4 ms·
I buy retro games. The creators typically make them as a hobby and a lot of the ones I play are basically text adventures with a simple parser and a few dozen l
by 7thaccount 2y ago
I buy retro games. The creators typically make them as a hobby and a lot of the ones I play are basically text adventures with a simple parser and a few dozen locations with a unique pixel art image for each location. So it costs them nothing but time to make and my purchase helps buy them coffee. With very rare exceptions, these are usually not built with any kind of "studio" or large budget, so profitability is irrelevant. They often just release for free.
- anthk 2y agoThe Z Machine and Glulx parsers are not that simple. Ditto with PAWS and clones.
- 7thaccount 2y agoI just checked the games I've played and most of them used a pretty simple verb-noun parser (use keycard), but the latest ones are much more sophisticated as you've pointed out like verb-noun-noun (use keycard with switch) or something like that. Of course I think some use a slimmed down version of Inform7, which should be pretty powerful.
- anthk 2y agoInform 7 it's the language. The parser comes from the library under Inform6 too and is not that limited, it can accept compund phrases too. You can just use Inform6 which is OOP oriented and it's very easy to define in game-objects, rooms, attributes such as objects being containers/openable/enterable and such. Setting up basic puzzles it's pretty straightforward.