How Retro Text Adventure Games Are Put Together
The main thing that stands out about text adventure games is that they usually don’t have graphics. The game world is made up of many locations that are described in words, although some text adventure games will show pictures of the location along with the description. Playing involves writing instructions to tell the game what you want to do. For example, type “go north” to move to another location or “get lamp” to pick up a lamp if there is one at your current location.
The objective of the adventure game is to solve a mission. This could be slaying a dragon, rescuing a princess, retrieving an item, or solving a mystery. The game acts as your eyes, ears, and touch, describing what’s visible at your current location along with any items you can pick up. As you travel through the game world, you will come across various puzzles that need to be solved before proceeding, along with dangers that you need to overcome.
Here’s an example of a text adventure game in action.
You are in a forest. A long winding path leads north and a small cabin lies to the south. To the east, in the distance, is a large cave.
There is a lamp here.
What do you want to do?
>get lamp
You already have the lamp.
>light lamp
There is no oil in the lamp.
Then you know that you are in a forest where you can see a path, a cabin and a cave. You can choose to go to one of the described areas by typing something like “n”, “north” or “go north”. There is also a lamp in this location that you can pick up, but if you want to light it, you need to find some oil. This is a puzzle that you have to solve because you will need the lamp to enter the cave, otherwise it will be too dark to see.
Now let’s see how text adventure games are arranged.
CREATING YOUR GAME WORLD
Like books, text adventure games often start with a single idea. Imagine a town where people are dying because a wicked witch has put a curse on them. The locations in your game world would mainly consist of villages, castles, forests, and caves. Now let’s say your mission is to reach the witch’s castle and kill her so that the curse is lifted. Her castle would be your final destination in the game. Maybe the cursed town could be your starting location. Now you can make a list of the locations in the game that would include something like: town1, town2, river, lake, cave1, cave2, glade, mountain1, mountain2, town tavern, forest, etc.
If a location covers a larger area or is a building, you can spread it out into sub-locations such as forest east, forest west, cave front, cave middle, cave back, kitchen the tavern, the tavern bar, etc. You should also make sure a location is in view before mentioning it in your location description. For example, you can’t see the tavern kitchen unless you enter the tavern first. Of course, this is obvious, but it is possible to make such mistakes.
CONNECTIONS
In order for the player to move around the game world, they need to connect their locations. For example: if you are in the cursed town and there is a tavern that you want them to visit, you must tell them in which direction it is. You move around the game world using the compass directions which are North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest. Some games even allow up and down.
So to connect the locations you have to decide what we can see from your current location. In a village you would see a tavern, shops, a school and a church. Now decide in which direction they are. So let’s say the tavern is to the north, the school is to the south, the shops are to the east, and the church is to the west. Each location in your game will have a number and your connection list will look like this.
Rental 01 – Cursed Town
North=Location 01, South=Location 02, West=Location 03, East=Location 04
Location 02 – Tavern
North=Location 05, South=Location 01
Did you notice that there is a connection back to location 01? Always make sure that you can return to the previous location using the opposite direction to the one you used to get there… North to get there and South to return. East to get there and West to return.
Some locations cannot be accessed until you solve a puzzle. In the example above there is a cave that is going to be dark. Therefore, you must first obtain the lamp, find some oil, and then light it before you can enter the cave. Other places may be guarded so you need some way to get rid of or get past the guard. Creating puzzles to reach some places makes your game more interesting instead of allowing the player to easily reach the places.
OBJECTS
Objects are items that can be worn, eaten, or used. Its purpose is to help you in your quest and solve certain puzzles. Sometimes you have to combine objects with each other: like the oil and the lamp to make them work. Items are usually in locations waiting to be picked up. Some items are hidden until discovered in the game. For example, a crystal ball could be locked in a chest and will only appear at the current location once the chest has been opened.
Imagine that you wanted to enter a building and the guard stops you. Maybe you can find some money and bribe him. Or maybe you can find a costume to wear that will get you through it. Items can be used in unlimited ways to add puzzles to your game and make it much more challenging for the player.
One thing to remember: don’t make an item too big or too heavy for the player to carry and limit the number of items the player can carry. Adventure games also allow the player to drop the items he is carrying in order to pick up others. Some adventure games give items a weight, so the number of items you can carry depends on the weight.
EVENTS
Imagine walking into a cave and coming face to face with a huge brown bear that wants to eat you. You can’t explore that cave because the bear is blocking your way, so you have to get past it somehow. Events come in three flavors: high priority, low priority, and local.
High priority: These events occur as soon as the player enters a location before they have a chance to enter any commands. For example, the bear might kill you as soon as you enter the cave, so you need to do something before you enter, like have a weapon handy or wear armor.
low priority: These events handle situations that continue as you progress through the game. For example, if you are hungry, thirsty or sleepy, or if you are injured and lose blood. These events report their status just before input control is handed over to you.
Local: Events that happen at your current location. For example, the bear will not kill you as soon as you enter the cave, you will have the opportunity to defend yourself or exit the cave. Once that bear has been dealt with, the local event will indicate either “you see a dead bear” or “you see a sleeping bear”.
CONCLUSION
This article covers the basics of a text adventure game and provides enough information to get you started creating one, either using a programming language of your choice or a dedicated adventure builder.