Spike's Digital Media Blog

 As of writing this Blog my text-based choose your own adventure game 'Undead Dungeon' is completed and can be played here:   https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EOk_w3P52ABwewKugPM0ehnF0LYiLPyv?usp=sharing Just be sure to download them first or they will not open in Google Drive. The HTML file is the Game. Double click it after downloading and you're all good. If you want to examine the Code, Download the .TWEE file and open it in in twinery.org  by importing it in the Library. Firstly, below is the plan I used for each choice in the Game. Initially the story may seem fairly light on plot but I wanted to more so make a traditional text-based dungeon crawler experience more than anything which I think I succeeded, though admittedly a main character with a personality and a supporting cast would have been a more interesting read and would be my focus if I were to make another project on Twine. https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1OY8kQE4iESdbn_iC2p3YzbaHhmvbt3s2le4ROmwI...

 Today I made the decision to streamline the game a little more so I will be able to finish it in time for submission. Originally there were 2 separate pathways which led off in completely different narrative directions. Route 1 was escaping the Crypt dungeons and then going through a morgue and a temple to escape to the surface. Route 2 was either finding a secret passage in the Player's cell or going through Torturer's room in the Dungeon to reach an atrium where the player would go through to the treasure vault/ crypt of a noble family. I joined these 2 routes so they both lead to the vault for the sake of streamlining the story and adding more content to each path however I think I'll have two paths split off again for the Final Boss encounters. The first will be the skeleton king at the crypt entrance staircase and the second will be a Lovecraftian Kraken who haunts the waterways.

 Today I worked on adding some more riddles to the game, I also finally added a death counter and treasure counter, I was hesitant to do so as of yet because I didn't know how to display a value from a variable, it's as simple as typing out the variable name so say I wanted to display a death count I would just type ' You died $DeathCount times this playthrough '. the treasure counter too functions very similarly also. I have to be very careful with how I structure riddles  and conditional events though as I barely understand how (if:)/ (Else:) statements work like when I tried placing a statemen within a pre existing statement. Didn't go down well. Either way I have pretty much caught up with the amount I had planned up until now so after I fully finish all the options I will need to plan more. Up until now I have had the story branch off into two majorly different direction which will probably join together at one point. One in the dungeon and then a temple area a...

  Today I worked on catching up to my plan from google draw in Twine, I connected and wrote text for many pages and then worked on a big encounter on one route where it is 3 separate life or death decisions for the player to make in an encounter with a horde of skeletons which inspired me to create a death counter because of all the scenarios in which you can die. I also practiced a bit more with if/ else statements when making a riddle puzzle and created a blessed/ cursed mechanic depending on whether or not the player interacts with a certain shrine on one route of the game. This is also gave me the idea to add a treasure counter and death counter at the end of the game just so the story and the player's journey is recorded. This will be very easy to do with variables.

  Adding a score counter on Harlowe 1.2.2 - Twine Forum (twinery.org) https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1OY8kQE4iESdbn_iC2p3YzbaHhmvbt3s2le4ROmwIH8g/edit?usp=sharing https://twinery.org/forum/discussion/8832/how-do-i-keep-count-of-something Today I decided it would be best to plan out my text game on a map/ wireframe type thing which I will use to plan each option and outcome rather than randomly making them as I have done thus far, this will allow me to put more thought into what I add  and have an easier time when I get round to implementing each section. I also decid ed to add a treasure mechanic for replay value where depending on your choices, you will have more or less treasure by the end  so you can revisit the game to get a higher score as the ending will always be the same. It is also easier for me to implement than some other mechanics such as a combat system or more complex stuff with variables I may not be able to complete in time. cwalljasper and Lily (2017)...

I read this article today which covered some conventions of Text Based adventure games and one aspect which stuck out to me was the 'Story' vs. 'Scenario' idea where when making a text based adventure game, rather than making some grand epic about a fully developed world it can be a small scenario with lower stakes and less exposition to better immerse a player.   https://medium.com/@model_train/text-adventure-game-design-in-2020-608528ac8bda I also developed my idea for a story more so without the specifics as of yet. It will be about a Grave Robber who gets captured by Skeletons and has to escape the winding and perilous crypt. I think the difficulty will be mapping out the space and getting to grips with coding the scenarios with variables and such. Coming from a non-coding background, I think this'll be challenging Bibliography: Ainsley, C. (2020) Text adventure game design in 2020 , Medium . Available at: https://medium.com/@model_train/text-adventure-game-desi...

 I have practiced with the basics of Twine for an hour or so now and came up with this test story. With the basic tools alone I could probably craft a fairly entertaining narrative, I want to learn how to use variables also which add code that checks if you made certain choices in the game so you can create more complex options and choices while also reducing the size of all the branches. Here is my first test game. Download it and run it from the file explorer. This was made purely for coding practice and NOT the writing, I understand that I am no Tolkien yet https://drive.google.com/file/d/192U4HM7JIFeG2N2L5ZGfW6qxBY9LfZV6/view?usp=drive_link

 For this storytelling and gaming project, I have decided that I wish to make a text-based adventure game because I frequently enjoy playing and there are surprisingly immersive stories that have been told via this medium such as with modern examples in text-based MMORPGs that I know of and have played such as TORN, Written Realms and AI Dungeon and then there are also the classics which I have less familiarity with such as Zork, Oregon Trail and Dungeon. The program I use to make my game will most likely be Twine as it has a Node-based browser version. I will have to learn it but I think a lot of this challenge will be understanding what makes a text-based High-Fantasy game fun and engaging to the player. Do I wanted the Player to play as themself or a pre-made character as they roleplay. Do I want combat encounters that use number and other RPG mechanics or just a choice that the player comes to like in 'Choose your own Adventure Books'? Either way, I will also have to do a l...