Hello,
I recently announced “Treasure Hunt Jam” on Twitter, and thought I should announce it here too.
“Treasure Hunt Jam” asks entrants to build an old-school treasure hunt text adventure game with no graphics and minimal text. The screen will update immediately when the objects or state of a room changes, and the game will give a tally of treasures that have already been brought to the treasure room.
A sample of this kind of game can be found in the game TWO, which I released late last year (all messages in game are a maximum of two words). The jam isn’t quite as constrained, but it is still very constrained.
The jam will be judged by a number of leading figures from the 8-bit text adventure community including Scott Adams, Tim Gilberts and John Wilson. The jam will also be judged by recent authors of traditional parser-based text adventure games.
Here are the a (non exhaustive selection of the rules):
- Develop a “Treasure Hunt” style text adventure game using Adventuron Classroom (desktop browser required for editor), in the English language.
- No in-game graphics (to create a level playing field for non artists) . A “loading screen” (or title screen) graphic is permitted, but not a requirement.
- Games should be limited to VERB NOUN responses (e.g. take lamp, throw spatula, eat bread, talk man).
- Locations descriptions and object names should be a maximum of TWO words and displayed without an article (“a”, “an”, “some”). Game Intro and end game message(s) can be a maximum of three sentences. Responses in game and in-game messages can be a maximum of SIX words but if you want to be really minimalist you can try limiting yourself to TWO words in ALL categories.
- Game must feature a minimum of 4 locations including a treasure room and a minimum of 4 treasures. Treasure and treasure rooms can be any category of object or room consistent with the theme of your game. Be consistent.
Do check out the link above for a full list of rules, and assistance with getting started.
Take Care,
Chris A, Author of Adventuron.