One thing I noticed about choiced-based games is that they don’t have the ability to -Link- Back to a previous room or another map, or to update their description when an object is picked up the way something like Tads 3 or Inform can. At least not that I know of from brief brushes with them.
Something I want to do is create a large open world, where you can move back and forth between rooms similar to Tads 3 but via links (so only what you want to show, shows), and in each room is a character who remains there during the duration of the scene. But where the only way you interact within that world is via Menu Options. Where only items that are important to moving the story are listed, and to which you can interact with characters who pass by in the story using a similar option Menu.
So basically “Scenario/Scene” based, with the option to move from one room to another.
Example:
[code]You’re in a dusty old room, a robot sits on a desk, you want to talk to it.
- Talk to Robot
- Open Desk
- Leave Room
2
You open the Desk and see an array of items.
- Take Item.
- Examine Item (etc)
- Close Desk
3
You close Desk and are back in the room.
- Talk to Robot
- Open Desk
- Leave Room
3
You leave the room and go East. You are in a waiting room, one door leads outside. A woman stands here.
- Talk to Woman
- Go outside.
- Go back to room
3
You try to go back to the room, but the woman stops you.
“Where are you going, everyone is waiting for you outside.”
- “Etc.”
- “Etc.”
- “Etc.”
[/code]
I’m not even sure if the game I’d want to create would require creating objects or not, or just scenarios within the story. And if creating and using objects might give me more control, like “If this was done, change description of X to…”
What I do know is that traditional IF uses commands. But that Choice-Based games have an ease in navigation while at the same time are limited to “Scenario-only” and are more like choose your own adventures.
To use such a game engine, the only way to go back to the room would be to write another scenario/room after it was written, creating multiple versions of the same room every time the player was allowed to go back, rather than simply link back to the room and show how it was changed.
To get any of the Game Engines: Tads 3, Twine, etc. to do what I’d wanted it to do I’d have to work-around the original audience it was designed for. With my goal being to take what I like from Tads 3 & Commercial RPG games + Choice of games, and merge them. For example, IF has the option of creating large open worlds, and NPCs and choices like the games I love. However Choice of Games makes it easier to navigate without defining actions and having a lot of programming skills, and removing the need to ‘type’ words out, instead you just dial or type in a single # to show your action.
The reason why I’ve been looking at choice based games is because I can’t both write and focus on hard-core programming and have decided that I want a game engine that doesn’t need me to program a lot, like Twine. Vs. Tads 3 in which the problem I’ve come up with is having to wear a programmer’s hat. Using choices limit the need to create individual objects, while at the same time make it more accessible to an audience I’d like to target. And yet the options available to me restrict what I can do.
What would someone recommend that I do?
-Do they know how to convert or modify Tads 3’s system into a more Menu like system.
-How to take Undum or Twine and use it like Tads 3 with it’s rooms, but menu-choices?
-Would I have to suck it up and create my own engine using something like C# or Javascript?
-Or could I get away with modifying even lightly an existing one?