I have looked at the examples and suggestions given in the manual, but they do not quite approach the hinting scenario that I want. I want to create a separate ‘file’ of sorts, containing hints for my games, and I want to create an out-of-world action that will take the player to a screen where he can access hints for the game. And when done, the player can then return to where s/he was in the game.
Also, I want the hints to be like the old Infocom Invisiclues hints–which would start with the gentle nudge and progress to a full spell-out of the solution. The question would be at the top of the screen, then the player would hit ‘tab’ (for example), the first hint would appear, and if not satisfied, the player would ‘tab’ again, until he’s gone far enough.
Maybe I should look at the ‘Screen Effects’ extension…?? Maybe that’s where I should go?
I have lately been leaning toward putting my hints into a separate module of sorts, that the player can download. I have thought of interweaving them into the game, but I think the games are big enough already. Any suggestions?
It sounds like what you want is basically a hint menu; one excellent example of that is in “A Flustered Duck” by Jim Aikin. You might want to have a look at “Menus” and “Basic Help Menu” by Wade Clarke, which can be found in the Public Library, section 11. (This is different from the built-in Menus extension by Emily Short; Wade upgraded the extension to make it more usable by screen-reading programs and, uh, some other stuff I don’t remember.
I’ve also seen hint lists implemented as basic HTML files, with a black background, white text for the questions (“How do I unlock the robot’s chest?”), and black text for the series of answers. When the user clicks and drags across an answer, the browser’s highlighting makes it visible.