A tool I really missed having while implementing my last project: something between Inform 7’s skein and regtest.py.
This tool would:
- Allow you to play through a game as normal, while generating a nicely-formatted transcript file.
- Allow replaying a transcript: extract all the commands from a specific transcript and execute them in order to get you back to the same place in the game.
- Allow regenerating transcripts: given a new binary, replay each transcript, generating new transcript files in-place. The user can then use tools like
diffto see what changed between two versions of the game. - Allow branching off of existing transcripts: replay a transcript, but then let the user keep playing from that point, and save the result as a new transcript that references the original one.
The hope is that this would allow you to build up a library of examples of play, created in a natural way (just by playing the game!) and making it cheap to notice regressions and other issues.