I'd like to ask everyone what their previous experience of text adventure games is, and, if they have previous experience, what are their favourite ta games, and if they prefer pure text or text and graphics?
Spectrum adventure games in my younger days, other IF these days. I'm not bothered about graphics, more interested in a good story. Ones I remember playing a lot back in the day were The Hobbit (never got anywhere), Blizzard Pass (got quite far), The Great Peepingham Train Robbery (never quite completed it) and The Beast of Torrack Moor (I remember always getting stuck on the deaf doctor. Finally finished the remastered version, but I still needed a couple of hints. It is a tough game!)
Current IF: everything written by JJ Guest is hilarious and a delight to play.
Yes, I finished it! With the help of my 7 year old son. Took about a week on and off. Great port, couple of minor bugs (I enjoyed digging a small hole, then picking up the hole and carrying it around with me. Think that needs to be scenery...) The reflections from the author at the end are a lovely touch.
Ha, ha, I loved that bit about carrying the hole around with you. It reminds me of a line in The Inform Designer's Manual, 4th edn, by Graham Nelson:
"Note that the door is static – otherwise the player could pick it up and walk away with it. (Experienced play-testers of Inform games try this every time, and usually come away with a door or two.)"
('static' is the Inform 6 equivalent of 'scenery' in Adventuron, whereas 'scenery' in Inform 6 is the equivalent of 'scenery' with 'conspicuous = "false"' in Adventuron.)
I've played hundreds of adventures (I kid you not). I really don't care if the game has graphics or not. All that matters is that it is a good 'game'.
It must be fair. It must be logical. It must have good puzzles. It must have a consistent and believable environment. It must be bug free. It must have good spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalisation. It must have a good parser and a good vocabulary. It must understand any commands that would be reasonable in the context. And, more important than anything, it must be fun to play.
Oh, and if it has nice graphics, that's a bonus!