Inform 7: The Jewell of Terror
April 20, 2007
I periodically dig up the latest version of Inform and try to make it do stuff. Generally, I think of a really simple project to do… and then end up getting rabidly frustrated of some incredibly stupid syntax issue that would be utterly trivial in a programming language I already know. I end up frantically pouring over the documentation and trying every variation on the syntax by trial and error until I turn green and start smashing things. “Jeffro will SMASH!!!”
This time I figured out that the trick is to remain exceedingly modest in your goals. I now present to you my first complete adventure game. This time I only spent an hour or so attempting to discover the if-then-else syntax, so I only turned purple. I’m telling you though, it’s a complete game. Woah! (I could still fuss over things like “a vs. the” issues… and printing square brackets in the text, but I’m going to leave at this for now.)
“The Jewell of Terror” by Jeffro
When play begins, say “You’ve found the cave at last! Can you descend its dark depths and return with the lost treasure of the Precursors?”
The maximum score is 10.
A Dark Tunnel is a room. “A light glimmers to the south. A rocky passage slopes downward to the northeast.” Check going south: if the player carries the jewell
begin;
award 5 points;
end the game in victory;
stop the action;
otherwise;
say “What… without the jewell??”;
stop the action;
end if.
The Inner Chamber is northeast of A Dark Tunnel. It contains the jewell.
After taking the jewell for the first time: award 5 points; say “After all these years… now it’s yours!”
