Help w/ extremely simple TADS game

Authoring TADS
1

Hi! I want to build a game in TADS that’s essentially choice-based, with numbered choices. The majority of the game is a conversation where you select the option you’d like to say. There are monologue parts where you simply forward through the text by hitting any key, and a single bedroom you can explore with no exit and no option to pick up or use items except a phone.
I’ve been playing around in the starter TADS 2 source file for an hour or so trying to customize it to my specifications, and I’ve done nothing but break stuff so far. I’m pretty sure there’s an uncomplicated way to get done what I need, but I’m really struggling to figure it out. Every tutorial I’ve found is for a game vastly more complex than my own. I would really appreciate brief instructions or links to any tutorial or document you think might be helpful. Thanks!

Edit: also, if you think this would be more easily accomplished in another language/program, please let me know :slight_smile: I’d love to be able to do some simple styling like font changes or even just background/font color.

2

Tads is geared towards parser games. It sounds like you want a system that is instead made for CYOA-style games? See Which CYOA system is right for me?

3

I think there are a lot of reasons why someone might want to create a CYOA game in a parser system (e.g. portability, world modeling, being able to play without a web browser). I’ve found these threads about Inform 7: What are my CYOA options in I7?, and also here: Phone/conversation tree

For TADS2, I found cyoa.zip on this page: Index: if-archive/programming/tads2/examples

I haven’t used these tools a lot before (or at all in the case of tads), but maybe this can be helpful?

1 Like
4

That’s exactly the sort of thing I was looking for! Particularly the Inform extension for switching between parser/CYOA. thank you!!