New to IF Instructions

Ohhh! :slight_smile: A bit late for this year’s IFComp, but a great idea to keep in mind for my next game.

Here’s my version of the new to parser IF instructions, which borrow heavily from @AmandaB’s (thank you! :slight_smile: ). Everybody should feel free to reuse it as well.

This game is played by reading the story and typing simple imperative (i.e. VERB object(s)) commands. For example you can type:
examine the cannon
open the powder keg
get the eyepatch
wear it
walk to the west
give the black mark to the mutineer
ask the buccaneer about tides

Some frequently used commands have abbreviations: instead of take inventory you can simply type i, to move around you can type the first letter(s) of the direction (e.g. nw instead of go northwest, in, up, …), the look command (which redisplays the current room) can be abbreviated to l, and, most importantly, to examine an item you can type x item.

You almost never have to type the full object description or use articles. For instance, if the game tells you there is a shiny white diamond here, you can type x shiny, or x white, or x diamond to examine it.

Generally, you begin by examining objects around you, examining yourself (x me), and seeing what, if anything, you are carrying.

Edited to add look command.

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I’d add “look” to this list. It’s not an intuitive command for folks, I think, and it’s a really useful one.

Edit- I swear that half the replies I make to specific people don’t actually reply to that person, or aren’t showing it in the thread even though they show it if I hit “edit.” This is to @nilsf .

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I think when a reply directly follows the post it’s replying to, it doesn’t show as a reply. Just one of Discourse’s quirks.

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Good idea.

That happened to me all the time too. I think that happens when you quote the entire last post of a thread.

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Amanda, your game is auto explainable, DON’T spoil it in instructions. Don’t remark verbs. Players only have to read directions of exits and few more to start playing.

I ALWAYS use about, help and credits. You can figure out what has happened to me lask week when I started to play Hadean Lands without type in that commands: I was lost before playing at all.

By the way I think your game will be a “trend toppic” inmediattly after releasing at ifcomp.

You’re probably right. I’ll edit it down to be less spoiler-y.

Thanks for saying it. I’ll be thrilled if it’s playable and people aren’t too mean about it, though!

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Type “HELP” for instructions on how to play.
Type “HINT” if you’re stuck on a puzzle.
Type “SOLUTION” for a walkthrough.

Also list of VERB and NOUN is appreciated.

The command VERBS bringing up a list of necessary verbs to complete the game I can understand. This can double as a gentle hint system.
I don’t see how NOUN would work though. A list of nouns/objects/characters that can be interacted with? But those should all be in the text. It’s up to the player to do the work and scan the text for important nouns, is it not?

I mean, that’s the whole appeal of parser IF, figuring out how to interact with a collection of nouns/objects that are revealed to you by exploring a world, using a limited set of verbs.

This reminds me of the three laws of IF (which I formulated for myself to remember when I get stuck):

  • READ
  • EXPLORE
  • EXAMINE
  • READ
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Yes. I also have a “TAKE A BREAK” rule. When I am tired and frustrated, instead of hints or a walkthrough, I need to put it down. Most of the time, when I come back fresh, I can figure it out.

This is really hard when I’m really loving a game and don’t want to leave it.

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FWIW, I like the idea here, and I’ve often appreciated pre-game instructions in games that have them. (The ABOUT text of Hunter in Darkness clarifies that no mapping is necessary, so players know right away that they’re not supposed to exhaustively explore the enormous maze. That could conceivably function as an unwanted hint or mild spoiler, but I think it was a good idea to put it in.) The problem is that the newbies who most need these instructions are least likely to read them. Authors can beg players to type ABOUT all they want, but many people will assume this is akin to reading the preface of a book, i.e. distinctly optional. Creating truly inviting parser interfaces requires respecting and working around that fact.

There’s been some discussion about a “tutorial mode” to teach basic interactions like examining, taking, looking, etc. Making the tutorial discoverable for newbies, unintrusive for experienced players, and not overly burdensome on authors is a problem that requires some thought. I’ve toyed with the idea of tracking the frequency of parser errors, and offering the tutorial if the player seems to be flailing around. But I’m afraid that might come across as condescending, or generate angry Clippy references in reviews.

The basic principle for a parser interface is: Everything that’s not a puzzle should be effortless and seamless. Parser game culture needs to internalize this to a greater degree than it has. Wasting the player’s time on “Sorry, you can’t go through this unlocked door because it’s closed” or “You can’t read that book because it’s on the desk in front of you instead of in your hands” should never happen. When the player walks into a room with Joe, SAY HELLO, SAY HI, SAY GOOD MORNING, GREET JOE, and WAVE AT JOE should all work.

At this point I’ve strayed away from the original question, and none of this necessarily applies to @AmandaB’s game. I’d just say kudos to you for asking questions like this, because that’s the kind of thinking we need more of.

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But…Hey…That would be taking all the fun out of trying to take the bronze key out of the rucksack under the table while the monster is closing in one turn at a time (all the while disambiguating between the silver key, the gold lock, the handy lockpick and the silver necklace) and then typing HELP and getting eaten by said monster because hey, HELP counts as a turn, right?..

I did mention fun, did I?

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Why not explicitly write Clippy as a Newbie-Clue-Giver into the game? (and let the player “interact” with it. (“Violence is not the answer to this one, but it might be stress-relieving.”)

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Many graphics-based games have a tutorial mode at the beginning. Even when I’ve played other games like it, I’ve come to expect it and don’t resent it. I think younger folks are used to this. It’s crabby old players that you have to worry about.

A tutorial mode that offers to turn on if the player is having trouble doesn’t seem condescending. You can always say no and flail away to your heart’s content. I wouldn’t preface it with “You seem to be having trouble,” or something like that.

Edited to take out something about @nilsf 's hint system that he might not like me saying in public. But play his new game next week. There’s an interesting approach to this.

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Guys, it’s pretty simple. Just start your game with “Would you like instructions? If you say no now, instructions will be available by simply typing INSTRUCTIONS”

Now, as for how detailed those instructions should be, that’s up to the author to decide? (depending on how much spoilers are to be given, how much background the author expects from the player, how much the author depends on the player figuring stuff out on their own.) In other words, do as you please, it’s your game!

I still vote for “throw 'em into the deep”, with a possible reference to the IF card. Anything that goes beyond that IF card should become clear in the game’s writing.

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Yes, it should, and players should never need to look it up. But sometimes alternate synonyms are appreciated, and I’m really helpless when it comes to Guess-the-Noun puzzles. Games like that automatically get categorized as Advanced/Expert, and I’ll just stop playing.

HELP is better because it’s more standard.

In my case, it’s closer to Read, Explore, Examine, Expletives, and where’s the […] walkthrough? A lot of times, subtle hints are down to cultural habits, and I’d miss those completely. The question then becomes, “Do I want to solve this by trial and error?” And the answer is usually no.

For example, the description that a herring fish is red, may not be perceived as you expect it to be.

I see you have not yet met me. I overcomplicate things. It complements my tendency to overshare beautifully. Both of these make my Inform code a real treat to read.

But I do think it’s worth thinking of folks who hear how great an IF game is, but that game isn’t friendly to teaching them how to play, so they decide that IF sucks.

I once tried to teach a friend of mine, a brilliant MD/PhD, how to play IF. He had heard me raving about Counterfeit Monkey. And I said, “That’s not a starter game.”

And he gave me a withering look because he’s brilliant.

And so we tried. And that dude could NOT figure out the basics on his own. Granted, starting with Counterfeit Monkey is probably not the smoothest course into IF, but he couldn’t figure anything out. And forget reading HELP. So in the end, he decided the game was a waste of time.

This is what reminded me of this story.

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My experience has been that graphics-based games with successful tutorial modes don’t make it an actual tutorial. You start in-game, with hints offered in the HUD and objectives made fairly obvious (and encountered in serial fashion) to give the player a chance to grow familiar with the basics. Once they’ve progressed far enough, the tutorial fades away and game play continues.

Unfortunately, this takes custom code and some planning, and is not merely a matter of dropping a prepackaged extension into your source base.

– Jim

As somebody who doesn’t really like parser games, but who does play some of them sometimes, I personally appreciate:

  • a map
  • highlighted interactable objects/important words

In the case of your game I’d also highlight the numbers for the rainbow puzzle.

But I’m already past the hump of “this parser is picky and just tells me no and I am not interested in wrestling with it.” I mostly just simmer at it in silent rage.

I don’t think greeting people with a long explanation will help with introducing new players - I think that most people joining the game will already have an idea of what a parser game is. I’d agree that just starting with something like, “Hey do you want instructions? Type yes or no, and INSTRUCTIONS if you want later.”

If you want to introduce new people to parser games, I think the best way is for you to actually sit down with them and do the typing part - parser games are a deeply obtuse art form and I would never recommend somebody learn to play a parser game unsupervised.

@AmandaB,

In my unhumble opinion, and having read everyone’s ideas,

What do newbies want/need when your game starts: A tutorial mode and/or the ‘Play IF’ card. Maybe a way to see a list of basic commands (biased to your game) during the game. And they might want/need a map later.

What do veterans want/need when your game starts: About two lines on command changes / special commands unique to your game, and a way to be reminded of them again later. That’s all they need.

You don’t have time to add a specific tutorial mode to your game now. You can try the vanilla version of the one in the extension by Emily Short but (a) it’s too dangerous to add this close to IFComp, and (b) you’ll find your dissatisfied with a vanilla one. You’ll need to hack it or roll your own. This is the fate of those who care!

The tutorial be a long term project for your game, or the next one. The IFComp audience don’t need it. Having played your game, I can say they will be more than fine with what you already did (that proviso about ‘so-and-so commands don’t work’)

I’ll tell you how I’m doing things in my WIP, which has had the luxury of much time spent:

Game boots. It says do you want Tutorial Mode (for those new to IF) on or not? Next, the game starts. Tute people start getting the tute advice (which only operates for chapter 1). They’re told how to turn it off if they want. It’s very specific to this game and monitors what the player has done, etc. Everyone else gets one line: “Type SPECIAL to see Andromeda Acolytes’s special commands, or type HELP to see basic interactive fiction commands.”

So SPECIAL summarises just what’s different or special in this game, command-behaviour wise.

HELP summarises the core IF commands, but sneakily lets you know of a COMMANDS command which is triple the size and shows you tons, including all the meta commands. And (in an idea probably used before Color the Truth, but which I essentially took from Color The Truth) a person can see the COMMANDS list in 3 parts (COMMANDS1, COMMANDS2, COMMANDS3) if they don’t want any of it to scroll off the screen.

So this is a mixture of telescoping info only as people request it, and making sure nobody has to read any major text dumps that might not suit their situation.

Including an Exit Lister in the status line (e.g. Eric Eve’s) helps absolutely everyone.

…If you want an in-game map, a reminder that the extension Automap by Mark Tilford can solve all your map problems. It can create a live ascii map of your game on-screen that may require very little setup by yourself. Again, probably a future addition.

-Wade

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The old saw goes that “the only intuitive interface is the nipple, everything else has to be learned.” Whether or not that’s strictly true, everyone is going to have a different level of literacy with the medium and it is really hard, if not impossible to cater to all of them. Adaptive difficulty is a clever thing to implement, where tutorials/hints/alternate solutions can dynamically start appearing the more trouble someone has (Resident Evil does this). But from an author standpoint, I hesitate to really recommend a medium for hobbyists should start normalizing over-engineering technical solutions. Furthermore, what level of tutorial breaks immersion is also highly subjective: Metal Gear Solid is a generally serious military techno-thriller, but is willing to have a voice actor say out loud “Snake, to climb a ladder press the X button” in the middle of its narrative about genetics and nuclear weapons.

Personally, I applaud the impulse to make things accessible to newcomers. I find it refreshing and forward-thinking to aim for that, just keep in mind there will probably be others who disagree.

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