How Can I Program Text-Adventure Interactivity?

[ryukishifan0396]

The oldest examples of text adventure games don't have any graphics. They just have text to describe events, the game world, etc. In them, interactivity came from typing key words or phrases that would cause your character to to a certain action. For example, "get lamp" would be how I would pick up an item that was a lamp. Another example would be "go north" or "look at painting", and all that would give me specific pieces of text for that action describing what I just did and what happened as a result of it.

Ren'Py has a system that let's programmers allow players to create their own name by inputing w/e they want, and I was wondering if that could be adjusted for this gameplay style. Is it related to "if statements"? I'm pretty nooby at this program (still learning the ins and outs), so I'd need specific, detailed responses to help me understand. I'm passionate about text adventures, and Ren'Py seems like it would allow for that kind of design.

[HiddenCreature]

If your game is purely text, you're better off using Inklewriter instead. Compared to a Ren'Py text adventure game, it's much easier and faster to write.

[ryukishifan0396]

If your game is purely text, you're better off using Inklewriter instead. Compared to a Ren'Py text adventure game, it's much easier and faster to write.

Does that allow for sound effects too?

[HiddenCreature]

I think so. It wouldn't take long to find out.

[SeventhStranger]

I love text adventures too!
I programmed one in Flash ages ago but it was super clunky.

There's a Unity asset that was created for creation of text adventures. I haven't tried it thought.

http://api.dopplerinteractive.com/tidy-text-adventures

[trooper6]

Inform is currently the most popular interactive fiction engine as far as I know.
http://inform7.com
TADS is also popular
http://www.tads.org

Those are bothy for creating interactive fiction of that old school variety specifically.

Some folks also are using Twine for text based stuff.

[ketskari]

Inform7 supports some multimedia stuff. I'm not fond of it, though. Some extensions links were broken last I checked, and adding some minor features is ridiculously unintuitive.

Haven't tried TADs, but there's also ADRIFT, which requires less programming than either of the above, I believe.

Anyway, Digital: A Love Story was done in Ren'Py, and the code is available to look at.

Thera'Py by Susan the Cat makes extensive use of input, and the code for that is also viewable.

There's a thread on a basic text parser here:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =8&t=12438

Ren'Py is probably not ideal, unless you also have some pointing and clicking or VN type gameplay in addition to the text parser. Otherwise it looks like a lot of work coming up with synonyms and so on that are already packaged in most text adventure engines.

[trooper6]

ADRIFT is Windows only, TADS and Inform are both multiplatform incase that makes a difference.

[xavimat]

Some example code. It's very simple, but can give ideas:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 51&t=20704

[Katy133]

Quest 5 is good for interactive fiction. It allows you to include things like a text parser, maps, inventory, images, sound, music, and/or navigation links. It's also free.

[trevers18]

I'd recommend ChoiceScript for text-based games. It's got an easy-to-learn engine and it can do a lot of things. You can code some complex stuff in that engine, and you do it all in Notepad, so there's no excess programs to download. You can also add images and sounds.

Ex: I did a high school game where the player could determine the sexuality of the main character and the main character's friend. I then coded several different scenarios in which the main character's second friend and the MC's first friend had a fight, and the scenarios were determined by the gender and sexuality of the two. Overall, there were approx. 7 different scenarios and the coding was extremely complicated, and yet it all came out smoothly and worked perfectly because of how well the engine parses everything.

The only downside is that you have to code every feature you want. If you figure out the in's-and-out's of the choice making and learn the program well, though, you can do just about anything.