Sunday, May 1, 2011

Building The Darn Lamp!

Last week I told you about these old games called text adventures (or interactive fiction). Today, I will give you some tools and tips to make your own text adventure.
Tools

*Not all are completely free. Some tools may be harder to use than others.*

Quest Text Adventure Maker
http://www.textadventures.co.uk/quest/

Inform 7
http://inform7.com/

Adrift
http://www.adrift.org.uk/cgi/new/adrift.cgi

TADS 3
http://www.tads.org/tads3.htm

Microsoft Word
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/

Tips

1.) Microsoft Word is good for planning your game. It also helps to map out your game on a piece of paper.

2.) TADS 3 and Inform 7 require a bit of programming. Adrift and Quest do it visually.

3.) Don't go overboard. You should balance out the puzzles and story. The puzzles should carry the story along as an obstacle, not the other way around.

4.) Play some old text adventures to see the style of writing.

5.) Practice good grammar. No one wants to play a game with this in it: Lolz, teh treez r windy!

6.) Let your imagination soar. As long as there is some challenge to your game, you can set your text adventure anywhere!

7.) Enter yourself into contests. Even sell them if you want.

*Most people would not pay for a text adventure anymore unless it is cheap, but these guys did it: http://textfyre.com/*

Quest