Parser based text adventure

CountVanBadger

CountVanBadger

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I've been interested in text-based video games for a while. At first I wanted to make a visual novel, but I don't have the skill or money to pay for an artist. I've fooled around a little with Twine a few years ago, but I'm not a fan of "games" that just make you choose from a selection of options. I just found out about a program called Adrift that's supposed to make developing parser-based text adventures really easy. FYI, a parser based game is one where you type in what you want to do. "LOOK WINDOW", "TAKE SWORD", "DRAW MUSTACHE ON SLEEPING GRANDMA," etc. I'm thinking about trying it out and seeing what I can throw together.
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Does anyone here have any hot takes or politically incorrect opinions about parser based text adventures?
 
MorgueAnna

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No hot takes here, unless you include "There should be more modern games like this."

Historically I always struggled with classic games of this type for accessibility reasons or weird clunky parser issues. I suspect making these kind of games in the modern era could easily resolve those issues. For example, I've played a few where you could click on the word for a given object instead of needing to manually type it each time, and those kinds of touches make the player experience so much better.

If I remember the games with the mechanic mentioned above, I'll link them here. For now I wanted to recommend Terminal Sickness, as I found it quite charming back when it originally came out.

Good luck with your endeavors!
 
Corty

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I played a lot of games like this back in the day; we had a ton of fun and HC games like this in my country, and you didn't need anything serious to run them. Good times.
 
melchi

melchi

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There have been text based games for years. Look up multi user dungeon
 
melchi

melchi

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greyblob said:
optimal applications for LLMs
Click to expand...
Already done. There is an early access game on steam. Think it is call ai2u and is like yandere simulator but with chat got. You can ask the yandere anything
 
greyblob

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melchi said:
Already done. There is an early access game on steam. Think it is call ai2u and is like yandere simulator but with chat got. You can ask the yandere anything
Click to expand...
i used to mess around with those in a few websites. i dont remember their names. this was in early AI era so censorship wasn't as bad as it is now.
i was playing with a friend and i remember we had genderbendered dumbledore getting pregnant at some point in one of the runs
 
CountVanBadger

CountVanBadger

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I downloaded Adrift and have been playing with it a little before work. It looks complicated at first, but it's surprisingly easy to use. The instructions have a guide to make a small game based on Jack and the Beanstalk, so I've been following that.
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CountVanBadger

CountVanBadger

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Alski said:
Now Imagine yourself as the green text doing that to a friend sitting at the same table :blob_popcorn:
Click to expand...
"You walk up to the castle and see a massive door with a large keyhole."
"I use the key I found earlier on the keyhole."
"I don't know the word 'found'."
"I use the key from earlier on the keyhole."
"I don't know the word 'earlier'."
"Use key on keyhole."
"I don't see a key."
"It's in my inventory!"
"I don't know the word 'my'."
 
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