In my last post on this, I discussed using Abobe Acrobat to create a simple "Choose Your Own Adventure" game. In reality, this type of game is the foundation for many adventure-type computer games today. Using Acrobat is great, but if you want to take things to the next level, where you can pick things up and manipulate your environment (a type of choice not easily realized in an Acrobat solution), you'll need another method.
Interactive Fiction (IF) is one way to accomplish this. The main concern you might have with IF is it is (usually) text only. The EGC has an example of IF titled the EGC Paperchase. Play it and you'll get a feel for IF. But want about graphics, sounds, etc.?
There is a very cool (and free) program named Quandary that you might want to explore. It's all dialog-box driven, so no programming is required. Quandary produces an HTML file that you can place on the web if you have web server space. At Penn State, everyone has access to PASS space, so if you work at or attend PSU, that's not a problem. The games you develop will run on any modern browser. You can easily add graphics and sounds, but animations and movies I'm not sure about. Another drawback is you must author on a Windows PC. You can also use a Mac running Bootcamp or a virtualization of Windows. I used VirtualBox on my Mac to create a short adventure just to demonstrate Quandary. It took me about 10 minutes to knock together. I believe that most folks could use it to create simple adventures.
So what are you waiting for! Go! Create!
Interactive Fiction (IF) is one way to accomplish this. The main concern you might have with IF is it is (usually) text only. The EGC has an example of IF titled the EGC Paperchase. Play it and you'll get a feel for IF. But want about graphics, sounds, etc.?
There is a very cool (and free) program named Quandary that you might want to explore. It's all dialog-box driven, so no programming is required. Quandary produces an HTML file that you can place on the web if you have web server space. At Penn State, everyone has access to PASS space, so if you work at or attend PSU, that's not a problem. The games you develop will run on any modern browser. You can easily add graphics and sounds, but animations and movies I'm not sure about. Another drawback is you must author on a Windows PC. You can also use a Mac running Bootcamp or a virtualization of Windows. I used VirtualBox on my Mac to create a short adventure just to demonstrate Quandary. It took me about 10 minutes to knock together. I believe that most folks could use it to create simple adventures.
So what are you waiting for! Go! Create!
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