Quest 4.0 is now available
Alex Warren
Quest lets you create interactive fiction without having to program.
Everything about your game is displayed in plain English, and a full
tutorial is included so you can get started quickly.
Your games can come alive with pictures, sounds and music, and you can
create both single-player and online multi-player games.
Although Quest is easy to use, it also allows you to create games which
are as complex as you want. Scripts can make absolutely anything happen
in your game, and the powerful debugging features mean you can keep
track of what is happening internally.
QDK, the visual Quest editor, features a completely redesigned
interface - it's now easier and faster to edit your games, and the
editing is handled within one main screen, so you'll see less pop-up
windows. Much of the internal code has been rewritten too, making QDK
much more robust and reliable.
New features in Quest:
- containers
- verbs make it easier to set up custom commands
- you can now embed pictures, sounds etc. within your game file (using
Quest Compiler)
- you can use more complex mathematical expressions within statements
- numeric variables are no longer forced to be integers, so you can
use decimals and much larger numbers
- new Object Debugger gives you more power when debugging your game -
when you're developing your game, you can change object properties and
"jump" around it while it is in progress
- "select case" (switch) support
- MP3 support
- pictures are now displayed within the main text window
To find out more, to order Quest Pro or to download a trial version,
please go to http://www.axeuk.com/quest
Alex Warren
Axe Software
al...@axeuk.com
www.axeuk.com
Tim
Hello. When you say "- containers" do you mean that until Quest 4, it
was impossible to create a lunchbox in Quest?
That makes me very suspicious of this assertion: "Although Quest is
easy to use, it also allows you to create games which are as complex as
you want."
Can I assume that I can make my game as complex as I want only via the
scripting mechanisms? In that case, you need to revise your previous
statement: "Quest lets you create interactive fiction without having to
program."
I'm just posting because I had d/l-ed quest before, wanting to try it,
but when I found out I had to buy it, I then dropped it to look at
Adrift, Inform and TADS3.
Can you post some sample source code for a 1-room game with a few
objects and some complex interaction? Or is there an example online?
Probably a dumb question considering I can search myself. hehehhehe
I just want to see what the code... um, wording looks like. I know
Inform 7 is using an English-like syntax.
Do you envision going to a completely visual development system so that
all objects are visible in a GUI and right-clickable to access their
properties and code? I still say that'd be cool. (cool for me, not
cool for the developer having to code it! hehehe)
Thanks,
Tim
Alex Warren
Tim wrote:
> Hello. When you say "- containers" do you mean that until Quest 4, it
> was impossible to create a lunchbox in Quest?
No, but in Quest 3 you needed to use a longer script (you would set the
contents of the lunchbox as hidden, for example, and then set up script
for an "open" command to reveal those objects). In Quest 4 you just set
the lunchbox up as a container, and set your food objects so that their
parent is the lunchbox - much simpler.
> Can I assume that I can make my game as complex as I want only via the
> scripting mechanisms? In that case, you need to revise your previous
> statement: "Quest lets you create interactive fiction without having to
> program."
You're correct that the scripting mechanism is what allows you to make
complex games. However, these aren't created through usual coding -
instead of having to type in commands, you choose from a list, and
select the various parameters through drop-down lists etc. It is
"programming" in a sense I suppose, but not in the usual way.
> Can you post some sample source code for a 1-room game with a few
> objects and some complex interaction? Or is there an example online?
> Probably a dumb question considering I can search myself. hehehhehe
The documentation and tutorial are available at
http://www.axeuk.com/quest/developer/
The tutorial talks you through setting up your first game, and covers
most aspects of Quest's functionality, so it should give you a good
idea what things look like.
> Do you envision going to a completely visual development system so that
> all objects are visible in a GUI and right-clickable to access their
> properties and code? I still say that'd be cool. (cool for me, not
> cool for the developer having to code it! hehehe)
Well that's basically how the visual editor, QDK, works - all rooms and
objects in the game are presented in a tree, and when you click each
one you can see its properties. These are laid out in the GUI so you
can easily edit them. You can see some screenshots at
http://www.axeuk.com/quest/qsshots.htm
Alex
Tim
Okay, thanks. I'll check out the links.
Tim