Adventuron Christmas Jam (Illustrated Text Adventure Jam)

I have done the penultimate update for 'Santa's Trainee Elf'. It is now version 0.0.7. I believe this is probably the most technically sophisticated Adventuron game that's ever been written. It's been quite a frustrating experience, as I have been on the bleeding edge and things did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. I must thank Chris for attending to my endless bug reports and, more importantly, fixing most of those bugs. The multi-word input and the scoping is now fairly sophisticated and nearing that of Inform, TADS and so on.

The latest version has lots of responses to non-important commands, fully-implemented containers, a hint system and a list of amusing things to try when you finish the game. There are no significant changes to the puzzles, so don't feel compelled to replay it if you've already finished it. For anyone that hasn't tried it yet, please give it a burl and feel free to send feedback if you find any bugs or you tried something that didn't work that you think should have worked.

The only thing left to do now is to tidy up the graphics, but that's not important to the gameplay, so I might leave that until the jam is over.

With all the research work you’ve done on the code, I would like to get your opinion on whether or not to make the source code of the game available. Would it be a good or a bad thing?

ErrolSubmitted3 years ago (1 edit)

This is a good question! I was debating whether or not to make my source code available. I probably still will, and people can have a good laugh. :D

auraes3 years ago(+1)

You always seem to be enthusiastic and smiling, and if people laugh back, it doesn’t matter.

Ha! As long as they're smiling. ^_^ Are you looking into releasing your code?

The code of my games is on my GitLab, but it has no pedagogical or technical interest. I put it on, that’s all and that without any particular care.

Ha, all code is great for learning. I know when I was first learning Adventuron, I was looking at all code!

That's a good question. I don't mind making the source code available, but the advanced stuff might scare some people off. Let me give it some thought and I might release it when I release version 1.0.0. I would just need to work out where to release it. I have accounts on itch.io (obviously), GitLab and GitHub, so maybe one of those.

The rationale behind some of the source code would need an explanation, especially the hacks to workaround Adventuron restrictions. I'm not sure where best to explain it. Perhaps a blog somewhere? I imagine this being part tutorial, part reference and part hints and tips, somewhat like an expanded version of the Adventuron cookbook. Anyway, that's just an idea.

I should also say that there is nothing wrong with a verb/noun game. It's just that I come from an Inform 6 world and I'm used to designing games with containers, multi-word input and out-of-scope topics (such as in the book and the character interaction). If I had known what I was getting myself in for, I would never have designed this game. I set out to do something bigger than my past Adventuron games and ended up with something completely different. It is very rich in content. There is lots to explore and discover and it's fun to play, but the information gathering at the beginning is very repetitive. Sorry about that. I guess I got a bit carried away.

auraes3 years ago (1 edit)

An available source code should be clean and commented to be interesting, otherwise it is often a waste of time for the one who consults it, and even more for the one who makes stupid copy-paste without understanding anything. But it is also a great pleasure to look into the bowels of a creation even if I don’t understand it at all. “Everything that is incomprehensible does not cease to exist.” ― Blaise Pascal

tps://link.medium.com/vDh7NHzV4cb

The source code is clean and well organised, but it's not commented. That's why I feel some external explanation is necessary.

AdventuronHost3 years ago (1 edit)

I wish to say a big thank you to Garry.

I think I'm not saying anything that Garry does not disagree with here in saying that Garry is often interpreted to be quite direct and borderline "negative" in his criticisms of Adventuron (and other topics I imagine too).

I very quickly recognised that he was a frustrated perfectionist with strong and very informed opinions.

In my opinion, some of the most invaluable people in society are the ones labelled as"negative" people; people that are willing put their hand up and explain their grievances rather than accepting the status quo might are the people that drive things forward.

In my view there is a bit difference between "this is awful" and "this is awful because".

His time investment in formulating bug reports cannot be overstated and are of a huge service to the platform.

Anyway, I wish to say a huge thank you to Garry for telling it like it is. Not everything he asked for he received, but I never dismiss any well formulated complaint or request out of hand. There could even be gold in a seemingly badly formulated complaint with a bit of digging.

Having a life simulator and procedurally generated games on the platform are a source of great joy, but traditional well designed verb noun games are no less worthy,, some of the most innovative design and imagination may involve the most simple of technology..

A game with a heart or a brain (or courage? ;-) ) is just as worthy as a game with a zillion features. Over here! to me was a work of genius.

That said, I do agree with Garry that his game presently has the most sophisticated parser yet released on the platform and his systematic demonstration of omissions and bugs in the system has helped to sculp a "good enough" solution for many container situations as well as responding to non dictionary inputs better than ever before.

A lot of the new additions are still over complex and over verbose compared to other systems but at least many things are possible now that we're previously not possible, and friction will be further reduced over time.

Again, a huge thank you for help Garry. You are very much appreciated.

Chris

P.S.

If you are interested I wrote a blog post in 2018 on the power of discontent.

In my day job, I am the technical writer (amongst other things) for the biggest and best traffic management system in the world. I write user manuals, online help, specifications and so on. In doing so, I have to delve into every nook and cranny of that software. I find bugs. Lots of bugs. Bugs that the testers haven't found. I raise bug reports. When you are writing bug reports on a safety critical system, you can't afford to mince words. People's lives and property could depend on that bug being fixed. This is probably why I may seem pedantic.

Some people at work call me a perfectionist. I take offence at that term. Perfection is something that you strive for. It can never be achieved. I prefer to think of it as attention to detail. Get the little things right and the big things will fall into place.

That's a great article, Chris. I think I'll forward it to my work colleagues.

That explains it! Or most of it.

Oooh, I'm a technical writer too (amongst other things), but I'm not trained to be. I should get someone else to be the technical writer. I'm more the 'education' guy, trying to discern how to make things understandable. ^_^

Ha, ha. Me too. I am self taught and have no formal qualifications in technical writing. I failed English in the School Certificate, probably because it was all drama and poetry and Shakespeare and all that other rubbish that has very little to do with writing skills - the ability to express yourself, spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalisation. I think I learnt from writing reports at work, some vocational training and writing for fun - writing bushwalking reports, editing an Atari user group newsletter and writing about adventures for a UK computer magazine.

After failing English in 4th form (or year 10, as it's called nowadays), I went on to get a distinction in technical communications at uni and a couple of prizes for most popular article in those computer newsletters/magazines.

Nowadays, most kids (and adults) can't even string a sentence together. I blame the education system and social media for that.

Oh, I'm a trainer, too. I like teaching people. Hence the desire to break things down into small understandable chunks, put things in the right sequence and make things as clear as possible.

I also really appreciate Garry, his advice and experience, but also his uncompromising attitude. If things are bad, they are bad and it must be said. It’s good for the game and for everything else. Flattery and blissful enthusiasm don’t seem relevant to me.

AdventuronHost3 years ago

Agree.

Hah! I concur, believe it or not. I have a lot of people critical of my work. Very critical. A lot give amazing feedback, and I thrive on people being overly critical because my main goal is to get better. :D