alone disks, that boot up and allow
the users of your adventure to get straight into the game, with the
complete illusion that the whole program is written by you! :)


3.1 Creating the bootable disk

This is something that you should refer to your manual for. But simply
enough, in workbench CLI just type INSTALL ? and when asked for a drive,
just type in the drive that your disk is in, this will install a boot block
onto your disk. Now create a couple of directories on your disk called s
and c. Do this by typing makedir s, and makedir c. Now copy the loadwb
program from your workbench disk's c directory into your c directory. For
instance, if your disk was in DF1: and workbench was in DF0:, you would
type copy df0:c/loadwb df1:c
Now that you've done that, you're almost there. Go into a text editor or
word-processor and make a file that looks like this:
loadwb
endcli
and save it in your s directory on your disk, but make sure it's called
startup-sequence

There you go, a bootable disk, which will go into workbench and then the
user will be able to just click on the game engine program to get your game
going.


3.2 Files needed

The files that you need on your bootable disk for the whole thing to work
are:
s/startup-sequence      -The bit that loads workbench
c/loadwb            -The, er, other bit that loads workbench
awe             -The Adventure Writer Game Engine
general.inf         }
roomdesc.inf        }
rooms.inf           }
items.inf           }
itemxtra.inf        }
flags.inf           } Make sure all these files are on there
flagxtra.inf        }
cplayers.inf        }
cplayxtra.inf       }
intro.inf           }
end.inf             }
types.inf           }
messages.inf        }
players.inf         }


Cool eh?


3.3 What the Engine provides

There are various different things that the game engine takes care of that
you have no need to take care of yourself. Firstly, the standard commands
that most adventures provide within any decent parser (such as get, drop,
examine, etc) are already in there, so don't worry about these. Also if, at
the 'What now?' prompt, you enter the command 'help' you will be provided
with a list of all the commands already built into the game engine.

Secondly, items are not the only things you can examine as a player, for
instance, human players are not the only players to have an inventory,
computer players do too, so you can examine a computer player to see what
he is carrying simply by typing, for instance, 'examine ogre'. Not only
this, but the player can examine human players too (only in a multi-user
adventure of course) to see what health they have and what objects they are
carrying, etc simply by typing 'examine <name>' where <name> is the
player's name.

Thirdly, I should explain how the fighting sequences between your player
and a computer player work. If you are fighting bare-fisted (i.e. you're
not carrying any weapons), and you manage to hit the computer player, you
will take anything from 1 to 10% health off him. Otherwise if you are
carrying a weapon then it will be anything from 1 to the value of damage
that weapon does. Also, if the player carries more than one weapon then the
weapon that is most powerful will be used.
Currently the amount of damage a computer player does to you if he hits you
is set at fixed values depending on the type of computer player. Suffice to
say that the higher the value of the type of the computer player the more
damage he is likely to do, for instance, the highest type of computer
player can take anything from 1 to 30% health from you.

Lastly, in a multi-user adventure, when your character isn't playing he/she
will be asleep and if another player starts playing the adventure they will
see you if they enter the room you left your character in. A side effect of
leaving your character asleep for a while is that your character gains 5%
health for each other character that logs on to the adventure while you're
asleep if he is wounded at all.


















4. Tutorial

In this very basic tutorial, I will attempt to cover everything (hopefully)
and by the end of the tutorial you will have set up a fairly complex yet
small adventure.

Ok, lets start by entering a few room descriptions. So select option 1 in
the menu, and choose room number 1.

Enter this (if you want, well it's just for fun):
You are in a large chamber in an underground cavern. It appears to have
been hollowed out from the rock itself. In the centre of the cavern is a
very large wooden table, cracked and scarred with age. The whole cavern is
lit by some kind of phosphorescence embedded in the rock walls. Against the
east wall lies a wooden crate. You can go east from here.

This room isn't dark, so press 'N' when asked. Now choose to edit room
number 2 and enter this description:
This is a very tight corridor underground. You can barely squeeze through.
The floor is very dusty. There is very little of interest here. You may go
west or north through a door.

This room is dark, so press 'Y' when asked. Now choose to edit room number
3 and enter this description:
You find yourself in another large cavern. This time, situated in the
middle of the room is a large pool of water, and on the west wall is a
cupboard.

This room is not dark, so press 'N' when asked.

Now we can move onto the travel table. So press -1 to exit the room
description menu and now select option 2 from the menu.

Now choose to edit room number 1 and when asked 'Can the player go east
from here?' press 'Y', and enter 2 for the room number. Press 'N' to all
the other questions.
Now choose to edit room number 2 and when asked 'Can the player go north
from here?', press 'Y' and enter 3 for the room number. Also when asked
'Can the player go west from here?', press 'Y' and enter 1 for the room
number. Select 'N' to all the other questions.
Now choose to edit room number 3 and when asked 'Can the player go south
from here?', press 'Y' and enter 2 for the room number. Select 'N' for all
the other questions.

That's your travel table done, that wasn't too hard now was it? So choose
-1 to exit that menu, and now lets choose option 3 to create some items.

Choose item number 1. Press 'N' to change the values. Now give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 1, because we want player 1 to start off carrying this item.
Enter 'N', it doesn't provide light.
Enter 'N', it isn't a weapon.
Enter 'N', it's not food either.
Enter 'Y', yes it can be picked up again.
Enter 'N', no it doesn't repel monsters.
Enter 'N', it isn't already mentioned in the room description.
Enter 0, we're not concerned with health, or damage.
Enter 'torch' for the long name and
Enter 'torch' for the short name too!
Enter 1 for the room number of the item
Enter 'This is a primitive torch made from thin twigs bound together' for
the description.

Now choose item number 2. Press 'N' to change the values. Now give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 0, no player is holding it.
Enter 'Y', it does provide light.
Enter 'N', it's not a weapon.
Enter 'N', it isn't edible.
Enter 'Y', it can be picked up.
Enter 'Y', it does repel monsters.
Enter 'N', it's not mentioned in the room description.
Enter 0, no need for this value, it's not used with this item.
Enter 'lit torch' for the long name.
Enter 'torch' for the short name.
Enter 101 for the room number, because it is not produced into a valid room
number just yet, it sits in limbo waiting to be brought forth into the
game.
Enter 'A brightly burning torch made from thin twigs bound together' for
the description.

Now choose item number 3. Press 'N' to change the values. Now give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 0, no player is holding it.
Enter 'N' it does not provide light.
Press 'N' it isn't a weapon.
Enter 'N' it certainly isn't edible. (unless you're strange)
Enter 'N' it can't be picked up.
Enter 'N' it does not repel monsters.
Enter 'Y' it is mentioned in the room description.
Enter 0, no need for this value with this item.
Enter 'wooden table' for the long name.
Enter 'table' for the short name.
Enter 1 for the room number.
Enter 'The table is very scratched and aged looking. Someone has been
carving into it with a knife it seems.'

Now choose item number 4. Press 'N' to change the values. Now give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 0, no player is holding it.
Enter 'N' it does not provide light.
Enter 'N' it isn't a weapon.
Enter 'N' it isn't edible.
Enter 'N' it can't be picked up.
Enter 'N' it does not repel monsters.
Enter 'Y' it is mentioned in the room description.
Enter 0 for this health/damage thingy.
Enter 'wooden crate' for the long name.
Enter 'crate' for the short name.
Enter 1 for the room number.
Enter 'It is a very sturdy box, and although it looks like it has been shut
for ages, you may just be able to open it.'

Now choose item number 5. Press 'N' to change the values. Now give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 0, no player is holding it.
Enter 'N' it does not provide light.
Enter 'N' it isn't a weapon.
Enter 'N' it is not edible.
Enter 'Y' it can be picked up.
Enter 'N' it does not repel monsters.
Enter 'N' it is not mentioned in the room description.
Enter 0 for this.
Enter 'silver key' for the long name.
Enter 'key' for the short name.
Enter 101 for the room number (it's hiding inside the crate).
Enter 'This is a surprisingly clean and shiny key.' for the description.

Now choose item number 6. Press 'N' to change the values. Now give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 0, no player is holding it.
Enter 'N' it does not provide light.
Enter 'N' it isn't a weapon.
Enter 'N' it is not edible really.
Enter 'N' it can't be picked up, unless you're superman.
Enter 'N' it does not repel monsters.
Enter 'Y' it is mentioned in the room description.
Enter 0 for this.
Enter 'pool of water' for the long name.
Enter 'pool' for the short name.
Enter 3 for the room number.
Enter 'The pool seems to be very deep. In the murky depths you can see all
kinds of aquatic life swimming around.' for the description.

Now choose item number 7. Press 'N' to change the values. Now give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 0, no player is holding it.
Enter 'N' it does not provide light.
Enter 'N' it isn't a weapon.
Enter 'N' it isn't edible.
Enter 'N' it can't be picked up.
Enter 'N' it doesn't repel monsters, so there.
Enter 'Y' it is mentioned in the room description.
Enter 0 for this.
Enter 'cupboard' for the long name.
Enter 'cupboard' for the short name!
Enter 3 for the room number.
Enter 'This cupboard seems very out of place in the dark underground
caverns down here'.

Now choose item number 8 (the last one, thank god). Press 'N' to change the
values. Now give these answers to the questions:
Enter 0, for no player is holding it.
Enter 'N' it does not provide light.
Enter 'N' it isn't a weapon. (unless you're into losing fights)
Enter 'Y' it is edible! (hooray)
Enter 'Y' it can be picked up.
Enter 'N' it doesn't repel computer players.
Enter 'N' it isn't mentioned in the room description.
Enter 25 for this number, as health is gained by eating this.
Enter 'loaf of bread' for the long name.
Enter 'bread' for the shortname.
Enter 101 for the room number, it's inside the cupboard at the moment.
Enter 'What a really really nice loaf of bread this is.'

That is the items done with, at last. Now we have to create a few flags, so
select -1 to exit this menu, and choose option 4.
Now choose flag number 1. Press 'N' to change the values, and give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 1 as this flag is switchable only in room 1.
Enter 'open' for the command
Enter 'crate' for the object.
Enter 'close' for the second command.
Enter 'crate' for the second object.
Enter 0 as it doesn't prevent you moving anywhere.
Enter 0 the player doesn't need to be holding anything to switch this flag
Enter 5 because item 5 (the key) is produced when you open the crate.
Enter 0 because no other flag is switched when you switch this one.
Enter 0 as any type of player can switch this flag.
Enter 0 as the player can switch this flag whatever.

Now choose flag number 2. Press 'N' to change the values, and give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 2 as this flag is switchable only in room 2.
Enter 'open' for the command.
Enter 'door' for the object.
Enter 'close' for the command.
Enter 'door' for the object.
Enter 1 as the flag prevents you moving north, until you type 'open door'
Enter 0 as the player needs no item to *open* the door, only to unlock it
:)
Enter 0 no item is produced as a result of switching this flag
Enter 5 as flag number 5 will also be switched (the other side of the door)
Enter 0 any type of player can switch this flag.
Enter 3 as the door cannot be opened until it is 'unlocked', (flag 3)
Enter 1 because flag 3 must be switched (1) before you can switch this one.
Now when you are asked to enter a reason why the player can't switch this
flag when they haven't switched flag 3 yet, enter this:
The door is locked.

Now choose flag number 3. Press 'N' to change the values, and give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 2 as this flag is switchable only in room 2.
Enter 'unlock' for the command.
Enter 'door' for the object.
Enter 'lock' for the second command.
Enter 'door' for the second object.
Enter 0 it doesn't prevent you moving anywhere really, (the door does tho)
Enter 5 as the player must be carrying item 5 (key) to 'unlock door'
Enter 0 no item is produced.
Enter 6 because the lock needs unlocking on both sides of the door.
Enter 0 it can be switched by anyone.
Enter 0 it can be switched whatever, as long as you've got the key.
When you are asked to enter a reason why the player can't switch this flag
when they aren't carrying item 5, enter this:
You have no key.

Now choose flag number 4. Press 'N' to change the values, and give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 3 since this flag is switchable only in room 3.
Enter 'open' for the command.
Enter 'cupboard' for the object.
Enter 'close' for the second command.
Enter 'cupboard' for the second object.
Enter 0 it doesn't stop you going anywhere.
Enter 0 the player doesn't have to be carrying anything.
Enter 8 because the bread must be produced when the cupboard is opened.
Enter 0 no other flag is switched when this one is.
Enter 0 because it can be switched by anyone.
Enter 0 as it can be switched whatever, it's not linked to any other flag.

Now choose flag number 5. Press 'N' to change the values, and give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 3 since this flag is switchable only in room 3.
Enter 'open' for the command.
Enter 'door' for the object.
Enter 'close' for the second command.
Enter 'door' for the second object.
Enter 3 as the door stops you from moving south unless it's open.
Enter 0 as the player needs no item to switch this flag.
Enter 0 because no item is produced.
Enter 2 since when you open this one, the other side of the door must open.
Enter 0 because it can be switched by anyone.
Enter 6 because the player must unlock the door first.
Enter 1 because the lock must be unlocked, in other words flag 6 must be
1(switched)
When you are asked to enter a reason why the player can't switch this flag
when they haven't switched flag 6 yet, enter this:
The door is locked.

Now choose flag number 6. Press 'N' to change the values, and give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 3 as this flag can only be switched in room 3.
Enter 'unlock' for the command.
Enter 'door' for the object.
Enter 'lock' for the second command.
Enter 'door' for the second object.
Enter 0 as the lock doesn't prevent you from going anywhere.
Enter 5 as the player must be carrying the key.
Enter 0 because no item is produced.
Enter 3 as the other side of the lock must unlock too.
Enter 0 as any type of player can unlock the door.
Enter 0 as it can be switched whatever, as long as you have the key.
When you are asked to enter a reason why the player can't switch this flag
when they aren't carrying item 5, enter this:
You have no key.

Now choose flag number 7. Press 'N' to change the values, and give these
answers to the questions:
Enter 0 as this flag can be switched anywhere (you can light a torch
anywhere)
Enter 'light' for the command
Enter 'torch' for the object
Enter 'extinguish' for the second command
Enter 'torch' for the second object.
Enter 0 as it doesn't stop you going anywhere
Enter 1 as the player must be carrying the torch to do this
Enter 2 because the 'lit torch' is produced by switching this flag
Enter 0 it's not linked to any other flag
Enter 0 as any type of player can do this
Enter 0 because it doesn't rely on any other flag being switched first
Now when you are asked whether you want item 1 placed in limbo and item 2
placed in the player's inventory enter 'Y', so that the torch is got rid of
and replaced by the lit torch when you switch this flag.
When you are asked for a reason why the player can't switch this flag when
they aren't carrying item 1, enter this:
You may need a torch to do this.

Phew! That's the flags done. So enter -1 to exit to the main menu and now
choose option 5, because we're going to put a computer player in too.

Now choose computer player number 1 and press 'N' to change his values.
Enter 2 for his starting room.
Enter 100 for his health.
And choose any type you want, and enter its number.
Let's make him hostile so answer 'N' to the last question.

Now choose -1 to exit to the main menu. And now choose option 7 and then
option 3 to change the completion values. Now we will make it so that the
game ends when the player reaches room 2 with the loaf of bread. Enter 'N'
to change the values and enter this:
Enter 2 for the room number where the game ends.
Enter 8 for the item number that the player must hold. 8 is the bread.
Enter 0 as the player doesn't have to switch any particular flag.

That's the majority of your first adventure done. You may want to test it
out straight away! In that case, exit the miscellaneous menu and select
option 6 and press 'S' to save what you've done. Now choose 8 to quit, when
the Adventure Writer's finished saving, and power up the Adventure Writer
Game Engine and away you go! Ok, so it's not much of an adventure, but it
gives you a few hints on how best to use flags etc in your own games.
Have fun!

















5. Registering and Update Information

Right, basically what it comes down to is that I've spent far too long, and
too much of my spare time writing this piece of software, so unfortunately
there *is* a disadvantage of not owning the full registered version of this
package, and that is that the game engine will only allow you to play for
20 moves before quitting and saving.

This is not much of a disadvantage to extremely patient people but to
normal people, hopefully this will be an incentive for people to register.
I realise it's not exactly a perfect piece of software, and not really
commercial quality, this is why I'm not charging very much for it, I just
want some kind of response and user-base maybe. So either send me 5 pounds
sterling or some very good postcards/posters of Jennifer Aniston from
'Friends' and you shall be registered which means you'll receive the full
latest version of the product (with the 20 move limit taken out), which I
do indeed hope to improve over time, and free updates, and information of
other products.

Hooray!

Please send either the money or the goodies :) to :

                Ben Coffer
                15 Hollycombe Close
                Liphook
                Hants
                GU30 7HR
                United Kingdom

What I intend to try and do for future versions (in fact, what has already
been partially completed for the next version):

* Get rid of the annoying filing system, where the files always have the
same names.

* A better user-interface for the Adventure Writer, allowing you to edit
values in boxes, rather than going through the whole business of
re-entering all data for an item or flag just to change one attribute.

* Include armour to reduce the amount of damage done by computer players.

* Allow user to set the status of flags at the start, so that they aren't
all set to 0 to start with.

* Changing the damage done by different types of computer player. These
values are currently fixed.

* Changing the number of directions available, currently there are only 10
fixed directions (N,E,S,W,NE,NW,SE,SW,U,D). Allow construction of new
directions.

* Allow an item to repel all monster types or just one type of monster.

* An option for certain monster types not to pick up items.

* Monsters using the weapon they're holding, if they picked one up.

* More monster types.

* Monster descriptions added to the 'examine' command when the player
examines a computer player.

* Extend the 'completion values' bit to include whether a certain monster
has to be killed before the adventure ends.

* Multiple save-game files.

* Other stuff I haven't even thought of yet!

Credits:    Programming :   Ben Coffer
        Playtesting     :   Elliot Kriehn
        Original idea   :   Chris Davey and Ben Coffer





















6. Hybrid Manifesto

Hybrid are only two people at the moment. We are trying to create slightly
different leisure software from the norm, usually by combining various
genres of gaming styles to come out with something different....and
sometimes (rarely) inventing new genres. (Note: with the Adventure Writer,
ok so it's not a Hybrid of anything, it's just something I wanted to write
for years now).

Projects in the pipeline at the moment (in fact for a while now) are:

* a unique parachuting game involving the usual pickups and other odd
things that affect your general environment of "air" and "ground and other
solid objects rushing toward you".

* A game that cannot be described called Insanity, that is near completion.
Be warned it fits no genre yet made, the closest genre to be compared to it
is a pick'em-up.

* An underwater platformer crossed with space-opera type discovery, mystery
solving, message finding and underwater craft purchasing game, set on some
distant world.

* Alien abduction game, you play the aliens. Not at all controversial.
Abduct many types of creatures on different worlds (try and find Earth),
sell them for extortionate prices at starport.

Hybrid Productions means mind-expanding software for the Amiga.
Hybrid '96