Just wanted to show off my Text101 game, Descent to Andromeda Seven, complete with music. It’s been converted to WebGL, so it should play in Chrome, and without plugins. It’s actually the first part of a longer game I’m planning, so consider this the demo version, so to speak.
I absolutely welcome your comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism, both good and bad (hopefully more good than bad, though…;-)), so feel free to leave a reply.
Hope you all enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it. Have fun!
Thanks for the kind words, Corey! It took a couple weeks to get the game exactly the way I wanted it, actually.
First I did the GDD to give me a road map to work from, and then drafted the cockpit section text using notecards. When the notecards proved too limiting, I switched to using a notebook for the corridor section so that I could experiment with different wording without having to worry about using up all my notecards.
The great thing about this approach is that it’s pretty flexible. I was able to add in scenes on the fly whenever I realized that I needed them, especially near the beginning and end of the game. Once I had everything laid out basically the way I wanted it, it was just a matter of coding everything in.
This was an immensely fun exercise, really. It was time consuming, but in a good way.
I like what you have done. One thing I did noticed is that a lot of the time you only have one option. Press space and then press space again. At times it feels too linear. I am glad to say that I managed to find my way off the ship in the end. Love the background music. Very atmospheric. Well done.
Hi KR! I enjoyed the game very much! I never thought learning how to escape a vehicle in driver’s ed class would come in handy!
I think you did a great job making a challenging game within the confines of only using key presses to move the story along. Are you planning to make your adventure a completely text-based game like Zork?
Thanks for playing my game, Jason, and thanks much for the feedback, as well! I agree, there are a few places where the game is a bit too linear. Some of this is due to needing to put something simple together and get it out the door in a reasonable amount of time, but I also used coroutines in order to accommodate the gameplay I wanted, and this changed the internal structure of the game somewhat. Many times, simply pressing the spacebar doesn’t actually change the game’s state, it simply moves to another textblock within that same state. For example, here’s some code near the beginning of the game, for state_cockpit_0() :
IEnumerator state_cockpit_0()
{
text.text = "You awaken disoriented and with a splitting headache. Your thoughts are sluggish " +
"and for a moment you have no idea where you are, but the sharp smell of fuel and " +
"a cool, wet sensation around your ankles quickly brings you to your senses. " +
"\n\nPress space to continue...";
while(!Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space))
{yield return null;}
text.text = "The ship's fuel tanks must have ruptured in the crash, " +
"and are now leaking into the cockpit. The slightest spark would " +
"ignite the fumes almost instantly, causing a massive explosion that would " +
"destroy the ship. And you.\n\nTime to leave the ship (in an orderly fashion, of course)!" +
"\n\nPress H to unbuckle your safety harness.";
while(!Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.H))
{yield return null;}
text.text = "Nothing happens when you press the harness release button. You are trapped, and " +
"the fumes are starting to burn your throat. Pushing the rising sense of panic to the " +
"back of your mind, you focus on your surroundings. There must be something " +
"here you can use to free yourself...\n\nPress L to look around.";
while(!Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.L))
{yield return null;}
myState = States.cockpit_1;
inState = false;
yield return null;
}
At each of those while(!Input.GetKeyDown(Foo.bar)) blocks, the game is, in effect, pausing (returning null) until you press that key. It’s not a perfect solution, but for a game with a lot of writing it’s a bit easier to get to grips with it, without stringing a bunch of states together.
Glad you could put your skills, to use, David! I am planning to make it completely text-based, although if I can get some affordable art assets for flavor, I certainly wouldn’t balk at the idea. Right now, though, completely text-based is looking to be the most likely scenario.
That was really fun! The music definitely added to the overall experience, and the sarcastic humor definitely appeals to me, I laughed out loud more than once! Keep up the good work!
I am planning to make it completely text-based, although if I can get some affordable art assets for flavor, I certainly wouldn’t balk at the idea. Right now, though, completely text-based is looking to be the most likely scenario.