Journal Entries
Ah, Inform 7.
Posted May 14, 2008
It's basically a text-adventure "programming language" which is more or less literally written in English. To create the "west of house" room from Zork 1, you literally type:
West Of House is a room. "You are standing in an open field west of a small white house with a boarded-up front door." A small mailbox is here. "There is a small mailbox here." It is an openable container. It is closed. The mailbox is fixed in place.
Or at least, that's how I made it work in a little mini-game where I just played around a bit to see what I could do. At first, I had trouble getting things to work, since you need to be blisteringly precise and in the right structure (i.e. "The fish is carried by the player" works, but "The player carries the fish" does not); however, chalk that up to simple inexperience and unfamiliarity.
I might make one or both of the text adventures in my previous journal entries with it. Assuming I can keep my attention span on it long enough ...
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Latest reply: May 14, 2008
Another dream, another text-adventure idea ...
Posted May 13, 2008
This time, I had a dream that I was ... in some sort of video game, and/or in the process of creating it, in which there was this "black hole" type deal where I was going to fight this evil dark Emperor/God/Whatever.
In a roundabout way, after I'd woken up, I started to get the idea of a text adventure where you actually opposed this emperor. I came up with the idea of you playing a magical catlike creature who was the emperor's "pet", and you could transform your right hand into various things, such as a hairbrush, or a wash cloth or something when washing (the idea sprung from how cats groom themselves -- why not be able to do so more literally?), and a part of the gameplay would revolve around finding "essences" to absorb into the hand to transform it into other useful things. I suppose the problem with this would be the fact that it might be seen as a bit naughty, if I were to go with the above premise exactly as written ... (On the other hand, why not just run with the naughtiness, a la Leather Goddesses of Phobos?)
(Crossposted to my livejournal again: http://yarkramer.livejournal.com/51549.html )
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Latest reply: May 13, 2008
I dream of Zork ...
Posted May 9, 2008
I dreamed I was simultaneously living and playing a text adventure; it was probably set in the Zork universe, because I ran into a grue at one point, and I forget whether the brass lantern or the elven sword was referred to as "Frobozz Electric standard issue" in my dream. There was one "puzzle" (I guess you could call it) which revolved around the fact that some waterproof boots were unwearable (or at least unhelpful) because they'd been rained in.
Hmm ... starting to get my own ideas for this. Maybe you're being guided through this adventure by a GLaDOS-style computer, and you need to solve the mystery of what happened ... maybe have some sort of subtle gender-selection process like in Leather Goddesses of Phobos, I'm thinking the game might begin with the character getting dressed, and for some reason you find yourself in the vicinity of both masculine clothes and feminine clothes and the result could depend on which you choose. (And then the GLaDOS-esque computer could ask you to confirm your choice, in case you wanted to be a crossdresser ... the possibilities are endless!)
Oh yeah. I'm done with my final paper and all my final exams, so I'm done with classes for the next ... week (I have classes over the summer)!
(Crossposting this to my livejournal: http://yarkramer.livejournal.com/51214.html )
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Latest reply: May 9, 2008
Preparations
Posted Apr 6, 2008
[In front of Yar's house, there's a loud noise that sounds like "PHONG!" and an orange portal appears, and out flies a large white spaceship with a design which calls to mind a paper airplane. The portal closes behind it with a "SMOOSH!" and it lands, then powers down; Yar gets out of a hatch on the side and dusts his hands off, grinning.]
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Latest reply: Apr 6, 2008
Unmoving
Posted Mar 13, 2008
Okay, I'm back on regular (read: incessant) Internet access, I've got it installed in my room. Whew!
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Latest reply: Mar 13, 2008
Dizzy H. Muffin
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