An Open-Source Tutorial for all Parser Authors?

Authoring General Design Discussions
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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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