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 "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 "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.