17 Bit Software 2: Collection B/17Bit_Collection_B.iso/files/1438.dms/in.adf/ADVENTURE/intro

Text File | 1978-09-11 | 14.6 KB | 368 lines

    INTRODUCTION
This program is designed to help you write your own adventures. Adventures
may be purely text, or can include graphics as well, if you have a paint
utility that can create IFF graphics.

Text adventures can be of different levels of complexity, depending on how
you allow the player to respond. In the simplest form the player is given a
fixed choice of possible options in any given situation. Depending on what
decision is made, the story then branches to a different paragraph.

One step further is not to give the player the possible options. The player
must discover the possible options himself. The player is free to type in
their action. If their action fits one of the allowable actions in that
situation, then the story will continue accordingly.

This is very flexible, but has the disadvantage that the player may have
worked out the appropriate move, but not be able to convert his idea into
the right words.

An example of this hazard, was when I was playing an adventure game, in
which I wanted `to get'(there was a jug in the picture). The game only
responded to `get pitcher', pitcher being a word I would not have thought of.

Another possiblity is to have a fixed set of commands displayed each turn
,from which the player can choose from. The objects that can be possiblity
be presently used can also be displayed. This means that all possible player
options are displayed. This means that theoretically, a player could solve
any problems by trial and error, but, any cleverly written puzzle, would
only be solved with the last posible combination!

The computer can have a vocabuarly of words to test the player input
against. depending on the complexity of the program , the computer can test
different syntaxes etc.

Another approach is to allow a number of fixed actions the player can choose
from and present objects that the actions can be performed on. this works
well with graphics adventures, in which the objects that can be manipulated
are present in pictures.

THEMES
There are many possible themes that you can use for a story. It makes sense
to maintain consistency in your story. Do not forget that your story is a
fantasy.

Some possible themes are prehistory caves, dinosaurs etc.
ancient times medieval d&d,magic etc.
modern spies, westerns, haunted house science fiction space travel,
time travel

Think of you favourite movie,TV,book or comicbook stories to help you
develop ideas, while maintaining some originality. For example James Bond
The three stooges,Indiana Jones,Superman, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy etc.

WRITING A STORY
It may help to plan your adventure in advance on paper.
Particuarly useful will be to record the different areas the character can
move to and how these areas are interconnected. You may also wish to record
any items that are used in the game and anything else that you might find
useful.

PLAYABILITY
Here are some points to keep in mind while writing an adventure. You want to
create an imaginative, interesting and challenging  game for the player
without making it impossible.

PLAYING INSTRUCTIONS
When you run the program, you will be presented with a file requester.
To choose which game you wish to play, simply click on the game of your
choice. When the name appears in the bottom bar, click again on the name.
The adventure will begin.

The person playing the adventure is called the player, who takes on the role
of the character in the game.

The adventure will either be one where the player will be presented with a
fixed number of decisions and will be asked to select one of these decisions
by typing in a number(then pressing the return key). The course of the story
will be dictated by what decisions are made, until the character has clearly
failed or suceeded in the adventure.

If the text parser is used, the player will not be presented with a fixed
choice of options. The player will have to type in commands which will tell
the character what to do(determine its action). Typed in actions can only be
on one line and are completed by pressing the return key, the line can be
edited by using the backspace key, the left and right cursor keys and the
delete key. The actions are often only one or two words(no sentence
required).

If the actions are amongst those which are listed as possible for the
character the action will be performed. If the action is
impossible for the character for some reason, the character will be told so.

The adventure will continue until the adventure is completed or the
character fails.

WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Before writing a text adventure, it is suggested to play some text
adventures to give you some ideas. You may have already been familiar with
text adventure games.

Each adventure is a single ASCII file with the suffix .ADV. Without this
suffix, the file requester will not recognise it.

The first part of the name can be anything you like. Examples of possible
names are
Wizard.ADV
Mystery.ADV
etc.

To write a text adventure you will need a text editor to edit the ASCII
file, many are available on the public domain or commercially. Any other
text editors can be used, provided they save as an ASCII only file.

HOW TO USE INSTRUCTIONS
The adventure will be divided into a number of paragraphs(arbitrary maximum
of 1000).

For each paragraph you will write the paragraph text, and the options
possible for the character, and the paragraph they will proceed to, for each
option.

Paragraphs can either be linked forwards to later paragraphs or `backtrack'
to previously written paragraphs.

It is possible to write an entire adventure with very little backtracking if
you wish.

Backtracking will mean that you get more out of your text.

INTRO
At the start of the game you may write an introduction, which is purely
text. You may use this to describe the setting and background of your
adventure. You may also like to add some hints on playing the game etc.
Another idea is to add some or all of the possible vocabuarly of action
verbs, which will be possible for the player to use. This may make things
easier for the player later.

When the character enters an area for the second or subsequent time, you
have the option of whether the room is exactly the same(use the same
paragraph number as when the area was first entered) or making it different,
by giving it a different paragraph number.

PARAGRAPH
The long description is a complete description of what a character can
see,hear etc. upon entering an area. It does not include special details of
the area which need to be discovered by special examination or by further
actions. The long description can be up to 5 lines.

ITEMS
You may choose to have various objects present in different locations.
These will generally be items that can be picked up and moved by the
character. They may be carried by the character at some stage, or may change
their location.

There is not much point in making items that are too heavy to move, as they
can simply be part of the `furniture' of an area.

Items will generally be mentioned in the text. If you use graphics, you may
choose to have the items visibly obvious in a picture, and not mention them
in the text, until found.

Items can be carried by a character after GET or TAKE etc. has been used.
Items which are carried may be used at some stage, and may effect the course
of a game in other ways.

Items have a name, and a description, which can be up to 1 line long.

There is an arbitrary limit of 100 items in a game.

OPTIONS
These are the possible actions for the character that will lead to a
result.(If no options are given, the story will precede to the next given
paragraph).

There is an arbitrary limit of 10 options per paragraph. You should find this
to be more than sufficient.

Options will lead the character to new paragraphs(or even return to the old
paragraph).

It is simplest for options to be either 1 or 2 words. This will make it
easier for the player to put in words, what he intends the character to do.

Suggested standard words for movement are;
 N,S,E,W,U,D
for north,south,east,west,up,down In addition you may have NW,NE,SW,SE
(northwest,northeast,southwest,southeast). It is suggested that directional words
conincide with the physical reality of your adventure, otherwise movement
will not make a lot of sense.

VERBS
Suggested action words are LOOK,GET(object),DROP(object)
GO,TALK,OPEN,CLOSE,USE There is no limit to your choice of words,
but if you are not displaying possible choices then it is suggested to
use words that the player is likely to guess.

NOUNS
The object should only be objects actually mentioned in the game.
They may be an object that is mentioned in the long description of the area,
or an object that the character may be carrying. Note that in the latter
case the charcter may not be carrying that object, but merely have had an
opportunity to get that object previously.

If the object is not present, then the action will be impossible.

(more complex parser possible) adjectives, prepositions, articles etc.

SYNOMYNS
In some cases there may be only one sucessful possible action in a
paragraph, but you wish to allow the player to be able to discover this
action from a number of different angles. This will increase the player's chances
of discovering the right words to input when they already have the right idea.
To be able to do this, use several different player options, but each has the
same result and same destination paragraph.

Example
(1) Get box
(2) Take box
(3) Grab box
all lead to the same text response
and destination paragraph.

RESULTS
These are the text responses to different actions.
There is a limit of 5 lines for each result.

Example1
The player inputs
<look candle>
"The candle glows with a soft bluish
 light.", is printed to the screen
The story then precedes to the next paragraph number.

Example2
The player inputs
<get box>
"You get the box" is printed to the screen
The story then precedes to the next paragraph number.

GLOBAL OPTIONS
Some options will be available in most situations
I- Inventory, what the charcter is carrying will be displayed
LOOK- The long description of the current area will be displayed
etc.etc.

DEFAULT RESPONSES
If the player attempts a response that is not possible in
the given situation, then there will be certain responses depending on the
action attempted.
 Examples
player tries "n",response-
You cannot go north
 player tries "open door" ,response-
you cannot open anything

DESTINATION PARAS
These are the paragraph numbers that the adventure will continue to after
the player's response. They can be any whole number from 1-1000(arb).
A destination paragraph can even be the current paragraph number.
These effectively means that the player can try another option while in this
area.

example1:
(1) open door
(2) d (down)
example2:

PROMPTS
It is possible to use prompts that make things easier for the player in the
following way.

Example1
Player types in `remove picture'
response text-"Remove picture with what?
Destination paragraph has same short
description as current paragraph.

ADDITIONS
Several different features can be added to your adventure to make it more
compicated and interesting. These include attributes,sound,graphics etc.

ATTRIBUTES
You may be content for your player character to collect items and have the
adventure terminated when the character completes it sucessfully, is killed
or the adventure fails for some other reason.

To reduce the effect of `sudden death' you may choose to use attributes in
your program. This may add some subtlety to the game.

Attributes are numerical variables which change their values depending on
what happens during the game. Attributes cannot generally go below zero.

Example1
`Gold pieces' may be an attribute. As the
game continues, this value may increase as the character finds and earns
money, and decrease as the character spends or loses money.

Example2
Strength may be an attribute. Strength may
decrease due to combat or
increase due to a magic potion etc.

ITEM ATTRIBUTES
To make the game more complicated, you can add different attributes to
items. These include such things as weight, value,use in combat etc.
Attributes are a numerical value.

GRAPHICS
To add your own pictures to this program. Select an option that allows
pictures when you start the program.

Pictures must be drawn in low resolution(320x200) pixels, but can have
anywhere from one to five bitplanes (or up to 32 colours). You should use the
same number of bitplanes for all pictures.

Pictures should have the same name as any short description of an area.
When that area is reached during the game, that picture will be loaded.

You can have any number of pictures in a game,until you run out of disk
space!

SOUND
Sound can be added to your game. To add sound to your game type s(and
return) when inputting the short description(title). This will activate the
sound subroutine which will allow you to create, test and store your own
sounds.

COMPLETING THE PROGRAM
The game is not yet complete until all the paragraphs are fully connected.
This means that there must be no paragraphs that are referred to , that are
uncompleted.

There must be at least one way to sucessfully complete the adventure, and
possibly one or more to unsucessfully complete the adventure!

There should generally be at least one easy way to leave a room by a
directionally command, otherwise the game may get stuck at that point.

PLAYABILITY
The adventure should not be impossible to complete. All information that is
needed to complete the adventure should be present. The logic of the
adventure should be consistent(even if it is magical!).

Ideally, the character should not be able to get killed of too quickly by
chance factors.

You want to avoid allowing the game to get bogged down too much at any one
point, without making it too easy.

TIPS FOR WRITING GAMES
The order in which you do things will make the creation of a game easier.
Write the text for your paragraphs. You can write skeleton text in the
beggining and fill it out later on without altering anything else.
Do not number any of the paragraphs until you have written all your
paragraphs. It is possible to add paragraphs later on, but it will make your
job easier. Choices can be added during the writing of the paragraphs.
A list of objects can be added at any stage.

After you have decided on all your paragraphs, you can link them by adding
the destination paragraphs. First, write down on a sheet of paper a title
and number for each paragraph. You may also like to make a map if you have
not already done so. These two things will make the linking much easier.
Check the links to see that all the paragraphs are correctly linked up.

After you have written and linked your paragraphs you can decide on the
location of your objects. You can also decide in which paragraphs there will
be an attribute change. You can also decide on other game options.