Adventuron CaveJam

PixelmanSubmitted5 years ago

Iran has a lot of talented coders in my experience. Unfortunately, there would probably be export problems to export any prize to Iran, but please enjoy the jam anyway. Very sorry about the regional restrictions of the prize draw.

yep there is no way to get that. However the jam itself is a very good practice

goliard5 years ago(+1)

Hello everybody,

My name's John (should give you some clue as to my age - no-one's called "John" any more. I've played text adventures (though I often get enraged if the program can't understand simple commands!), and I've written a couple. I trained as a fine artist, and I've worked as a programmer several times in what I laughingly call my career(!). It was the very specific rules that attracted me, strangely enough, and the retro nature of the theme. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is doing too.

Hello John,

Very pleased you have chosen to compete in this event. I'm not sure that John is old fashioned at all, in my view it's a timeless name and ambiently stoic.

It's so good to have another artist on board in the jam. I was worried that the code snippet and the text based editor would put off artists (rather than programmers) - perhaps it did, but now I have survivors bias because a few got through :-).

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy the jam, and if you get stuck, don't hesitate to ask a question in this forum.

Chris

goliard5 years ago

Thanks for the welcome, Chris. "Ambiently stoic" -- I've been called many things (some were words I've never heard in the bible), but never that(!) Way, way back when I was working at Philips in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, on CGA graphics, or what I liked to call "shunting Lego", so I'm going to try and channel that experience for my graphics...

Richard Pettigrew5 years ago(+2)

Hi I'm Richard. I'm a seasoned adventurer from back in the 80's. This isn't my first adventure rodeo but it did take me 30 years to get my first adventure into the real world. The prospect of getting one out in 3 weeks will be a huge challenge for me!

Garry FrancisSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

As I've started asking questions about Adventuron for the Cave Jam, I suppose I should do the right thing and introduce myself. My name is Garry and I've been playing, writing and writing about adventures since the early 1980s. (Yes, I'm an old fart!) I'm an Aussie, hence my avatar.

In the past, I've written adventures in various dialects of BASIC, mainly ports from other computers or translations from other languages. My language of choice nowadays is Inform 6. (I hate Inform 7!) This is my first foray into Adventuron. I've only been using it for a couple of days, as you can probably tell from all my newbie questions. I whipped up a version of The Cave of Magic in Inform 6 and now I'm trying to port that to Adventuron. It's fun, but also frustrating. The stuff that's easy in Inform 6 is not so easy in Adventuron. But that might be because of my ignorance and inexperience with the language.

I've got two weeks to learn a new language, design and code the game for the jam and do the graphics! Will I manage it? Ask me in two weeks.

AdventuronHost5 years ago (4 edits)

Hi Garry,

Welcome.

A word of warning - this jam is trying its best to be very inclusive to beginners that are perhaps not looking for the full gamut of features that are present in the Inform 5 .. 7 systems and indeed might have no concept of some of the advanced features which older players and authors have become accustomed to.

Just like the vast majority of Microsoft Office users don't use the vast majority of Microsoft Office features, when designing classroom, I figured that it was worth just focusing on the core features of an adventure game as a way of bringing new talent into the fold (not scaring them). I also lean on the styling features that were present in some 80s toolkits (such as QUILL / PAW / GAC) but less present in Infocom games (despite Infocom's more advanced internal features).

As an expert, it may be that you end up disappointed with Adventuron, in that is quite different indeed to Inform, and less advanced in many ways. I do hope you enjoy yourself though, and that, even though Adventuron might not have ALL the features of Inform, that you learn to enjoy its unique features, which might be more than appear at first glance.

G'day Gary... I'm originally from Ireland but based in Sydney for the last 12 years. Looking forward to your submission. What's it called?

SOSOSubmitted5 years ago (1 edit)

Have you played text adventures before?
Have you written a text adventure before (and when)?
Have you written a computer program before?

Hi, call me Soso o/ and I never played a text adventure before haha I know the genre and try to play sometimes but I never finish a game. Never written a text adventure. Never write a program before.

What kind of game are you working on? (if it's a unique concept, then best to keep this to yourself)
How many puzzles do you think it will be?
What kind of art do you plan to create?

About the game... lets keep the secret :3 I still thinking in everthing

Approximate Age / Country / Native Language (no exact information please)

21, Brazil, PT-BR ... So I'm sorry if my writing looks weird ><

AdventuronHost5 years ago(+1)

Hi SoSo,

Welcome to the jam. As a non text adventurer and non coder, you are super welcome here, and I hope you develop a taste for playing and making this type of game.

Chris.

ZuuriSubmitted5 years ago(+3)

Hi! I'm Zen, and I'm brand new to game jams which is why it took me so long to find this. I have played text adventures before, but I don't think very many. This is my first times actually programming through an entire game, and not just making bits of code. I'm still new, and learning, I just hope that I'll improve enough that the game is entertaining! I've definitely written some computer programs for class, but nothing too fancy. I struggled to learn from my classes because I'm a hands-on learner, which is why this jam is perfect for me. I'm pretty young, about to go into my second year of college, and I live in the US. I'm not a good artist so I'll most likely do some rather plain pixel art.

It's nice to meet everyone, I'm excited to see everyone's games!

I think a hands-on approach works well, in a challenge like this where you've been given some code to start off with. I usually plan all my adventure games out on paper in advance, but for this one I just gradually built up a game by adding new sections, expanding the adventure as I went.

Nice to see lots of newcomers to adventure game writing on here.

Welcome zen. I do hope that you understood the introduction video, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the forums and someone will help you I'm sure.

auraesSubmitted5 years ago(+1)

Hi, I just joined the jam a little late and I hope to reach the end.
I knew Aventuron without ever coding anything with it, so I'll try.
I know Inform 6, but what I like most is the game loop of Saga games, Gac, Quill, DAAD and others. Old game loop, but certainly the best.
I'm French and my English is bad, but I'll have to deal with that!

8bitAG5 years ago(+1)

No, no, no... If you want "bad"... you should hear *our* French. :)

Welcome to the jam. Adventuron was inspired by tools like the Quill & the PAW, so the game loop should be very familiar.

auraesSubmitted5 years ago

Yeah - you're avatar rocks!

Deleted post5 years ago

Deleted 5 years ago

Have a look at my personal website if you want to see my other avatars.

Welcome to the jam. Really hope that the deadline is not too tight for you, and don't worry about perfect English at all. Also - LOVE your avatar.

seeker695 years ago(+1)

Hi just joined the jam - really late :(

I'm remastering a game I wrote using the Quill and Illustrator back in 1984 - The Sorceror of Soromere - I wrote on my ZX Spectrum when I was 15 years old (now 50). I recently found the original hand draw game map between the pages of a book which prompted me to re-develop the game as a remastered version for my 50 th year.
I had just finished a version using Quest but then I came across Adventuron and the CaveJam and I had to enter - there are over 30 locations across 7 main areas each with mini objectives. I haven't got time to recreate the graphics as 8bit so I'm using my pen an ink style illustrations resized to (240x120) - the quality is still pretty good. I hope I still qualify :) fingers crossed I make it for the deadline - if not, it will be available to play on itch.io soon after.

8bitAG5 years ago(+1)

Do you still have a copy of the original Quilled version? I presume it was never released?

No lost the copy many years ago.

Ah, that's a shame. I'm very interested in homegrown games from the 80s and 90s, particularly Quilled and PAWed ones.

I hear you. I still have some mate that talk about the original game. Back in the days when it was very impressive to have made your own game. I even had a hand drawn cassette cover photo copied to give tapes out to my friends haha

Well, maybe a copy will turn up one day, then, if you handed out a few. I love homegrown text adventures, their amateur packaging, and the stories behind them. I'm hoping to get a second book written about them at some point.

Sounds great. I share your passion. Happy to contribute to your next book. I have a story of two about the old days. I still have a zx81 and speccy... both dead I'm afraid... plus The quill and illustrator.

Well, there are plenty of people out there that can help you coax those back to life. :)

my home office display cabinet...

I'm looking for an ace adventuron game creator to build and launch the game with me. I have all illustrations, mission soundtracks, game walkthrough of all puzzles, etc. Forgive me for being cheeky but would you be interested in breathing life into this with me?

I'm not an Adventuron ace, but learning more every day. I might be interested, but probably not until after the Halloween jam.

sounds good Garry. Msg me when the Halloween jam is over mate and we can get on a Skype call or something. Good luck

As we both live in Sydney, we might be able to meet up. I work at Strawberry Hills (about 10 minutes from Central Station). Where abouts are you?

I'm out south west in Camden Gary. However I work in the CBD around Martin Place. Let's meet up after the jam for defo. Works for me as I have friends from overseas until end of October anyway. Is there a way to PM me with your contact details?

There doesn't seem to be a way to do that on itch.io. I'm on CASA and Facebook, but perhaps send an email to warrigal 24 at gmail dot com. We can meet up somewhere in the ciy after work one day.

I have too many adventure game projects of my own to finish without starting one for somebody else. I've programmed three games for other people this past year and I really need to stop using that as an excuse. :)

no worries... I understand how taking on too many projects can be overwhelming.

Oh, it's not overwhelming. It's just too easy to do. :) I just want to get a couple more of my own projects finished.

Got it. Manage your work in progress limits :)

The hand-drawn art is seriously excellent. I absolutely love the map. Are you a professional illustrator/artist by trade?

Also, do you have the original illustrator screenshots at hand. And has the game evolved since 1984, or it's a straight port (with updated presentation)?

the game has evolved... a bit more of a storyline and slightly different and better puzzles... not to mention the new illustrations which have come a long way from the original illustrator pixel line art haha

Very nice graphics, but isn't this way outside the scope of the rules? Room graphics must by 256 by 80 pixels or 128 by 40 pixels. The lake shore, forest path, cave entrance and treasure room must be included. I don't think you can just enter any old game. It must be based on the skeleton provided.

The rules are:

"Each location requires a graphic, even a bad graphic. Location graphics are suggested to be 128 x 40 pixels, or 256 x 80 pixels, or whatever resolution you prefer if not using pixel art style graphics. Pixel art style is strongly recommended for this jam but this style suggestion is optional. The original graphic assets should not be used. The game requires a loading screen. The loading screen resolution is up to the author (256 x 192 is recommended if using pixel art style)."
"The game must contain the forest, outside cave, the lake, and the treasure room locations. Location descriptions can be altered."

There is no rule for not re-using existing material.

Any entry that doesn't adhere to the rules is technically not eligible to enter the competition, but looking at the map, there appears to be a forest, a lake, outside of a cave, not sure about a treasure room.

It may be that you are devaluing buzz for your own game by entering it in such a competition, but feel free to use the forum of this jam, even if you decide not to enter it in the jam, and instead just release it separately?

You are super welcome though, and really excited to see what you can do with Adventuron, and your experiences / frustration with it too.

seeker695 years ago (1 edit)

I hear you Gary. I thought the same. So I resized the images. The location images I attached to my post are 240x180... I could make them smaller. The game has a forest, a cave, a lake and a place you must bring all of your treasure... plus a little more.

Maybe I should just release it instead of entering the jam. Thoughts everyone?

On re-reading the rules, it does now say "or whatever resolution you prefer if not using pixel art style graphics", so I think you'll be okay. Mind you, the compiled html file will be huge after the images are converted to base64.

You don't necessarily need to base64 graphics. You can reference an external file. I'll put this in the cookbook tonight ...

Essentially it's like this

graphics {
  // The png file will be read from the same path as the game html file
   blah : png "mypngfile.png";
}

The catch is that it's not possible to test it (currently) using relative paths in the web based editor. You need to compile it and run it from the same base folder as the assets to see the images in-game. When you upload to itch, you can upload a zipfile containing your html and all assets, and it will just work. This can be a nice approach for games with larger files, or with a lot of mp3 sound files.

Ooh, that's good to know. I was thinking about including an original Adventuron adventure as an Easter egg in a chm file. Having the images as separate files is more efficient for that.

You're right about the file size and editor response - however, I was in contact with Chris and it looks like I can use a relative URL to point to a file location so I don't have to ember the Base64 :-)

dpaintboy5 years ago

Hello, my name is Shaun, and I like chips and kittens.