[I7] Having the player start in a room with a direction name

Authoring Inform 7
1

How do you force the player to start in a room with a direction name in it? I want to recreate the white house from Zork in my game, allowing the player to move to the inside of the house in the same way that the original game does.

2

Easiest way is to name the room west-of-house in your source code, and then give it a printed name of “West of House”.

3

Ah, okay. Thanks, I was planning on giving it a printed name, but I didn’t know what to call the source name.

4

You can also define it with “There is a room called West of House” but referring to it in the source code will be a nightmare.

5

That’s the beauty of IF (in my opinion anyway): the source name doesn’t really matter. None of it does (or better put: has to) because you can bend the system entirely to whatever you want.

Take for example this code (probably not the best but… oh well)

The Building entrance is above the stairs. "You climb the stairs and end up on a small plateau in front of a door which leads into the building. You can see a small sign attached to the wall.". The building entrance is outdoors. The stairs is south of the building entrance.

A small sign is in the Building entrance. It is scenery. The description of the small sign is "The sign says '2 to 48'"

The blue door is north of the Building entrance and south of the Main hallway.  The blue door is an open door. The description of the blue door is "A door which has a blue wooden frame around a large window in the center."

Before going through the blue door:
	If buildingFloor is 0:
		say "You push the door open and step through.."
	
After going through the blue door:
	say "The door automatically closes behind you.";
	Continue the action

Now, ignore outdoors because that’s a custom property I’m using in this map. What I’m getting at, even though not directly related, is what I’m doing with the door. There is an actual door there but I’m not directly using it, only mentioning it in my customized action (‘before / after … opening the door’). So basically while the player will get the impression that there’s actually a door there which is being used the truth is that the only reason this door is there is because it’s easier on me (I haven’t fully decided what I’ll be doing with this door).

But to make it even crazier… This is the door leading into an apartment building. However, once you’re in the main hall and going up one floor this is happening:

Before examining:
	If the noun is a blue door:
		If buildingFloor is 0:
			continue the action;
		Otherwise:
			say "A door which leads to the access gallery.";
			stop the action.

So basically the same door gets re-purposed based on which floor the player is at.

One door, different meanings. And not necessarily because of the official descriptions or something, but due to everything that’s happening around it.

I know I’m still pretty new but that would be my tip: don’t focus too much on system names and all that, instead look at your presentation.

Hmm… From the top of my head:

The main hall is a room. "You wake up in a large hall which has a huge access sign in it."

An access sign is here. It is scenery. "When taking a closer look at the access sign you discover that it's directing you to the north".

The kitchen is a room. It is north of the main hall.

See what I mean? My system name is main hall but my story tells you “large hall”. Even though I did add an access sign the main focus was gained by my room description.

Note: It’s been ages since I played Zork so I can’t quite relate to what you’re exactly looking for. Even so, still hope this can help.