Homework 1: Build a Text-Adventure Game

Instructions

In this homework assignment, you will write your own classic text adventure game. This homework can be completed in groups of up to 2 people. You will implement two text adventure games. One will be a re-implementation of the Action Castle game, and one will be a game that you design yourself. The game that you design can be on any topic, or can tell any story of your choice. We will play the games that you design during class, and part of your grade will be awarded based on how creative/exciting your classmates think your game is.

Starter code

We have provided starter code for a basic text adventure game. You are free modify it however you want, and bring in any dependencies you feel will be useful.

Task 1: Implement Action Castle

Action Castle is a game by Jared A. Sorensen. It is included in his book Parsley, which is a collection of games inspired by the text-adventures of the 1980s. Parsley is a party game where you take on the role of the parser, and the players shout out commands like GO NORTH, LIGHT LAMP or GET SWORD. You obtusely follow player’s commands, simulating a computer’s limited vocabulary. The effect is suprisingly hilarious and fun.

You should download “Parsely: Preview n’ Play Edition” which is free on Jared’s website. It contains the Action Castle game that you’ll be implementing. You can also buy the full Parsley book for $20 if you’d like to support an awesome indy game developer. The Preview n’ Play Edition also explains how these kinds of games work.

You should modify the provided code to:

1. Create the 13 locations from Action Castle (Cottage, Garden Path, Fishing Pond, Winding Path, Top of the Tall Tree, Drawbridge, Courtyard, Tower Stairs, Tower, Dungeon Stairs, Dungeon, Great Feasting Hall, Throne Room).
2. Create the items for the game (fishing poll, rosebush, club, fish, the troll etc.).
3. Update the code so that it can handle the actions/commands/preconditions that are described by the Action Castle module.

  guard = Item("guard", "a guard carrying a sword and a key", "HE LOOKS AT YOU SUSPICIOUSLY.", start_at=courtyard)

  unconscious_guard = Item("unconscious guard", "an unconscious guard is slumped against the wall", 
  "HE HAS BITS OF BRANCH ON HIS UNIFORM.", start_at=nowhere)


  guard.add_action("hit guard with branch", perform_multiple_actions, 
      ([(destroy_item, (branch,"You swing your branch against the guard. It shatters to pieces.",
                               "You already tried that.")),
      (destroy_item, (guard,"The guard slumps over, unconscious.","")),
      (create_item, (unconscious_guard,"The guard's unconscious body lies on the ground.")),
      (create_item, (key,"His key falls from his hand.")),
      ]), preconditions={"inventory_contains":branch , "location_has_item": guard})
 

The starter code provides a vizualization method that displays a directed graph of the game that you have created. If you’d like to compare your game graph against mine, you can look at my vizualization of Action Castle.

Task 2: Implement Your Own Creation

Your game should include all of the following:

• At least 3 Locations
• At least 3 Items that can be interacted with. These can be doors, keys, tools, ogres, etc.
• At least one “puzzle” where there are certain preconditions that must be met before the player can make forward progress.
• At least one “win” state and at least one “lose” state.

A fun example of a tiny game with very 3 locations and 3 items is the “Flaming Goat” game in Jared A. Sorensen’s Parsley book. I played it with my 6 year old son, and it cracked him up.

Optionally, you can think about adding other elements to your game, like:

• Scoring
• Changes over time
• Interesting non-player characters

Feel free to modify the starter code in any way you see fit in order to enable your game ideas. However, the “Play the game” and “Visualize your game” code blocks should remain functional.

What kind of game should you make? It’s up to you! Be creative! For inspiration, we recommend searching Pinterest for cross-section maps. Here are some that we like:

What to submit

You should submit a link to a Github repository which contains the following:

1. An Python notebook called action_castle.ipynb that runs Action Castle. (You can use Google Colab to view IPython Notebooks on Github.)
2. An IPython notebook called my_game.ipynb that runs the initial version of your game.
3. A text file called playthrough.txt with all of the commands that we need to issue to complete your game. It shold be a plain text file with one command per line.
4. A text file called README.md containing a short paragraph describing your game, and why you picked that topic.

Submissions should be done on Gradescope.

Grading

Recommended readings

• Chris Ainsley / Adventuron Software Limited, Adventuron Classroom. This is a tutorial aimed at teaching elementary school kids how to program by writing a text adventure game. I modeled our text adventure game after this Adventuron system.

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2), How to Make a Text-Based Adventure - Commands and Parser.