Text style games

[Ethan D]

I was wondering what all your opinions are on text style games like Trilby's Notes.  I personally love them because they allow you to try to do anything which wouldn't happen in a normal adventure game.  Of course there are some problems like with wording things correctly.  I am wondering however because I am considering making a game in that same style and I want to know what other people think.

[Ghost]

Text style's awesome if you can get a decent parser together. I enjoy good text adventures a lot, but think that scripting languages like Inform are better suited towards them than AGS.

I would like to be proved wrong though

[NsMn]

I somehow like parser/text adventures more than mouse-controlled ones. But it also depends on the game itself, it would be very stupif if you, for example, had to type "zap away terrible smelling garbage in trashcans with purple Space Quest-styled gadget", and for example "zap garbage" doesn't work  :

But, parser games also have mire room for eastereggs 

[Ethan D]

I somehow like parser/text adventures more than mouse-controlled ones. But it also depends on the game itself, it would be very stupif if you, for example, had to type "zap away terrible smelling garbage in trashcans with purple Space Quest-styled gadget", and for example "zap garbage" doesn't work  :

But, parser games also have mire room for eastereggs 

Those were my thoughts exactly

[mkennedy]

Text Parser games are great as long as you tell the player what verbs are available for use. You should definitely stick with common verbs though and stay away from strange ones that wouldn't usually come up in everyday use. Typing "Use gun on trash" should work instead of requiring some odd verb like "Vaporize" or "Disintegrate". The parser should be very forgiving and each object should be given a unique name as well to prevent ambiguity. I made a module to add text parser functionality to AGS games, But it was really more for use with the older versions with the interaction editor like 2.6.

[Ethan D]

What do you mean give each item a unique name?  I understand for inventory items and for anything that is listed in a look around command but For instance if there is a picture on the wall dont you think it should work if you say; look at painting, look at picture, look at drawing, look at art?  I know this would be a lot more work but I think it would be worth it.

[Arclight]

Well, in a well-designed IF engine (say, Inform 7), each object can have a huge number of labels.

[Mr Flibble]

I suggest getting a huge number of people to beta test it, and get them to make a note of any items they couldn't get the "correct" name for right away, or couldn't recognise right away. Then you could add more synonyms or change the graphics accordingly. Might be easier than trying to second guess what people will or won't try to parse.

[Ubel]

I suggest getting a huge number of people to beta test it, and get them to make a note of any items they couldn't get the "correct" name for right away, or couldn't recognise right away. Then you could add more synonyms or change the graphics accordingly. Might be easier than trying to second guess what people will or won't try to parse.

Or better yet, code a system that dumps everything the beta tester types in that doesn't work into a text file and then have them send this text file to you. Makes their job easier and you get definite results quicker.

[Ethan D]

That sounds like a great idea although I'm not sure how I would do it.

[mkennedy]

While it would be nice for each thing in the game to have a unique name to prevent ambiguity I realize that this may be rather difficult. As long as the you don't have two items with the same name in the same room (or inventory) then reusing names should be OK. It would be nice if there was a way to group synonyms so if you have a "Portrait of Bob" or "Landscape painting of a windmill" these both could both use the synonym "painting" or "picture" or for example "Stan", "Kyle", and "Cartman" would each respond to the synonym "person", or "boy", Not sure how this could be accomplished though. Ambiguity is probably one of the bigger challenges with making text parser games.

[Stupot]

I'm immature, so I'm always disappointed when I'm playing a parser-based game and 'fuck', 'cunt' and 'bollocks' yield no results.  So if you can include these in your game you will go up a notch in my esteem.

[Ghost]

I'm immature, so I'm always disappointed when I'm playing a parser-based game and 'fuck', 'cunt' and 'bollocks' yield no results.

Ever played Bureaucracy, where typing that kind of stuff will rise your blood pressure and actually KILL you???

[Ethan D]

Alright, I think I have the parser figured out now, thanks for the input everyone.