How Adventure Games Combine With Retro Text
The main thing that stands out about text adventure games is that they usually don’t have graphics. The game world is made up of many locations that are described in words, although some text adventure games will display pictures of the location along with the description. Playing involves writing instructions to inform the game of what you want to do. For example, typing “go north” to go to another location or “get lamp” to pick up a lamp if there is one at your current location.
The objective of the adventure game is to solve a mission. This could consist of killing a dragon, rescuing a princess, retrieving an item, or solving a mystery. The game acts as your eyes, ears, and touch, describing what is visible in your current location along with any objects you can pick up. As you travel through the game world, you will come across various puzzles that must be solved before continuing, along with dangers that you must overcome.
Below is an example of a text adventure game in action.
You are in a forest. A long winding road leads north and a small cabin rises to the south. To the east, in the distance, there is a large cave.
Here’s a lamp.
What do you want to do?
> get lamp
Now you have the lamp.
> light lamp
There is no oil in the lamp.
Then you know that you are in a forest where you can see a path, a cabin and a cave. You can choose to go to one of the areas described by typing something like “n”, “north” or “go north”. There is also a lamp in this place that you can pick up, but if you want to light it, you need to find some oil. This is a puzzle that you have to solve because you will need the lamp to enter the cave, otherwise it will be too dark to see.
Now let’s see how text adventure games come together.
CREATING YOUR GAMING WORLD
Like books, text adventure games often start with a single idea. Imagine a village where people are dying because an evil witch has put a curse on them. The locations in your game world would mainly consist of towns, castles, forests, and caves. Now let’s say your mission is to get to the witch’s castle and kill her so that the curse is lifted. His castle would be your final destination in the game. Perhaps the cursed town could be your starting place. Now you can make a list of the locations in the game that would include something like: village1, village2, river, lake, cave1, cave2, glade, mountain1, mountain2, village tavern, forest, etc.
If a location covers a larger area or is a building, then you can spill it in sub-locations like east of the forest, west of the forest, in front of the cave, in the middle of the cave, back of the cave, kitchen tavern, tavern bar, etc. You should also make sure there is a location in sight before mentioning it in your location description. For example, you cannot see the tavern kitchen unless you enter the tavern first. Of course, this is obvious, but it is possible to make such mistakes.
CONNECTIONS
In order for the player to move around the world of your game, you must connect your locations. For example: if you are in the cursed town and there is a tavern that you want them to visit, you must tell them which direction it is. You move around the game world using the compass directions that are north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest. Some games even allow you to get on and off.
So to connect the locations, you need to decide what we can see from your current location. In a town you would see a tavern, shops, a school, and a church. Now decide which way they are. Let’s say the tavern is to the north, the school to the south, the shops to the east, and the church to the west. Each location in your game will have a number and your connection list would look like this.
Rental 01 – Cursed Town
North = Location 01, South = Location 02, West = Location 03, East = Location 04
Rental 02 – Taberna
North = Location 05, South = Location 01
Notice there is a connection back to location 01? Always make sure you can go back to the previous location using the opposite direction you used to get there … North to get there and South to go back. East to get there and west to return.
Some locations cannot be accessed until you solve a puzzle. In the example above, there is a cave that will be dark. Therefore, you must first obtain the lamp, find some oil, and then light it before you can enter the cave. Other locations may be protected, so you need some way to get rid of them or get past the guard. Creating puzzles to get to some places makes your game more interesting instead of allowing the player to easily access places.
OBJECTS
Objects are items that can be worn, eaten, or worn. Its purpose is to help you in your search and solve certain puzzles. Sometimes objects have to be combined with each other: like oil and lamp to make them work. Objects are usually found in places waiting to be picked up. Some objects are hidden until discovered in the game. For example, a crystal ball may be locked in a trunk and will only appear in the current location when the trunk has been opened.
Imagine that you want to enter a building and the guard stops you. Maybe you can find some money and bribe him. Or maybe you can find a costume to wear that allows you to slip it through. Objects can be used in unlimited ways to add puzzles to your game and make them much more challenging for the player.
One thing to remember: don’t make an item too big or too heavy for the player to carry and limit the number of items they can carry. Adventure games also allow the player to drop the items they are carrying in order to pick up others. Some adventure games give objects a weight, so the number of objects you can carry depends on the weight.
EVENTS
Imagine entering a cave and coming face to face with a huge brown bear that wants to eat you. You can’t explore that cave as the bear is blocking your way so you have to get past it somehow. There are three types of events: high priority, low priority, and local.
High priority: These events occur as soon as the player enters a location before they have a chance to enter any commands. For example, the bear could kill you as soon as you enter the cave, so you must do something before entering, such as having a weapon at hand or wearing armor.
Low priority: These events handle situations that continue to move you through the game. For example, if you are hungry, thirsty, or sleepy, or if you are injured and lose blood. These events report their status just prior to handing over the entry control to you.
Local: Events that happen in your current location. For example, the bear will not kill you as soon as you enter the cave, you will have a chance to defend yourself or to get out of the cave. Once the bear has been treated, the local event will indicate that “you see a dead bear” or “you see a sleeping bear”.
CONCLUSION
This article covers the basic bones of a text adventure game and provides enough information to get started creating one, either using a programming language of your choice or a dedicated adventure creator.
