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Work in Progress / [TAC] - Plz Test My MMO

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Foe7
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2007 04:13 Edited at: 10th Aug 2007 08:12
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This is my entry into the Text Adventure competition. It is meant to be a little cheesy...but hopefully I don't make it so bad that it becomes unbearable I am trying my best to be able to keep the story and the user away from a one-way path, but I am not quite sure how well that will work.The parser it uses is dynamic, meaning that it doesn't follow a strict set of commands. This will hopefully allow the user to get more indepth in the game, using commands that fit their style of normal conversation. Oh ya - I don't know what led me to do it, but this is more like an interactive novel (I believe like Eternal Equinox) than most other text adventures I've played.

I have been working mostly on the engine and HUD, so not much of the story is done, but what is in the screenshot above is what will hopefully be the screen you see when you start off the game. Following is a tutorial that introduces you to the basic mechanics of the game.

As the rules of the competition allow media if it can be turned on/off, that i what I plan to do. There will be two windows which you can show/hide. One window displays artwork that is unlocked through playing the game, for example, the first piece of unlocked artwork will be a simple picture of the newspaper that you start the game off by reading. The other window is a reference to all the possible commands you can use, and hopefully the name of the command should in itself explain its use.

The Story

So basically the game starts off with you reading the newspaper (the one in the picture). Then the tutorial runs through. The tutorial teaches you the basics of how to interact with the game, the text, the windows, and the options menu. And then it gives you the first task of turning the page of the newspaper (there is a hint on the next page of where to start looking for the professor, because he is looking for someone to help him test the machine). That hint sets you off finding different people and talking to them, and finally you find the professor. Then Act II starts, where you go into the machine. Anymore would just give it away

Demo Time!

I have managed to create a demo that shows the tutorial, and a little past it. However, I have not yet done anything with the two windows.

Now, I have never done anything like this before, so there may be a number of things:

You might find that there is a command that seems really logical, yet it doesn't exist. If so, then make a post here, and if I agree with you, I'll create the command.
You might find that there is some part that is made up of horrid writing, like a bad joke. You might find a spelling mistake. You might find something that is just plain weird. Post your suggestions here if you have some great idea or some minor fix that should be implemented. The more you guys input, the better it will be
You might find...I don't know. Something.

Well, here's the link to the demo:

ZIP FILE

RAR FILE

-F7
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Silvester
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2007 12:39
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Little detail,Text Adventure Competition doesnt allow you to use images,does it?


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Dazzag
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2007 13:47
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MMO? So it's a MUD? Cool. Hopefully then if I don't have time to finish my DarkMUD entry then I can hide in the shadows

You ask us to test it, but how do we do that exactly?

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Gamefreak
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2007 15:22
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Quote: "Little detail,Text Adventure Competition doesnt allow you to use images,does it?"


You can have a static HUD, and I believe you can do whatever you want for the titlescreen.

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Foe7
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2007 21:56
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Quote: "Text Adventure Competition doesnt allow you to use images,does it?"


As long as you are able to choose whether or not to display them, you are able to use images. In my case, you open the panel that displays images by typing in a command, and you cycle through it with more commands - It's all within the rules (look at tha-rami's entry, it is essentially the same thing he is working on [images of the scenes], except that I think mine is more dynamic - i don't know)

Quote: "MMO? So it's a MUD? Cool. Hopefully then if I don't have time to finish my DarkMUD entry then I can hide in thide in the shadows "


I'm assuming you mean "multi-user dungeon". No, that's not what this is (see below):

Quote: "You ask us to test it, but how do we do that exactly"


I don't say test it. That's just the name of my game. As you see in the screenshot, it is the name of the article you read that sets you off on your adventure. I know the title's a bit cheesy...but it fits right in with the plot.

UPDATE

the buttons were messing everything up, so for now, i've scrapped the button idea. Everything that the buttons would have been able to do is now able to be done using the keyboard. I am currently working on using the up/down arrowkeys to scroll through the text (harder than it sounds due to my "noobish" way of coding ) Hopefully, however, once that gets done I'll implement my fix to the scrolling text, and then from there a demo will be able to be released, showing the tutorial/introduction to the game, as well as the first zone.

-F7
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MonoCoder
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2007 22:05 Edited at: 2nd Aug 2007 22:05
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A little note, in your image where it says:

Quote: "Abbreviated to UMMNFUEOGE (or as some people call it, "umm, fudge!")"


...it might work better to let the player make this connection for themselves. A little like an innuendo. Also, I think a couple of the names you've given things are a bit "in your face". Maybe make them a little subtler? After all, in a game where all there is is text, you'll want to use it to the best effect you can.

Good luck.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2007 22:55
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Quote: "I don't say test it. That's just the name of my game"
Ah. Didn't read carefully enough. It's a satirical game about n00bs then? Cool.

As for the graphics, from what I can gather then don't use them to be mandatory to solve a part of the game. They should be optional and set to off by default. You should be able to play and complete the game without seeing any graphics at all. If the user turns on the graphics in the options menu then this will give no advantage to playing the game. eg. don't have a small clue in the picture of an object when you examine it that isn't in the text description.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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tha_rami
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2007 05:39
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Quote: "
As long as you are able to choose whether or not to display them, you are able to use images. In my case, you open the panel that displays images by typing in a command, and you cycle through it with more commands - It's all within the rules (look at tha-rami's entry, it is essentially the same thing he is working on [images of the scenes], except that I think mine is more dynamic - i don't know)"


Quote: "As for the graphics, from what I can gather then don't use them to be mandatory to solve a part of the game. They should be optional and set to off by default. You should be able to play and complete the game without seeing any graphics at all. If the user turns on the graphics in the options menu then this will give no advantage to playing the game. eg. don't have a small clue in the picture of an object when you examine it that isn't in the text description."


I think is more dynamic, yes. We'll just have to see. I'm glad to have a competing entry, though, although I'm actually not even competing! You're a great additional motivation to make mine as good as possible! However, as I'm tired to death at the moment, it being 4:38 and not really bright now, I've decided to skip a night work at Wartorn. Really, I can see this becoming such a satirical game that I'll love playing it.

Plz Test My MMO. Lol.


Little Bright Dots
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Foe7
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Posted: 10th Aug 2007 07:38 Edited at: 10th Aug 2007 08:13
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Time to bring this up off of the bottom of not the first page...

...with a DEMO!!!

Link:

ZIP FILE

RAR FILE

I started this post at the beginning of the day, at which time I decided for no real reason to include my word wrapping function for those interested. It uses Cloggy's D3D dll:



it's messy, but it's the way i code. And now with those first few lines added in, the speed has increased emmensely.

The demo includes only the first tutorial zone. I have started the second zone, but that will be another day.

And I was wondering, seeing how this is gonna be put into a competition, I'm assuming there's now rule against me not releasing demos up to and including the full game? because until school starts i have no other way of testing this on other computers.

And about the demo...this is my first time ever doing something like this, so please excuse me if your eyes start to bleed from too much text. I'm trying to cut it down, but I still want to leave the majority of it in there. I'm simply not a good editor

I really want to encrypt the game file. Currently, I'm left at leaving the folder hidden.

for those who want to change the settings, you will need to show hidden folders to access the file.

Enjoy the demo,

-F7

Now I'll just walk away from the forums for a day and see how this turns out...fingers crossed.
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Foe7
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Posted: 13th Aug 2007 03:00
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Oh c'mon, is it really that bad? So far only one download

well, i'm working on finishing the first act, and when that's done, another demo.

The links are in the above post and the first post,

-F7
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Crazy Programmer
AGK Developer
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Posted: 13th Aug 2007 03:05
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I was the first to download, I guess the only one too


http://www.freewebs.com/zornoxstudios/
Learning C++ thanks DGDK
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tha_rami
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Posted: 13th Aug 2007 12:15
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Foe7, sorry for not checking in faster - I'm downloading now and after a quick try will come back to you.

No, there's no rule against releasing demo's, by the way.

First thing I noticed, the typing goes very hard. I had to press the button 3-4 times or had to hold it down for several seconds. Also, you should make a bit clearer what the game should do. I scanned the text a few times and missed 'Read More', so I wondered where the tutorial had gone, lol. Color them or something.


Little Bright Dots
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Dazzag
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Posted: 13th Aug 2007 14:23
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Will check it when I get the chance. Just working at the minute and am completely beat after the weekend Must try to not fall asleep...

Hi Rami, how's it going? Any progress on Jarod? Was looking good. Myself I've got DarkMUD to walk around locations and be able to see other people coming and going. Will post a WIP demo once I get a few things sorted and my strength back

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Foe7
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Posted: 14th Aug 2007 03:49
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Color them...that's a good idea. Problem is, I have no idea how? Cloggy's dll doesn't have syntax highlighting, does it? hmm...i could use ianm's utility plugins to scan through the text for certain tags, but then I don't know how to color the text...maybe I would put a colored box around the text? I'll have to think a lot about that...If only I had something like the snipping-tool does to color/highlight text.

And about the key pressing, ya, it's all relevant to the frame rate . it's controlled in a nice little function, and I would love to keep it that way. maybe making another variable to store a hi-res timer value, and then I run through and make it timer-based...if I were to make it timer based, so that the wait between keypresses is in X miliseconds, what would be a good value for X?

Thanks for testing,

-F7
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Dazzag
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Posted: 14th Aug 2007 11:43
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Looking good so far (although haven't got time to look into too much at the minute, sorry). I'll list a few good points and bad points that I saw:-

Good:-
1. Presentation is very nice
2. Command input is good when it comes to using cursor keys and backspace
3. Scrolling and wordwrapping is very neat

Bad:-
1. For some reason I can't see my mouse in the window. Bit annoying. My adventure game is also in a window but doesn't suffer from this for some reason. I just use the normal project settings
2. There is a lot of text for the window. Personally I would prefer less text to read. As Rami said, put some indicator somewhere to show there is more text to scroll down. Doesn't have to be in the text itself, just put an icon on the screen somewhere. Also consider the old adventure game standard of showing a long description when you enter a room and from then on show a short description until you look around again
3. "look around" isn't a well known command from adventure games, even though would probably work in most games. "Look" is almost universal, as is "L". Or even "Examine" without adding an object to examine. Might be worth looking at a few old adventures (I have a link in the AGC thread) for standard commands so more people will instantly know what to do and feel at home
4. If a command does nothing then say something. Even "I do not understand" will do.
5. If you fix nothing else then sort out the keyboard entry. It is just too slow and doesn't even pickup some keys. Really will make the game unplayable

Nice work so far. Keep it up.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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tha_rami
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Posted: 14th Aug 2007 13:32
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Quote: " just put an icon on the screen somewhere."

Wouldn't that be a HUD?


Little Bright Dots
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Dazzag
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Posted: 14th Aug 2007 14:30
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Well, when I meant icon, I sort of meant just plonk some coloured text elsewhere ("More"). It doesn't have to be part of the main text is what I was saying. I mean from what I was reading I think he is finding it hard to program text highlighting into his text viewing code (so put a red "more" when you can scroll). All I'm saying is don't bother with that, and print a red "more" outside of the main wordwrap routine in a place where it can be seen. Then when you scroll to the end of the text it will vanish.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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tha_rami
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Posted: 15th Aug 2007 04:17
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Which I still feel counts as HUD. Maybe you should ask Matt about this one, Foe7. If he agrees, you've got a solution!


Little Bright Dots
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Dazzag
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Posted: 15th Aug 2007 09:07
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Hmmm. I don't agree with that. How can you tell the difference between text that appears within the proper text to say there is more to scroll, and text you plonk at the same position (but isn't in the proper text)? Plus it can get too anal if you follow things by the letter of the law. I remember loads of proper text adventures that had a "more" at the bottom of a description text. How they did it doesn't really matter, but to remove such functionality would just me daft.

There is a difference between using "I"s to indicate an ASCII version of a health bar, and the word "More" to indicate there is more text to read.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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