How would I...
Troy The Partyin' PinkOzzy D.
answered. I was wondering, how I could go about creating my own
Interactive Fiction adventure game? What all would I need to get
started. Where would I need to go to get started. Is a lot of
programming experience a necessity to create one of these games? I know
it takes creativity, but do I need to know how to do programming, or is
there some utilities that I can download, that would assist me on my
task. Please, and information would be worth a fortune. I've always
loved these games, and NOW, I want to be the one that creates one of my
OWN games. Any info by e-mail, or response to this post would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks. Send email to either Pink...@webtv.net or
Pink...@NetZero.net also Ozzma...@hotmail.com Thanks in advance, Troy
Ashley Price
Boy, are you going to get a lot of answers to that question.
Here is my advice for what it's worth.
No you don't need a great deal of programming experience. If you have
enjoyed playing these sort of games then you are halfway there.
The three main utilities that help you write adventures are TADS, INFORM and
HUGO. These are all available from: ftp.gmd.de/if-archive
Go to the programming folder. You can then take your pick.
Personally, I use HUGO. I found that was the easiest to download and get
going with. I would advise downloading the manual as well, this is a great
help. I found it useful to print it out (although it is about 125 pages
long).
With HUGO within five hours I went from knowing nothing to having written my
first very small adventure set in four rooms of my house. The aim was having
to find the key to unlock the front door to get out.
What I would say is that designing the game, the rooms and the objects and
other characters is the most fun, the actual writing can become a bit of a
chore. Having to keep defining new objects for instance, but it is much
easier than writing the whole thing from scratch. The HUGO system takes care
of all the important but trivial stuff (like once the player has picked up
an
object, Hugo deals with remembering that you have it and where you are in
relation to it, etc.)
The only (very minor) gripe I would have with HUGO is that - as far as I am
aware - it cannot produce 'stand alone' games, you need the HUGO engine to
run them.
If I can be of any more advice please do not hesitate to contact me.
Ashley
dennis...@my-deja.com
PINK...@webtv.net (Troy "The Partyin' PinkOzzy" D.) wrote:
> Hello. I have some questions, that hopefully might be able to get
> answered. I was wondering, how I could go about creating my own
> Interactive Fiction adventure game? What all would I need to get
> started. Where would I need to go to get started. Is a lot of
> programming experience a necessity to create one of these games? I
know
> it takes creativity, but do I need to know how to do programming, or
is
> there some utilities that I can download, that would assist me on my
> task.
No, you don't need to know programming to start, as long as the manual
for the system you use is fairly good. A good way to get a feeling for
what's available in authoring tools is to read a the "Which System is
Best?" document available in the "Info" section at the gmd archive
site. It may be a bit out of date, but covers a lot of details about
each system.
Ashley says HUGO is easy to get started in. As far as learning the
language itself, ALAN is probably even easier.
Dennis
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
SteveG
"The Partyin' PinkOzzy" D.) wrote:
>Hello. I have some questions, that hopefully might be able to get
>answered. I was wondering, how I could go about creating my own
>Interactive Fiction adventure game?
Its hard to answer all your questions with one newsgroup post so I
suggest you start my reading the FAQ document - answers to Frequently
Asked Questions - for this newsgroup. Its at http://come.to/raiffaq/
>What all would I need to get
>started. Where would I need to go to get started. Is a lot of
>programming experience a necessity to create one of these games? I know
>it takes creativity, but do I need to know how to do programming, or is
>there some utilities that I can download, that would assist me on my
>task. Please, and information would be worth a fortune. I've always
>loved these games, and NOW, I want to be the one that creates one of my
>OWN games. Any info by e-mail, or response to this post would be greatly
>appreciated. Thanks. Send email to either Pink...@webtv.net or
>Pink...@NetZero.net also Ozzma...@hotmail.com Thanks in advance, Troy
I hope you find the FAQ helpful.
If you have any further questions please feel free to post them here
to rec.arts.int-fiction.
--
SteveG
(Please remove erroneous word from address if emailing a reply)
Kevin Forchione
the ability to expand. TADS can accommodate everyone from beginners to
experts. It has an excellent manual, and it has some very instructive source
code and tutorials.
Release 2.5 has a workbench approach to development. What this means is that
you can write your game source in any editor you choose, then compile and
debug it from one application. TADS 2.5 offers the following:
* The TADS debugger is the most advanced I've seen, which is very
important when you're stuck trying to figure out why something won't work
the way you want it.
* Help is available online through the workbench, which gives you access
to the Author's manual and the Parser Manual.
* A wizard allows you to create an elementary game shell with just a few
mouse clicks, or a skeleton or customised shell if you desire.
* preCommand(), postAction(), and endCommand() parser hooks allow for
third-party interations so your characters can have a say in any
interaction.
* HTML for superb text/graphics/sound handling. You can change font
styles, background colours, and status lines.
* Library extensions, such as inform.t give you access to enterable
containers, time-oriented game display (">WAIT UNTIL 2:00 PM" ala Infocom)
and centered text-box displays for signs, maps, and quotations.
TADS has outgrown the Interactive Fiction FAQ, which complained that the
parser was not easily accessible to the author. Version 2.4 implemented
built-in functions and parser hooks that give an author great flexibility in
tailoring his code. TADS 3.0 is in the works, and promises to offer even
greater flexibility.
If you're working with windows 95/98/NT I suggest you download the author's
kit from
ftp.gmd.de/incoming/if-archive
The author's kit is htads_authkit_250.exe
--Kevin
Troy "The Partyin' PinkOzzy" D. <PINK...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:10340-37...@newsd-112.bryant.webtv.net...
> Hello. I have some questions, that hopefully might be able to get
> answered. I was wondering, how I could go about creating my own
> Interactive Fiction adventure game? What all would I need to get
Jim Aikin
>
> No, you don't need to know programming to start...
[insert sputtering, gagging noises and rolling of eyeballs]
Dennis C.
Jim Aikin wrote in message <378FFA38...@pacbell.net>...
>dennis...@my-deja.com wrote:
>>
>> No, you don't need to know programming to start...
>
>[insert sputtering, gagging noises and rolling of eyeballs]
Ok - point taken, Jim. But he and I both said "to _start_." You don't
have to know programming to start learning C or BASIC either. You've gotta
start somewhere. Would you rather I told an enthusiastic newcomer to take
a few programming courses first, then think about IF authoring? :(
I've just seen Stephen Griffiths' "Alan Adventure Language Tutorial,"
which is available in HTML, and I think it's a _tremendous_ addition to the
Alan docs -- the kind of simple, well-written, step-by-step through all the
basics that every piece of software of any size should have. Thanks
Stephen.
I don't know, but I would be willing to guess that if someone with _no_
programming experience at all started with Stephen's tutorial, and had at
least some natural knack for languages / programming, they could do very
well with Alan.
Dennis