11 ms·

Show HN: WrittenRealms – a modern platform for text-based games

200 points by teebes 5y ago

teebes 5y ago
Hi HN, I've been working on this project since 2013. It's a platform for building and playing text-based games (Multi-User Dungeons), both single-player and multi-player, on the browser. The layout is responsive to accommodate both desktop and mobile displays (including the world editor). Would love some thoughtful feedback!
ndguarino 5y ago
MUD player for ~20 years, (previously) administrator/developer for ~5. First of all, great work on pushing this out and making a usable product, especially one built for people who aren't entirely familiar with writing software (which is often the big hurdle for starting a new IF game or MUD). I haven't had time to play with it, but I do have three (or 2.5) pieces of feedback based off reading the documentation. 1. Service subscriptions are solid, and using them for multiplayer access is entirely reasonable here. $15/mo isn't actually very much for that, especially since hosting is handled, so that's an exquisitely low barrier to entry for that. That said, Patreon is a big turn-off for a lot of people (including myself, though I'm not necessarily your target audience either). 2. Lack of telnet connection on multiplayer worlds is a big hurdle. Most MUDs/MUSHes/MOOs are telnet-based, and by not making this a way to connect, you are effectively turning away ~30 years of software written, and a good percentage of the people who have grown used to this software. In the MUD I worked on, I still had players using zMUD because it's what they preferred and what they had things built for, despite it not having been maintained for years and not being able to use several features of the MUD as a result (xterm colour, MXP, GMCP and other telnet subnegotiation protocols). 2.5. VIPs (Visually Impaired Persons/Players) and accessibility. This is one of the largest userbases for a MUD or IF game, as other games that are accessible to them are somewhat rare. I cannot speak to how screenreader-friendly your web client is, but telnet access lets them use clients that already are compatible and integrated with screenreaders. 2.75. Players with terrible internet. Many countries have great internet. Many countries, and even parts of countries that would otherwise have great internet, do not. A lot of players I've met in MUDs played them not because they were enthusiasts, but because they were more friendly to slow connections with high latency. Throttling my connection to some test settings I used for testing data flow to a couple players so I could recommend settings to them and test things for them, your client and the initial screen of the game you have on your homepage linked to the "Play" button is 44s. There is a chance none of these are concerns for you, and that is an entirely fair decision - you can't develop for everybody. But I hope this is useful feedback.
- mbunch 5y ago
  Not OP but somebody else who has worked on the platform. Thanks for the feedback! I can't give quite as good of a response as teebes but I'll take a crack at it. - Patreon isn't the ideal subscription service but it was the most lightweight tool we could find for the job since some users wanted to contribute and it didn't make sense to integrate a full payment platform right now. Is there a particular reason that you find it off-putting? - Telnet actually came up recently on the Discord. It's something we might do, but would take a fair bit of work and loses out on some of the UI we've incorporated to try to make combat a little more engaging like cool down timers and cast bars. That said, we're not opposed to it if there's enough demand and people would actually use it. - We've actually had a few visually impaired players and gotten some very useful feedback! There is a 'Use Accessibility Layout' option that tries to optimize the experience for screenreaders, although there is likely room for iteration. - That's a fair point and may be tough to optimize to the same degree while taking advantage of the more modern frameworks that make the platform (hopefully) more user-friendly. That said, there's probably some refinement that could be done there to at least help a little and I would imagine that once in-game, the packets going back and forth don't put too much strain on the connection. Always good to hear from people who know the space!
  - ndguarino 5y ago
    Yeah, Telnet will definitely be a lot of work if you do decide to go for it. For cooldown bars and such, I'll recommend using a subnegotiation protocol for all that (GMCP is the one widely used these days, all the major clients support it to some extent and it's effectively just a 'string + json blob' payload), and my experience is often "if you make it available, it will be built" with MUDs. I'm extremely happy to hear that visually impaired players are accounted for. It was always one of my personal 'hills to die on' in MUD development. As for Patreon, it's just personal preference. I just want to be able to put in my card details and go - Patreon makes me juggle Yet Another Account and, if you aren't a Patreon user already, the time to get a subscription is highly increased. Anecdotally, I'm not the only one I know who feels this way. I spent years just avoiding anything that made me sign up for a Patreon account just to avoid the hassle of it, and only caved in to support a friend's project. I know some who will still just see Patreon and run the other direction. It also might just be me, but I have horrible luck with services that integrate with it - it won't link the patreon account or recognise that I'm paying, and I need to get manual intervention on getting the thing I'm subscribing to.
adamrezich 5y ago
when I click the "play" button on the landing page, it shows me some prose and says "click anywhere to begin," and then that just makes the prose disappear. sounds like a cool project though, I'm interested in checking out the editor later
- mbunch 5y ago
  sigh Looks like it needed a restart. It was getting hung up when trying to put you into the tutorial. Sorry about that!
  - mpwoz 5y ago
    FYI it's still happening for me
    - mbunch 5y ago
      It just came online and I was able to get in. Is it still not working?
      - adrianpike 5y ago
        down again, it seems :(
  - adamrezich 5y ago
    looks good now!
forkLding 5y ago
happy to work on this too, played MUDs a lot in childhood and occasionally now. I believe the visually impaired will have to be accommodated as have met many friends on MUDs who are visually impaired. Also the server might be down as I can not be able to enter a world with a new character
- mbunch 5y ago
  Yes it's restarting now, had a hiccup for a bit. Sorry! Edit: Should be online now
  - forkLding 5y ago
    Working now, much thanks!
kazoomonger 5y ago
I like the interface in general. However, as someone that has played some text-based games but is not super familiar with the genre, I think this log captures my confusion: kill spider You stab a small spider for 6 damage! stab spider Unknown command: 'stab'. Type 'help' for help. kill spider You're already in combat! attack spider You're already in combat! I can see a floating box that says that I'm in combat, but it doesn't help me figure out what to type, because the only option is "FLEE" If I try to flee, I get a loading bar that then becomes full and then doesn't do anything. If I try to flee again, it says I'm charging an ability. I'm honestly not sure how to proceed. help didn't give me any useful commands.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- digital_ice 5y ago
  Yeah, I found myself in the exact same position. Tried tapping and typing almost everything I could think of, got frustrated and quit. Not sure if its a bug, or just lack of useful tutorial information.
  - mbunch 5y ago
    Sorry, looks like this is a bug with Flee that just popped up and it just stalls combat entirely. Trying to fix now.
- mbunch 5y ago
  Welp, that's definitely a bug! Flee is supposed to move you to an adjacent room on completion, which is, of course, exactly what it did until some time today. Working on a fix now!
  - chrisco255 5y ago
    Why wouldn't it allow the continuation of the fight? Either way, this is looking very good and interesting!
ultra_nick 5y ago
I'm stuck in a vim like combat with a spider.
- teebes 5y ago
  Sorry, really uh much higher than usual traffic is causing all kinds of issues. Looking into it...
  - dr_kiszonka 5y ago
    Same here. But it looks very polished otherwise :-)
danielmarkbruce 5y ago
Genuine question - what is the appeal of a text-based game? Is it that you can play async? Something else? Like why not just play a regular video game with regular controller and graphics?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- yawz 5y ago
  Not a text-based gamer so maybe others can respond better, but this is probably similar to reading a book and watching a movie. Imagination has no limit.
  - tejtm 5y ago
    The palpable trepidation arising from encountering the only other ampersand (that one is the Balrog)
  - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
    The keyword / genre here is "Interactive Fiction"; MUDs fall in the same league as text based adventures of old (which later on started to add some graphics until they eventually evolved into e.g. the Monkey Island games), or even the choose-your-own-adventure (comic) books. It's an older style of games, but honestly, I could have seen myself getting into this back when. It's tech that predates MMO's like WoW or Ultima Online. It's stuff that works everywhere. And of course it's a different way to experience a game and its story. Dwarf Fortress also comes to mind, weirdly.
- bovermyer 5y ago
  It's much easier to support off-the-wall interactions and new game systems naturally in a MUD. By that, I mean... adding a new race (for example) in a graphical game requires art assets, animation rigging, sound design, and ALSO the programming side of it. There may be follow-on work too, like producing equipment models that suit the new race's dimensions. In a MUD, you just program the new race, and off you go. This ability to iterate quickly, with a lower barrier to ideas, means that you can try all kinds of things on a very low budget.
bovermyer 5y ago
I love this. Though, I apparently found a new bug. I got to Bluefinch with the boy, but then I'm unable to enter any commands and have to reload the tab. Still can't seem to do anything there.
yllus 5y ago
This is phenomenal work. A genuinely modern take on MUDs of old. Is multiplayer already implemented? I'm weirdly interested in starting up a good old MUD clan/guild again on an all-player killer server...
- teebes 5y ago
  Thank you! Multiplayer is definitely implemented, and you can have all kinds of flavor of PvP. Free for all, zone restricted, with different death looting modes (some worlds let you loot all of your opponent's gear, others none).
throwawayswede 5y ago
Quick ps: gets stuck on "Entering world"
- teebes 5y ago
  Should be better now. Sorry about that.
  - AOsborn 5y ago
    HN hug of death maybe? I have just tried and am not able to get in, stuck on "Entering World"
    - teebes 5y ago
      Definitely HN hug of death... Seems to be stabilizing now if you'd like to try again. Apologies for the instability.
  - Sheepsteak 5y ago
    Still getting this now btw.
    - teebes 5y ago
      Thanks for letting us know. Tried a different approach this AM and people are able to get on now. Hope it is the case for you as well.
cxr 5y ago
I have no special insight about if this is a forever hobby project for you or not, but whether you have commercial plans doesn't really matter, it doesn't make what I'm about to say more relevant, only slightly more enticing, maybe. Dungeons have a limited audience. Meanwhile, I am positive that the next evolution of chat platforms like Slack are going to be the ones that grow better features for building. Chat bots are a manifestation of this demand. The dominant platform in the future will be the one that has first-class support for crafting scriptable/interactive objects and creating virtual spaces that you can move between, reminiscent of online worlds like Second Life, except leaning more heavily on text. In essence, the future of chat are MUSHes/MOOs. To really drive this home, look at the story of Slack itself. It was created when Butterfield was trying to make a game platform (for the second time), and then they pivoted when after productizing their internal tool and it became wildly successful. I'd wager you're using Slack, Discord, IRC, or something in that vein for coordinating development right now. When your primary focus at the moment is already the development of a multi-user platform for conveying text, that's silly. Consider scratching your own itch and experimenting with an internal build that is focused on facilitating broader social interaction than what MUDs aim for.
unwiredben 5y ago
I'm surprised that there aren't more aliases: "take" didn't work, but "get" did, for example. Picking the right word from a description was odd, "get sharp sword" didn't work, but "get sword" did.
- mycall 5y ago
  A built in thesaurus should be able to handle this type of issue.
gego 5y ago
This is a great project and the most fun I had since playing around with ink as a basis - compliments and can't wait to see how it will develop :)
gego 5y ago
...one thing you might look into is the dual-use (less fun more business) side of branching narratives for (intranet) learning e.g. personnel onboarding, teaching, interactive manual design and so on... it might make it (more?) financially feasible while secretly financing our love for text adventures ;) shoot me a PM if you want to toss some ideas
mkw2000 5y ago
This is awesome, I was just wondering if something like this exists.
edem 5y ago
If I click anywhere after play I get back to the screen where I can press play.
- Sander_Marechal 5y ago
  Me too. Does this game not work in Firefox?
- mbunch 5y ago
  Turns out the system wasn't quite able to handle the traffic that came through yesterday. It should be working better now!
Ataraxy 5y ago
I've known about this site for years and never really dug into it much but I have to say it's still the best MUD-on-the-web interface I've ever seen.
dsalaj 5y ago
I can not get this to work. Tried with both Firefox and Chrome, and turning of the add blocker. I just get the "Entering world..." popup that just stays there. Occasionally I get the red popup with cryptic "World is clean" message. I tried registering, I tried different worlds, even tried it on my phone, but it just doesn't start.... :(
- teebes 5y ago
  Sorry about that. If you try again now you might have better luck...

200 points by teebes 5y ago

Hi HN, I've been working on this project since 2013. It's a platform for building and playing text-based games (Multi-User Dungeons), both single-player and multi-player, on the browser. The layout is responsive to accommodate both desktop and mobile displays (including the world editor). Would love some thoughtful feedback!

ndguarino 5y ago

MUD player for ~20 years, (previously) administrator/developer for ~5. First of all, great work on pushing this out and making a usable product, especially one built for people who aren't entirely familiar with writing software (which is often the big hurdle for starting a new IF game or MUD). I haven't had time to play with it, but I do have three (or 2.5) pieces of feedback based off reading the documentation. 1. Service subscriptions are solid, and using them for multiplayer access is entirely reasonable here. $15/mo isn't actually very much for that, especially since hosting is handled, so that's an exquisitely low barrier to entry for that. That said, Patreon is a big turn-off for a lot of people (including myself, though I'm not necessarily your target audience either). 2. Lack of telnet connection on multiplayer worlds is a big hurdle. Most MUDs/MUSHes/MOOs are telnet-based, and by not making this a way to connect, you are effectively turning away ~30 years of software written, and a good percentage of the people who have grown used to this software. In the MUD I worked on, I still had players using zMUD because it's what they preferred and what they had things built for, despite it not having been maintained for years and not being able to use several features of the MUD as a result (xterm colour, MXP, GMCP and other telnet subnegotiation protocols). 2.5. VIPs (Visually Impaired Persons/Players) and accessibility. This is one of the largest userbases for a MUD or IF game, as other games that are accessible to them are somewhat rare. I cannot speak to how screenreader-friendly your web client is, but telnet access lets them use clients that already are compatible and integrated with screenreaders. 2.75. Players with terrible internet. Many countries have great internet. Many countries, and even parts of countries that would otherwise have great internet, do not. A lot of players I've met in MUDs played them not because they were enthusiasts, but because they were more friendly to slow connections with high latency. Throttling my connection to some test settings I used for testing data flow to a couple players so I could recommend settings to them and test things for them, your client and the initial screen of the game you have on your homepage linked to the "Play" button is 44s. There is a chance none of these are concerns for you, and that is an entirely fair decision - you can't develop for everybody. But I hope this is useful feedback.

mbunch 5y ago
Not OP but somebody else who has worked on the platform. Thanks for the feedback! I can't give quite as good of a response as teebes but I'll take a crack at it. - Patreon isn't the ideal subscription service but it was the most lightweight tool we could find for the job since some users wanted to contribute and it didn't make sense to integrate a full payment platform right now. Is there a particular reason that you find it off-putting? - Telnet actually came up recently on the Discord. It's something we might do, but would take a fair bit of work and loses out on some of the UI we've incorporated to try to make combat a little more engaging like cool down timers and cast bars. That said, we're not opposed to it if there's enough demand and people would actually use it. - We've actually had a few visually impaired players and gotten some very useful feedback! There is a 'Use Accessibility Layout' option that tries to optimize the experience for screenreaders, although there is likely room for iteration. - That's a fair point and may be tough to optimize to the same degree while taking advantage of the more modern frameworks that make the platform (hopefully) more user-friendly. That said, there's probably some refinement that could be done there to at least help a little and I would imagine that once in-game, the packets going back and forth don't put too much strain on the connection. Always good to hear from people who know the space!
- ndguarino 5y ago
  Yeah, Telnet will definitely be a lot of work if you do decide to go for it. For cooldown bars and such, I'll recommend using a subnegotiation protocol for all that (GMCP is the one widely used these days, all the major clients support it to some extent and it's effectively just a 'string + json blob' payload), and my experience is often "if you make it available, it will be built" with MUDs. I'm extremely happy to hear that visually impaired players are accounted for. It was always one of my personal 'hills to die on' in MUD development. As for Patreon, it's just personal preference. I just want to be able to put in my card details and go - Patreon makes me juggle Yet Another Account and, if you aren't a Patreon user already, the time to get a subscription is highly increased. Anecdotally, I'm not the only one I know who feels this way. I spent years just avoiding anything that made me sign up for a Patreon account just to avoid the hassle of it, and only caved in to support a friend's project. I know some who will still just see Patreon and run the other direction. It also might just be me, but I have horrible luck with services that integrate with it - it won't link the patreon account or recognise that I'm paying, and I need to get manual intervention on getting the thing I'm subscribing to.

adamrezich 5y ago

when I click the "play" button on the landing page, it shows me some prose and says "click anywhere to begin," and then that just makes the prose disappear. sounds like a cool project though, I'm interested in checking out the editor later

mbunch 5y ago
sigh Looks like it needed a restart. It was getting hung up when trying to put you into the tutorial. Sorry about that!
- mpwoz 5y ago
  FYI it's still happening for me
  - mbunch 5y ago
    It just came online and I was able to get in. Is it still not working?
    - adrianpike 5y ago
      down again, it seems :(
- adamrezich 5y ago
  looks good now!

forkLding 5y ago

happy to work on this too, played MUDs a lot in childhood and occasionally now. I believe the visually impaired will have to be accommodated as have met many friends on MUDs who are visually impaired. Also the server might be down as I can not be able to enter a world with a new character

mbunch 5y ago
Yes it's restarting now, had a hiccup for a bit. Sorry! Edit: Should be online now
- forkLding 5y ago
  Working now, much thanks!

kazoomonger 5y ago

I like the interface in general. However, as someone that has played some text-based games but is not super familiar with the genre, I think this log captures my confusion: kill spider You stab a small spider for 6 damage! stab spider Unknown command: 'stab'. Type 'help' for help. kill spider You're already in combat! attack spider You're already in combat! I can see a floating box that says that I'm in combat, but it doesn't help me figure out what to type, because the only option is "FLEE" If I try to flee, I get a loading bar that then becomes full and then doesn't do anything. If I try to flee again, it says I'm charging an ability. I'm honestly not sure how to proceed. help didn't give me any useful commands.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
digital_ice 5y ago
Yeah, I found myself in the exact same position. Tried tapping and typing almost everything I could think of, got frustrated and quit. Not sure if its a bug, or just lack of useful tutorial information.
- mbunch 5y ago
  Sorry, looks like this is a bug with Flee that just popped up and it just stalls combat entirely. Trying to fix now.
mbunch 5y ago
Welp, that's definitely a bug! Flee is supposed to move you to an adjacent room on completion, which is, of course, exactly what it did until some time today. Working on a fix now!
- chrisco255 5y ago
  Why wouldn't it allow the continuation of the fight? Either way, this is looking very good and interesting!

ultra_nick 5y ago

I'm stuck in a vim like combat with a spider.

teebes 5y ago
Sorry, really uh much higher than usual traffic is causing all kinds of issues. Looking into it...
- dr_kiszonka 5y ago
  Same here. But it looks very polished otherwise :-)

danielmarkbruce 5y ago

Genuine question - what is the appeal of a text-based game? Is it that you can play async? Something else? Like why not just play a regular video game with regular controller and graphics?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
yawz 5y ago
Not a text-based gamer so maybe others can respond better, but this is probably similar to reading a book and watching a movie. Imagination has no limit.
- tejtm 5y ago
  The palpable trepidation arising from encountering the only other ampersand (that one is the Balrog)
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  The keyword / genre here is "Interactive Fiction"; MUDs fall in the same league as text based adventures of old (which later on started to add some graphics until they eventually evolved into e.g. the Monkey Island games), or even the choose-your-own-adventure (comic) books. It's an older style of games, but honestly, I could have seen myself getting into this back when. It's tech that predates MMO's like WoW or Ultima Online. It's stuff that works everywhere. And of course it's a different way to experience a game and its story. Dwarf Fortress also comes to mind, weirdly.
bovermyer 5y ago
It's much easier to support off-the-wall interactions and new game systems naturally in a MUD. By that, I mean... adding a new race (for example) in a graphical game requires art assets, animation rigging, sound design, and ALSO the programming side of it. There may be follow-on work too, like producing equipment models that suit the new race's dimensions. In a MUD, you just program the new race, and off you go. This ability to iterate quickly, with a lower barrier to ideas, means that you can try all kinds of things on a very low budget.

bovermyer 5y ago

I love this. Though, I apparently found a new bug. I got to Bluefinch with the boy, but then I'm unable to enter any commands and have to reload the tab. Still can't seem to do anything there.

yllus 5y ago

This is phenomenal work. A genuinely modern take on MUDs of old. Is multiplayer already implemented? I'm weirdly interested in starting up a good old MUD clan/guild again on an all-player killer server...

teebes 5y ago
Thank you! Multiplayer is definitely implemented, and you can have all kinds of flavor of PvP. Free for all, zone restricted, with different death looting modes (some worlds let you loot all of your opponent's gear, others none).

throwawayswede 5y ago

Quick ps: gets stuck on "Entering world"

teebes 5y ago
Should be better now. Sorry about that.
- AOsborn 5y ago
  HN hug of death maybe? I have just tried and am not able to get in, stuck on "Entering World"
  - teebes 5y ago
    Definitely HN hug of death... Seems to be stabilizing now if you'd like to try again. Apologies for the instability.
- Sheepsteak 5y ago
  Still getting this now btw.
  - teebes 5y ago
    Thanks for letting us know. Tried a different approach this AM and people are able to get on now. Hope it is the case for you as well.

cxr 5y ago

I have no special insight about if this is a forever hobby project for you or not, but whether you have commercial plans doesn't really matter, it doesn't make what I'm about to say more relevant, only slightly more enticing, maybe. Dungeons have a limited audience. Meanwhile, I am positive that the next evolution of chat platforms like Slack are going to be the ones that grow better features for building. Chat bots are a manifestation of this demand. The dominant platform in the future will be the one that has first-class support for crafting scriptable/interactive objects and creating virtual spaces that you can move between, reminiscent of online worlds like Second Life, except leaning more heavily on text. In essence, the future of chat are MUSHes/MOOs. To really drive this home, look at the story of Slack itself. It was created when Butterfield was trying to make a game platform (for the second time), and then they pivoted when after productizing their internal tool and it became wildly successful. I'd wager you're using Slack, Discord, IRC, or something in that vein for coordinating development right now. When your primary focus at the moment is already the development of a multi-user platform for conveying text, that's silly. Consider scratching your own itch and experimenting with an internal build that is focused on facilitating broader social interaction than what MUDs aim for.

unwiredben 5y ago

I'm surprised that there aren't more aliases: "take" didn't work, but "get" did, for example. Picking the right word from a description was odd, "get sharp sword" didn't work, but "get sword" did.

mycall 5y ago
A built in thesaurus should be able to handle this type of issue.

gego 5y ago

This is a great project and the most fun I had since playing around with ink as a basis - compliments and can't wait to see how it will develop :)

gego 5y ago

...one thing you might look into is the dual-use (less fun more business) side of branching narratives for (intranet) learning e.g. personnel onboarding, teaching, interactive manual design and so on... it might make it (more?) financially feasible while secretly financing our love for text adventures ;) shoot me a PM if you want to toss some ideas

mkw2000 5y ago

This is awesome, I was just wondering if something like this exists.

edem 5y ago

If I click anywhere after play I get back to the screen where I can press play.

Sander_Marechal 5y ago
Me too. Does this game not work in Firefox?
mbunch 5y ago
Turns out the system wasn't quite able to handle the traffic that came through yesterday. It should be working better now!

Ataraxy 5y ago

I've known about this site for years and never really dug into it much but I have to say it's still the best MUD-on-the-web interface I've ever seen.

dsalaj 5y ago

I can not get this to work. Tried with both Firefox and Chrome, and turning of the add blocker. I just get the "Entering world..." popup that just stays there. Occasionally I get the red popup with cryptic "World is clean" message. I tried registering, I tried different worlds, even tried it on my phone, but it just doesn't start.... :(

teebes 5y ago
Sorry about that. If you try again now you might have better luck...