An Open-Source Tutorial for all Parser Authors?

My first thought is… how would this be different than the feelie that already exists for this purpose and that a bunch of people bundle with their parser games?

I’m not making value judgements about whether this is good or bad or could be better, just as a reference point…

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I didn’t know this existed! Now I know what to send my sister (and other friends who learned about parsers this month lol) :grin:

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This is what I was trying to get at in the other thread - not that tutorials aren’t worthwhile, because as Amanda’s experience shows they certainly can be, but that the outreach/evangelization side of things IMO is as big or bigger of a deal. Mainstream video game sites used to cover IF Comp and Emily Short had a Rock Paper Shotgun column - would be nice to figure out how to get some of that kind of attention again!

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I have never minded a derail in any of my threads and I don’t mind this one now, because it’s a very, very VERY important question.

Frankly, I think we ought to pool money and pay for ads pimping IF/comps on major platforms.

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There’s at least one slightly bigger guide, too, but I was posting while I was in the middle of putting supper on the table and didn’t stop to go find it. Looks like IFComp lists several things, under “Short Guides (for new parser jockeys).”

Or, if you like bearded white dudes being goofy about one of their passions, Bogus Meat Factory did a longer video of text adventure tips recently.

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Speaking as the IFTF Treasurer, we have about $11000 in the bank that we literally don’t know what to do with.

Okay, we’re actively working on finding ways to put that money to work: see this early announcement. But marketing for our events is an absolutely legitimate suggestion.

Does anybody here have experience with web marketing for indie games events? What platforms are major platforms? Are we talking Facebook/Google/Twitter or targeted to game journalism sites? Please come talk to us!

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The long-form option gave me a 404 :slightly_frowning_face:

Did anyone happen to archive it elsewhere?

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Oh, it was on inform’s site. :frowning_face: The internet archive has it (edit: I sent an e-mail to ifcomp to report it)

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I have zero experience, but it would seem that targeting ads to gamers specifically would be most fruitful: the App store, Steam, whatever gaming sites people use.

Trying to get some press would be good, too. Anyone know a reporter from a reputable paper?

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The DevTalk Discord server has some professional marketers floating around in it- it’s primarily a visual novel space, but they’ve promoted games, game studios, fund raising campaigns, etc. You’d probably have a better shot of having them reach out to you if you joined to post what you’re looking for and budget/timelines, etc. Unfortunately the only one I know of by name (Baiyu) isn’t currently taking on marketing work I believe? But there’s a lead…

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I just wanted to mention that there is an extension for Inform 7 by Emily Short which implements a tutorial mode (it’s not a separate tutorial room, but rather follows the method of integrating it into the first few moves of the respective story): extensions/Emily Short/Tutorial Mode-v5.i7x at 10.1 · i7/extensions · GitHub

Not trying to curb any new ideas, just wanted to make sure that effort is not duplicated unnecessarily, if someone decides to do a similar approach.


Here’s a success story of @tomasb implementing a tutorial mode in TADS: Tutorial mode for TADS 3? - #3 by tomasb

Around 35 messages carefully arranged through the prologue guided the player from the first message explaining something like “you can examine any object mentioned in a room description, try typing EXAMINE T-SHIRT now” through explaining basic actions when player examined different objects (how you can open a box, wear clothes, navigate through rooms, etc., how you can communicate with NPC (in several steps) […].

My game was a special challenge in a puzzle hunt game for children aged approx. 11-14 years old and in the end it was successfully finished by more than fifty teams of (up to) five members who previously not even heard about the existence of text adventure games.


Ryan Veeder’s tutorial game could be helpful: So, You've Never Played a Text Adventure Before, Huh?


For people with a lot of time, here’s a long previous thread on the topic: Can we make a better parser tutorial?


The main rules of thumb that would have to be conveyed in a tutorial:

  • it’s not a conversation with the parser, and there’s no AI or chatbot behind this (so, don’t input: “where am I” or “describe the room, please”)

  • some important one-word commands are L(OOK), I(NVENTORY), and the movement commands (N(ORTH), …, U(P), D(OWN))

  • many actions will be expressed as simple two-word commands consisting of a verb and a noun: EXAMINE DESK, OPEN DRAWER

  • sometimes you’ll need commands with a second noun, try to express these as simple as possible: UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY, CUT BREAD WITH KNIFE, PUT COIN IN SLOT

  • more complex input than that will usually not be necessary

  • generally, try to refer only to things that are mentioned in the text

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EDIT: Sorry, forgot the IFTF link when I first posted.

Well, if we have a look at the IFTF’s Accessibility Testing Report (2019) (i.e. testing the accessibility of the medium of IF) which draws heavily on the Accessible Player Experiences (APX) project by AbleGamers from 2018, we find that it actually advocates the creation / use of the kind of standalone tutorial you’re talking about.

Search the word ‘tutorial’ on the report’s non-secure webpage (tsk tsk!.. thought it’s just that page, not the whole site) you’ll find the section “Parser IF should offer a separate “training ground” for new players”

You’re probably aware of Emily Short’s general purpose tutorial extension for Inform. I think its general-purposeishness is why it hasn’t taken off in its own right, though it’s a great demo of ways to program a tutorial. You and anyone else who’s painstakingly rolled their own tutorial has realised that a tutorial has to be specific and sensitive to its host game in order to feel good and work.

I think if you did a good job in the thankless task of creating a good tutorial, you would be thanked. My brain sort of screams at the idea. If I personally can’t stand non-TALK communication in parser games, would I advocate teaching it in a tutorial? It feels like I’d have to. And TALK as well? Such thorny questions already make me lose interest in me approaching that task.

I don’t know if you tried my Andromeda Acolytes demo but it has a tutorial which is both basic mechanics, and that is probably trying to outline more of the contract the player has with the parser in the context of my game.

That’s kind of subtle, and probably overlaps the site of Rovarsson’s ‘devil’s advocate’ type stuff. If a traditional problem with the parser is people expecting it to understand anything typed in any format (will expectations set by chatGPT sink parser games? new horrible tangent…) do you have to just let people have at it and work this out eventually? My tute’s in a half’n’half place where I think it’s giving above average guidance on that front but not writing out an essay about it.

-Wade

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In second-language teaching there’s the idea of writing books with “sheltered” vocabulary but unsheltered grammar. A book might use only a few hundred words of vocab, but there wouldn’t be any attempt to limit the grammar. You could compare to a gated tutorial area with freedom of action, but with content limited in a way that guides the player.

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Some good ideas there. I was also thinking of targeting primary schools as kids often want to play games instead of reading. Playing IF is a good way to learn reading and thinking about parser commands may extend their vocabulary. I think that Chris Ainsley ( @adventuron ) did something like that at some point though I don’t quite remember.

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I’d also like to mention Aaron Reeds’ Smarter Parser extension for I7, which focuses more on explaining how to phrase a command in a way that the game is likely to understand. (E.g. telling the player to skip “please” or “I want to”.)

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What’s the point? Do you want more players or more writers?

If you want more players, you want to be specific in only targeting those who don’t mind typing. That would be writers forums.

If you want more writers, then you need to have creators mindset. Target schools, preferably grade schools. Start with either ScottKit or Adventuron, then graduate to Inform/TADS.

My 2 cents.

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If we get more dedicated players I think a portion of them would want to make their own game. You don’t have to be a great writer to make a good game. Those who love to write will probably make very verbose games whereas those who primarily like the game element will focus on puzzles and other mechanics.

In all this I am thinking parser because I am pretty sure that choice based games are going to survive long term. I am less sure about parser games though as long as choice games and parser games have common comps and forums a percentage of choice gamers will give parser games a chance and see that they can be great once you get the hang of it. But it is my impression that the majority of parser players played parser games in either the 80s or 90s.

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FYI, I made an Inform extension inspired by the play IF card. It shows common commands on the side of the screen for reference. You can see what it looks like in this game (if you are playing on a screen wide enough–I don’t think the sidebar will show up on mobile).

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Oh, this sidebar’s really cool! Reminds me of the last Balderstone, which had a layout I really liked.

I don’t really know how the “most verbs do not work” and “do not be discouraged” would be received by somebody who’s playing it as their first parser game, but I do like that it admits that things often will not work, which parser games generally don’t, but that seems important to point out.

e: relevant to tutorials, I honestly think a built-in cheat sheet with examples would probably be more helpful in most cases, especially because it’s a lot easier for authors and doesn’t impact pacing and everything.

e2:

What events do y’all run? There’s the IFComp awards stream and NarraScope, but I’m not aware of any others.

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IFComp is an event. We have wanted more voters for it for years.

Spring Thing, ParserComp, IntroComp etc are not IFTF-run events but it would serve our mission to draw more public attention to them.

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